Friday 5 June 2009

I like this . . .


Philosophy, and science cannot tell if gods exist or not. But they can tell us about the nature of any god should one exist. Most, not all, religions make claims for their favourite deity intervening in the universe. Claim of intervention fall within the purview of science, and there is bad news for religion: There is no evidence that events happen in the universe that cannot be explained as the result of natural processes. Of course not all events have been explained, but that does not mean that absent data one assumes “godditit”. Now there some religious groups that say god is how the universe works, in otherwords he works through what scientists consider natural processes. Science does not help us with this type of god, but philosophy does. If a universe that has a god running it cannot be distinguished from a universe running simple in natural processes then why posit a god at all ? Pushing a god into such a scenario has no explanatory purpose.
So it would seem to me that between them science and philosophy tell us either 1) god probably does not exist, 2) is irrelevant or 3) is deceitful. The deceitful bit comes from claims of some religious groups that god has rigged the universe to give the appearence of age and that it appears to follow natural rules, when in fact it is young, and is subject to his arbitrary whim. They tend not offer a reason why a god they admit lies is worthy of worship.

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