Q&A

We have a full and active forum for most questions. However, for really important stuff (Like, “HELP… some wingnuts are at my door talking religion and I have no idea how to get rid of them.”) you can submit a question and get an immediate, personal answer posted here.

Previously Submitted Questions:

1. Rating: +0

   

   William, I'm enjoying this site very much. I am glad I found it. I will be purchasing your book! One of my conservative friends (a really intelligent guy, by most measures I believe in) is "convinced" that there is some kind of "creator" (he's a Mason, if that helps understand his perspective). Here's what he wrote to me: "Intelligent men can have faith too. It's not based on any evidence other than what I see. It's incredible. My logic can't accept something marvelous coming from nothing. It's funny to me that men of reason and no faith can accept something coming from nothing. The only way you can do that is just dismiss it entirely. 'I wont' think about it cuz I can't answer it.' That's as illogical as faith is, yet they claim to be the men of reason. Kind of absurd, really." My response to him thus far has been: "Then who created the creator?" Can I make a better argument, or is that about all I can hope to do to make my point? Thanks!!!

   Sure. Try this on him:

   The problem is in the teleology. Your friend (and most people) assume there is a teleology: that the universe has reason and direction, and therefore must have a creator. The "watch and watchmaker" theory.

   Ponder this for a second though: What if we take the eternal attributes that many people ascribe to a God, and apply this to the universe around us? What if the universe simply always was? We're told about the Big Bang, but what if the Big Bang was just another in an eternal series of expansions and contractions of matter and energy?

   Our human brains want to find a cause-and-effect in the universe. But there is a very real chance that this is all it is: matter and energy moving about, constantly changing form. No good, no evil. Just energies.

   Granted, this sounds rather low-brow on the surface, but think about it a second. Dismiss every preconceived notion you have and assess the evidence as you see it. There is nothing in any of our science to say that there is a Heaven or Hell. There is matter and energy. Anything else is just hope and guesswork.

   Here's the basic science:

   The Earth eventually gets burned to a cinder by the sun. The sun and all the planets burn out. The whole of the universe eventually becomes light and heat (the basic forms of energy). Over infinite space the light becomes so elongated as to be invisible. The heat evens out until the whole of existence is a standard temperature. This is the known "end of the universe"... an eternal darkness of even temperature.

   Once this happens, though, the Greater and Lesser atomic forces start pulling again... eventually 2 photos combine, and creates a gravitational pull. From there, it all starts condensing , pulled all energy to that one spot where the gravity is stronger than anywhere else. It continues until all the energy of the universe is pulled to this one spot. Eventually it hits a maximum, and BOOM: it explodes out in a new Big Bang. The process starts all over again.

   No God. No Christ. No Mohamed or Moses. Just the natural ebb and flow of matter and energy.

   The problem with this scenario (for most religious folk) is that when there is no God creating this universe, we cease to be the center of it. We're only along for the ride. That, IMHO, is what many folks don't like this idea: We're not as special as they want to be.

   The natural human response to this is to say "Yeah, well... who created the matter and energy?". I counter by saying "It's your brain that decided that everything had to be created... had to have a beginning, middle, and end. However, it may very well be that the base energies of the universe simply "are", and always have been. If that sounds a tad close to how many see God, I I might actually agree. The difference is, I can see and measure matter and energy."

   Hope this helps. Please, join the forum or have your friend join. This is likely the start of a good conversation.

   Thanks,

   Wm. Hopper

2. Rating: +0

   

   You remind me of a child with questions about life, with a parent who cannot deal with the truth so makes up a fairy tale, and that is how you have come to view life. Whether I'm right or wrong, what makes you are so right you must promote no life after to anyone who may want to think otherwise? That is my question.

   Q: "Whether I'm right or wrong, what makes you are so right you must promote no life after to anyone who may want to think otherwise? "

   A.: Your analogy is probably apt. I think we're all about the level of childhood understanding when it comes to the universe. Problem is, too many children think want to play grownup with very little information. All I ever say is "Here's what I have found in looking into issues". The religious say "I have more information than you, so listen to me and do as I say."

   If religion were only about a person's meditative thoughts about the world, I would offer no opposition. Believe as you wish. But people's beliefs in an afterlife impact the daily lives of everyone around them.

   Every day people are tortured, killed, despised, and maimed in the name of various gods (usually Yahweh). In the West, Christians hide behind their "personal relationship" with God, pretending that what they do has nothing to do with the atrocities happening around them. But they will vote for the most "Christian" politician so that more laws can be made to make the world in accordance with what their god says is "right" and "holy". In business and in social gatherings they spurn people whose beliefs differ, and hate the "sin" they see in so many around them.

   Faith (no matter what religion it belongs to) is never "a personal" relationship with God". It wreaks havoc on the lives of anyone who believes differently.

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