This post represents the other bookend to the effort I made to illustrate why waxing philosophical on the question as to whether or not God exists is an extraordinarily tricky problem to tackle, no matter what your personal opinions (atheist, theist, agnostic) on the subject might be. Especially simplistic arguments fail to reveal the true complexity of the argument as a whole. To illustrate the gravity and true scope of the problem, I recruited the smartest person I know, an honest-to-God scientist recognized worldwide in his specific field of expertise, for an unbiased and unvarnished evaluation of the science and logic used in my article, focused on my own argument for God in particular to expose any and every perceived weakness in my reasoning. What follows next is primarily my friend's analytical feedback and constructive criticisms of my argument through our subsequent correspondence, which I've converted into an article to further elaborate on what we started... No matter what you actually believe, your worldview will be at least partially based on faith, whether you are a scientist, an atheist, or someone like me. Even if that faith is limited to yourself -- you've put faith in something, but not in nothing. The scientist places his or her faith in the scientific method and personal skill set to discern between illusion and reality. The atheist trusts intellect and reason will ultimately lead to evidence that validates their lack of belief in a supernatural God, while the theist has faith that his or her intellect is surpassed by something far … [Read more...]
Waxing philosophical
[To shorten this to a somewhat more palatable length, the original post was split in half. Because my intention was to present a solid philosophical argument to a philosopher, I decided to recruit an honest-to-God scientist to "moderate" the discussion and keep all of us honest. It turns out that my scientist friend didn't really like anybody's effort to make a coherent argument for God. Our correspondence will be included in the followup post, to be titled "The Philosophical Argument for God."] Some questions have easy, straightforward answers: What is the sum of three plus four? How old are you? What did you have for dinner? Do you like chocolate? How many roads must a man walk down, before you can call him a man? Okay, so maybe that last question wasn't that easy or straightforward, but it turns out the answer is 42.* Other questions, for example such as our existential questions, may not have one clear and correct answer to existential questions such as: Does God exist? What happens when we die? How did this universe originate from nothing? What existed prior to the Big Bang? How was life created from inanimate matter? However, just because these other questions are extraordinarily more difficult to answer doesn't mean we shouldn't even bother to put out any effort looking for the answers. These are some of the most consequential questions we could ever seek to answer, because the truth could change the way we live our lives from day to day. Philosophy professor Dr. Alex Malpass recently caused a minor sensation on the internet when he tackled the … [Read more...]
