Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Why I'm not an atheist or a theist.

Forget the Bible, the Koran, the cathedrals, the mosques, the temples, the priests, and forget the doctrines. Instead, think about the central question.

Given what has been proven by science and reasoning, does there still exist the possibility of a "god"?

There are those who say that yes, a god does indeed exist because a book said so. If that were all we needed to prove something, I'd leap from a building and fly. For as the great and powerful Douglas Adams once wrote in his text "There is an art to flying, or rather a knack. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss. Clearly, it is this second part, the missing, that provides the difficulties."
But we all know that doesn't quite work (Because some of us have tried).

So books aren't proof.

However! If you ask a scientist why there isn't a god you're bound to either get an opinion or the honest 'Well, I can't say there isn't a god. But I can say that there isn't sufficient proof for the existence of a god.'

Okay so orthodox religion isn't reliable and science is working on something else entirely.

But! There is some circumstantial evidence that points to a god! Evidence that wouldn't stand up in the court of law, like hearsay (the Bible) or something that looks like there may have been someone here potentially sometime in the past but maybe not (the supposed "fine tuning" of the universe. The very concept of "fine tuning" implies that there was a tuner, therefore the name gives the theists an advantage. They do have the handicap of the burden of proof, so we'll let them have this one.)
Moving on, this fine tuning refers to the balances in the universe that led to the formations of stars, galaxies, planets, nebulae, black holes and sandwiches. A nice list of them appears on a website ridiculously biased and untrustworthy. (But they cite sources. That makes it just a little bit more okay to take them seriously.) Fine tuning refers to the scientifically verified fact that if certain constants in the universe like gravity and such were slightly off, the universe would be an inhospitable expanse of space. Here's a quote I found that adequately explains how exact these things must be to maintain life:
"One part in 10 to the 37 is such an incredibly sensitive balance that it is hard to visualize. The following analogy might help: Cover the entire North American continent in dimes all the way up to the moon, a height of about 239,000 miles..." "Next, pile dimes from here to the moon on a billion other continents the same size as North America. Paint one dime red and mix it into the billions of piles of dimes. Blindfold a friend and ask him to pick out one dime. The odds that he will pick the red dime are one in 10 to the 37." - Dr. Hugh Ross
Shit, right? But that still doesn't prove there is a god. It's pretty convincing though.

Another fact in regards to the structure of the universe is just how well things seem to work with numbers. In essence there is nothing that says 2+2 should equal 4. Humanity has assigned number values to things and found that certain things are always true no matter how many times you try. This is true for ridiculously complex mathematics. The fact that the universe adheres to these mathematical concepts and theories sometimes boggles my mind. This language which we created ourselves (mathematics) accurately fits inside the universe like it was meant to be there. Most of the time I think, well that's not really a surprise, we built mathematics to explain things so it does what we want it to. But math isn't just a set of bendable rules. It's a ridiculously complex and rigid set of rules that tends to know things before we do. And that, my friends makes no sense. The fact that a mathematical theory can describe things we've never seen before and then turn out to be true implies that math is something central to the universe. The core of what I'm saying is that the math was always in the universe even before we discovered it. It has it's own laws. And I wonder why it does.

But. All rants about math being the "language of god" aside, These are the reasons I cannot accept atheism or theism. Neither side has a bit of real proof.

If science is right, everything is predictable, and if enough mathematical equations were crunched, I could predict the future based on all the atoms positions in the universe, and how they are slated to interact, right down to the atoms in my mind.

If religion is right, everything is predictable because god has the ultimate say in what happens. God is all knowing and all present. Therefore, when the universe began, god knew the end. And that means god knew how the universe would unfold and did it. Therefore god chose how we would act billions of yeas before we were born.

(Come to think of it, science and religion agree on some things.)

Tune in next time when I'll talk about something else.

2 comments:

Messenger said...

I'd say it depends on your sources.

The one of the main divides between the Lutherans and the Catholics was due to 'fate'. Luther thought that it should be impossible to buy your way into heaven.

You know this (because Tyler knows this?)

My point is, things change. Books change. God is un-knowable. So, while theism does have the burden of proof...they also have the best excuses.

We're here. There was this fantastic christian rock song detailing all the coincidences that must have occurred for life to flourish.

In the 18th century God was looked on as a 'watch-maker', who created the world and then stepped back. Because there were powerful men who wanted everyone to know that they got where they were on no one's feet but their own.

Religion doesn't matter when it's important. Men know that men need to work hard, to respect each other, or the world falls apart. Real men, and in my opinion, truly religious people of all religions. Spiritual may be a better word choice.

Math is brilliant, but math is reactionary. Everything mathematicians discover is due to finding rules that already exist.

You could say that mathematicians are the ultimite atheists and the ultimate faithful. They're like Mulder. They believe the truth is out there, and they'll deal with figuring out all the issues until the truth is solid.

There's a how, but no why.

The only reason to continue is a desire to discover in order to explain or create.

You could say that the religious, the priests, the imams, they're mathematicians without a language. All they have is what's after the equal sign, everything else is theoretical. But they've all broken it down the same way, with the same algebra.

No murder, no theft, faith, love, respect.

Howard said...

The way I look at it, we're all people of faith, because we choose things that we accept as truth without adequate proof. The fact is, while I think science is pretty good at explaining some things, when it comes to the whole there was nothing then bang spacetime started concept, to me that's just another shaky conclusion based on a small bit of evidence. The truth is that we as a people will never prove why we're here, how things began, how/if they're going to end, and if anything happens to some essence of us after we die. There is actually very little in the universe that we can claim to know with any degree of real stability. And so, to not go insane questioning ourselves, we pick positions, beliefs, and put our minds to rest. Sometimes we question for a bit and switch our beliefs, but even atheists or nihilists believe in something by not believing in something or believing in nothing.

In my perspective, the closest we can come to the truth on that grand scale is to accept that we cannot know and therefore lend validity to everyone's beliefs. Then let's focus on things we do know, like how we feel, and that others can communicate their feelings to us, and try to make our lives more beautiful and less painful.

End of rant.