Some super-calculating intellect must have designed the properties of the carbon atom; otherwise the chance of my finding such an atom through the blind forces of nature would be utterly minuscule. A common sense interpretation of the facts suggests that a super-intellect has monkeyed with physics, as well as with chemistry and biology, and that there are no blind forces worth speaking about in nature. The numbers one calculates from the facts seem to me so overwhelming as to put this conclusion almost beyond question. -- Fred Hoyle Sir Fred Hoyle was probably the most brilliant scientist of the 20th century who never became world famous. He was the man who coined the term "big bang" to describe the small, incredibly hot beginning of the universe. However, Sir Fred was ridiculing the theory because he rejected the Big Bang. Hoyle didn't believe an origin of the universe was possible, probably due to his atheism. Even after the discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation supported Hubble's observations of redshift, which indicated the universe not static, but expanding. In the quote above, Hoyle is referring to his prediction about the carbon 12 atom, which was an extraordinary accomplishment, for which fellow physicists William Alfred Fowler and Chandra Wickramasinghe won the 1983 Nobel Prize in physics. Hoyle was famously snubbed and excluded from sharing the honor he so richly deserved, allegedly because he alienated and annoyed so many of his peers with his more controversial opinions. Author Simon Singh wrote the following about Hoyle: After ten … [Read more...]
The Pearl: 23 March 2015
The vapid nature of atheism
There is a common misconception that most if not all scientists are atheists, and that the vast majority of atheists are brilliant thinkers. True, there are some very smart people who call themselves atheists. But most of these people remain willfully ignorant of any potential information that might upset their apple-cart of a worldview. For some people, it is enough for them to simply say they don't believe in any sort of a God. Others, namely antitheists, actually hate the concept of supernatural intelligence so much that they campaign to eradicate the idea among the general public. Some of these antitheists constantly lurk on the internet, hoping to evangelize their lack of faith and lead some of the sheeple astray. I cannot tell you how many times one of these antitheists have threatened to "educate" me on the alleged scientific evidence, only to demonstrate in subsequent conversation that they know even less about the science involved than me. Most recently, one of these intrepid atheists at a Facebook forum called The Battlefield directed me to read Victor Stenger's paper titled "A Scenario for a Natural Origin of Our Universe," presumably to convince me that our universe did not have a supernatural origin. Before going any further, it should be clearly stipulated that I don't know nearly as much about physics as Dr. Stenger. However, after reading a bit of his work, I'm fairly well convinced Dr. Stenger doesn't really know much more about the origin of our universe than I do. His "natural origins" paper, found in the Cornell University … [Read more...]
