Science has much better answers than "God did it" (ghost, beliefs)
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Hawkings theory that gravity created the Universe? (Gravity cannot exist without matter )
Or.........?
That is not necessarily true... Gravity is an effect caused by the accelerating movement of dark energy. To understand gravity you have to fully understand matter and all its intricacies and to achieve this you need to create basic matter from the ingredients existing in a massless universe.
It is difficult for us, as humans and a product of the physical universe, to comprehend a universe where all matter has been converted to energy. Are you able to imagine the nature of what is going on in that environment? There would be radiation in abundance, maybe magnetic fields, dark energy, and, who knows what else, perhaps even intelligence but strictly no particles of any description, real or hypothetical.
That is not necessarily true... Gravity is an effect caused by the accelerating movement of dark energy. To understand gravity you have to fully understand matter and all its intricacies and to achieve this you need to create basic matter from the ingredients existing in a massless universe.
It is difficult for us, as humans and a product of the physical universe, to comprehend a universe where all matter has been converted to energy. Are you able to imagine the nature of what is going on in that environment? There would be radiation in abundance, maybe magnetic fields, dark energy, and, who knows what else, perhaps even intelligence but strictly no particles of any description, real or hypothetical.
Then perhaps he would have mentioned something REALLY SIMPLE in the bible, like "wash your hands and you'll get sick less often". Ya think?
One could say this assumes God wanted the population explosion to happen much earlier and/or that God wants to just give us answers rather than have us learn on our own.
Although one could also take another position. Shintoism, Hinduism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all ritualize or encourage cleaning and purification. Christianity devalues it some compared to Judaism, but washing and annointing are still important in Gospel stories.
Anyway much of this is treating God as like an alternate science, which is what atheists are wont to do but is not necessarily vital to non-atheists. Although even if it is I don't think science explains the following that well.
1: The Constants of the Universe - Why are the constants of the Universe such that life as we know it exists? It would take only small differences to have the Universe be uninhabitable. The explanation I have read for atheists are
*There is a multiverse so the Universe we're in would have to be the one to have the constants we need. However the idea of "The Multiverse" is almost as metaphysical as any religious concept or at the very least it's still unclear that we could ever verify it.
*The constants being as they are is mathematically inevitable because of certain geometric structures that form in the "branes" that create the Universe according to M-theory. This is a bit over-my-hand, but I don't think there's much evidence the branes are even real or that there is some geometric inevitability. Still it is interesting.
*No explanation is needed. Improbable things just happen and you can make anything look improbable if you work the figures. (Kind of the "cop-out" explanation, but it has the pleasure of simplicity and many atheists like simple explanation whether there's any support for them or not)
2: Self-sacrifice for sterile non-relatives - If a post-menopausal woman, who is obviously not related to you by marriage or blood (like she's screaming in Chinese or something), is about to get hit by a train what do you do? Well from an evolutionary perspective it seems like you should do nothing or at least have no natural urge to do anything. The woman is not going to continue the species or be of aid to your relatives reaching sexual maturity. Yet I think people often/generally do have the urge to do something or even to risk their own lives to save such a woman. Why?
I think there's many others, but I'm spacing a bit. I may do more later.
Last edited by Thomas R.; 12-01-2010 at 09:11 PM..
So let's for the sake of argument accept that science does indeed have better answers than "God did it", does science tell us how to solve the problems of people waging war on each other, that man soon will overpopulate the world, the fact that there are children who are molested by their own parents etc.?
If ya ask me these problems are caused by free will and it is my personal belief that it was God who gave man free will, but I'm curious to see what science has to say on the matter of free will and how to solve these problems?
The point of science is to answer questions and address the unknown, or little known. Sometimes discoveries come easy, even accidentally, but most times it requires a lot of work. Thinking is hard, unlike faith which is the easy way to explain things, although almost always wrong, as science has proven in the past few centuries...There are very few "God gaps" left.
If you are going to look to science for the answers, it should be able to supply the correct ones, and not give you the wrong conclusion. Like, for example, the idea that ulcers are caused by stress.
We know that amazing conclusion is completely wrong now. Heliobacter pylori is responsible (or at least that's what they think NOW, it could be yet something else).
How many things give you cancer again? I've lost track.
If you are going to look to science for the answers, it should be able to supply the correct ones, and not give you the wrong conclusion. Like, for example, the idea that ulcers are caused by stress.
We know that amazing conclusion is completely wrong now. Heliobacter pylori is responsible (or at least that's what they think NOW, it could be yet something else).
How many things give you cancer again? I've lost track.
No, you're completely wrong. Stress can play a role in the formation of ulcers. And you can have gastritis and ulcers without H. pylori. Sorry. Try again...maybe with a subject matter you have some expertise in.
I do. They've even admitted that they were wrong, that it was the H. pylori that actually caused the ulcer, though stress might (or might not) be a contributing factor.
God makes science possible and science answers HOW God does it.
Man created science all by himself. No gods, goblins, or zombies required.
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Moderator cut: edit 
So let's for the sake of argument accept that science does indeed have better answers than "God did it", does science tell us how to solve the problems of people waging war on each other, that man soon will overpopulate the world, the fact that there are children who are molested by their own parents etc.?
