scary things at CRTC

[Lennart Sorensen]

On Thu, Apr 09, 2009 at 04:57:46PM -0400, Madison Kelly wrote:
> There is a story I heard years ago, and I think it's a good analogy for  
> religion or the lack thereof.
>
> Imaging a city. Now image a town to the north and a town to the south.  
> If two people, one from either town, went to the city, they'd be  
> traveling in completely different directions. Even so, neither is going  
> the wrong way.
>
> For some, pure science is their route to the city, and the city being an  
> understanding of big questions like "why do we exist?". For others, like  
> yourself, Christian teachings is your route. Others have different ways  
> again. None are wrong for the simple reason that no one can ever really  
> know the answer.

I think perhaps the question "why do we exist?" is simply a pointless
question.  If we didn't exist then we wouldn't be here to wonder why
we exist.  Perhaps going to the city isn't actually the right way to go
in the first place.

You could even get into philosophy and start to wonder "Do we exist?".

> Heck, even Stephen Hawking, an atheist, has said that what we study does  
> not preclude the existence of a creator. It does however try to  
> understand this existence.

Certainly a god or gods may exist, but there is no apparent testable
evidence of it, so it isn't currently a particularly good theory.  I will
not claim god(s) do(es) not exist, but I certainly won't believe in it
or do things by faith.

> In the same way that I argued for the atheist-mided folk here not to  
> simply dismiss your belief in a creator, I would ask that you in turn  
> not dismiss their lack of belief as simply being because they've not  
> accepted your god as their saviour. Your beliefs work for you. Respect  
> that theirs works for them.

If the world worked like it does in the discworld novels, then gods
exist because people believe in them, rather than people believing in
them because they exist.

I think that if there is someone/something(s) in control of reality,
then it/they doesn't care one bit what each individual collection
of water and carbon based molecules on one particular rock is up to.
We are just a result of the current state of the universe.

-- 
Len Sorensen
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