Fw: Fw: Mithras
Ricardo Aler Mur aler@inf.uc3m.es
Fri, 13 Feb 1998 17:06:19 +0100 (CET) (00887407579, Pine.LNX.3.96.980213160226.1819A-100000@tristan.uc3m.es)
> > RON
> > I don't accept that as a "fact", but I am open to the truth even if it
> > is disagreeable. If God did not exist I would want to know it. However
> > neither you nor any of your skeptical friends have offered a single
> > reason to doubt the obvious fact that the universe exists and that the
> > response of most of humanity throughout history has been to interpret
> > this by intuiting a Creator. I simply lack the faith to believe that
> > this is all just some collosal accident.
RICARDO
That most of humanity throughout history thought that behind the
scenes there was some sort of big guy is understandable. They also
believed that everything that moved had a spirir, that the Earth was
flat, that they lived in the center of the universe and that
biodiversity had to be explained by special creation. All these
beliefs are understandable. I could have reached the same conclusion
centuries ago. But they were wrong. No matter. Many people today
believe that there must be an ultimate reason for everything. Why, I
don't know. Biology teaches us that design can be obtained without
special creation. Astronomy shows that we are just a spark of life in
a enormous universe. Quantum mechanics shows us that many facts need
no causes. General relativity predicts a singularity (the Big Bang)
beyond which space-time cannot be extended. Causality itself doesn't
hold at the singularity, so no ultimate cause is required. As Steven
Weinberg said, the more we know about the universe, the more pointless
it seems. No, no faith seems to be needed to believe that this is an
accidental world. If people want nice and comforting ultimate causes
then they'll have to believe in some sort of god. And they do. But it
is *them* who need ultimate reasons, not the universe.
Ricardo.
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