As a pagan with an atheist boyfriend I can accept these arguments as justifications for the existence of a supreme being. However I don't buy the rhetoric. I personally believe that there is something bigger than myself and that for every trial we endure there is a lesson to be learned. My boyfriend on the other hand believes we are worm meat, I love him anyway.
The counter argument I always find most enticing is the same for God as the Big Bang theory. All right I can buy that a bang happened and then life formed, but where did the initial source material develop from? That goes for God as well as matter.
We cannot create matter from nothing, or energy from nothing, there is a fixed amount of usable material in the world, and through photosynthesis, and metabolic or chemical reactions we can change the form but there it has to start with raw materials that are transformed.
You can't reach into the sky and say I want there to be silly putty, and a glob appears in your hand like magic.
Now you can reach into the sky and say I want there to be silly putty, and your friend uses kinetic energy to throw a glob of silly putty into your hand. A glob that was sold in a store, made by a manufacturer, after all of the raw materials were gathered together and a scientist trying to make a new rubber invented silly putty.
The same goes for God. Where did he come from?
And if the answer is well, he's God he just appeared, I don't buy it. Just as scientists who cannot explain the original source of the first particles that existed before the big bang cannot explain it, yet.
It's the yet that makes the arguments invalid for me. The minute we have concrete evidence of anything then you can make an informed decision. Scientists have proofs and theories that they test out and either prove real or false.
Believers don't have that, in fact most of the scary fanatical believers reasoning is that I know because I have faith. They have no need for philosophical debates because they are unwilling to see any possible alternatives.
In their minds those without faith are lacking, and frankly in my quarter century of cognoscente thought on this planet I have found that those with faith in themselves tend to succeed and achieve their goals and ultimate happiness more so than those who have blind faith that a higher power will take care of them. These are the people who get 80/20 variable rate mortgages. This lack of personal responsibility I find to be a plague on our generation, and I think a lot of people use God as an excuse for bad behavior. Where as government has used the fear of God to keep people in line.
Oooooh, you had me at 'As'. Really. I agree with much of this. I think that a higher power is possible, and probably exists, but to put your faith and your life into the hands of something you don't really know exists makes little sense to me. So does giving credit for your achievements or the good things that happen to you in those same imaginary hands.
ReplyDeleteMost of the good in my life I've achieved through hard work and perseverance, and a dash of Irish luck (aka bullheadedness). The same with the bad things. I've either made poor choices or been at the wrong place at the wrong time holding the wrong bag...oh, that's another story.
I think faith is a great thing, but the wisest thing to do is to believe in yourself first and remember that you control your destiny. Well, you and karma, but the way karma works brings the control (or blame) back to you anyway.