Subject:
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Re: God and the Devil and forgiveness (was Re: POV-RAY orange color)
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Wed, 1 Sep 1999 13:33:30 GMT
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1576 times
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<37CC301A.3CA0F7FF@voyager.net> <37CC3EA0.A8F9596E@io.com>
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Sproaticus wrote:
>
> Yah, well, we're basically having the same discussion as the whole Big Bang
> thing.
>
> Q: What happened before the Big Bang?
>
> A1: Nothing. Period. Matter didn't exist, energy didn't exist, nothing
> A2: All matter and energy was squeezed into a really, really, really tiny
> A3: Once upon a time, there was a universe, much like this one, that got so
>
> Feh. This science is all the rage at Berkeley and Cambridge. But change
> the vocabulary, and all of a sudden we're discussing religion.
I can see how it might appear this way to a religious person not very
well acquainted with science, but I disagree. That Q and those As are
not science. Science is a process for seeking truth. Just like reading
scripture and seeking His guidance. It's just that science has more
quantifiable payoffs.
If I don't know something, and I posit a hypothesis, and systematically
attempt to disprove it, and can't, then I have contributed a little bit
of support for that hypothesis. But when I then share my findings with
a bunch of others who are interested in the questions I was exploring,
and they try to disprove that hypothesis under both similar and
different situations, and they all can't do it either, we consider it
fairly strong support for that hypothesis. We have learned something
that we can use to predict future systematic behavior.
> But back to God. There will always be fundamental questions to which no one
> can give an answer.
Which questions are those?
> What's wrong with answering, then, "Because God did
> this" or "Because God allowed this"?
As I see it, accepting a question as unanswerable causes you to not try
to answer it. Bad! We should try to answer everything. Accumulation
of knowledge is all that differentiates us from the other animals and to
reject that is to embrace being other (some would say less) than human.
We will answer what was there before the BB, just like we answered "why
do bird wings allow flight?"
> It still leaves us with a sense of
> wonder and inadequacy, except that now there's a reason...
But it's forever and motivates us not to search, instead of motivating
us to overcome not knowing.
> It really depends upon your motives, doesn't it? I'm not trying to explain
> the nature of the universe or why we exist. All I want to know is what
> awaits me, and what consequence my actions have. To this end, I ponder and
> conclude seeing the truth in God. Everything else kinda falls into place.
But rationalism (using science) answers those questions too. You (and
many people) just don't like the answers.
> But, to each their own. Which is kinda cool. :-,
Agreed.
--Chris
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