By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close
Norris2k said:
nuckles87 said:

Thanks, you saved me a lot of work.

From what I can gather, Frank, your singular argument for God is "only God could have created a universe with rules."

If you want to credit God for the creation of the universe, fine. We have evidence for the evolution of the universe leading all the way up to the "Big Bang" but nothing beyond that (at least as far as I know. I'm no scientist). You want to credit God with the big bang? Go right on ahead. No one in the scientific community is stopping you right now. Just know that not knowing something isn't "proof" of something's existence.

Man has been wrong plenty of time when he used assumptions or superstition to fill in the gaps in his knowledge. We used to think the world was flat, because that's how it appeared to us. In reality, when greek mathmeticians applied math to the idea, they discovered that the Earth was curved, and therefor must be round. We used to assume that the Earth was the center of the universe and everything revolved around us. But then through astronomy we discovered moons around other bodies, came to realize we were orbiting the sun, and eventualyl realized our solar system sat in the spiral arm of a milky way galaxy. We assumed that was the only galaxy until we discovered other galaxies in the 1930s. We once assumed that the universe was created by God as described in the Bible, until we eventually began to discover evidence for a "big bang" which culminated in our discovery in the background radiation that gave us a look at how the universe was near the very beginning.

But there are flows in your own explanations.

-  You tell "I'm no scientist", then why do you believe in science ? There are proves, but beyond your understanding, told and written by people you don't know, that you probably never read, but if you would, it would be at a simplistic level that doesn't prove anything. I mean I graduated in a sciences, but I don't know much about Carbon 14, just the basic concept of datation. I've never seen C14 (you can't really even see it in a direct way), I'm not able to understand or prove by myself, but all my knowledge of datation depends on it. Still I'm not a unbeliever, C14 and all, the dinosaurs, the age of the Universe, I believe it to be true... but really, our belief in science and scientists is not very different than listening a priest quoting the Bible, if not faith, at least it's a very high level of trust.

- You tell that "Man has been wrong plenty of time when he used assumptions or superstition to fill in the gaps in his knowledge", with an analogy to the discover of galaxies, understanding of the moon. But there is a pretty strong chance the understanding of "before" the big bang is impossible, outside the scope of what science can explain. It's beyond observation, probably impossible to simulate, test. So it could really not be a "we don't know yet". We know that science progress, very fast, but we don't know at all were are the limits, we could progress exponentially forever to nowhere.

- "Man has been wrong plenty of time when he used assumptions or superstition to fill in the gaps in his knowledge". Sorry but I can seriously write "Man has been wrong plenty of time when he used mathematical demonstration and science to fill in the gaps in his knowledge". Because you know, Newton calculations are not really a knowledge. They are just that, calculations, models, that happen to work for a limited number of cases, if things are not too fast, or not too big, or not to small. The guy was a genius, and it's good enough to send a rocket to the moon, but it's not a knowledge, a real understanding. Science really accepts to be always proven wrong (at least in the sense that its field of application is drastically reduced), but still there is this strange feeling that science claims any step is dead certain. Do you think Newton said "and I could be wrong in some or even most cases, because I'm working in a such limited set of examples, a bunch of apples, 5 planets, and the moon... and I mean it's the 17 century, come on, we don't even have a laser to measure anything, so don't take me too seriously, I'm not meaning every priest is telling fairytales, next step in science could be that the Earth is flat" ? Everyone is cock sure, theists and atheists, they get it right at any point of the time.

- Science answers to how, not to why. Even if it answers to why, it's in the form of a "how". So, should the scientific method which is basically to understand how, applies to a question that is fundamentally "why" or "is there a why" ? Wether I can feel pain, or I can't, wether I can feel love or not, I don't have a need for science to prove or disprove it scientifically (even if it's great to understand how for medecine). I don't feel there is a God, that's why I'm an atheist. Let's stop BS about someone knowing more that the other... we know nothing and my belief is that we will probably never know anything at a significant level !

+1