Theism: the belief that 13.7 billion years ago some atemporal, immaterial. but omnipotent, omniscient & omnipresent entity created a Universe of a 100 billion galaxies, containing 70 sextillion stars and 10^24 planets just so that after a time interval of 13.695 billion years a particular life-form could evolve on one of the planets to sing the praises of said entity. .
Atheism: The belief that this is probably not true.
I like that.
ReplyDelete:-D
ReplyDeleteNice and succinct :)
ReplyDeleteRead 'There is a God - How the world's most notorious atheist changed his mind' by Antony Flew published by Harper One in 2008. One of the world's leading analytical philosophers, Flew now defends his position as a theist. Is this the first crack in the New Atheism? I rather think it is.
ReplyDeleteHaggerty
If you say so.
ReplyDeleteDear quedula, I am only suggesting in good faith that you read Antony Flew. It is a good read and must have cost the writer a great deal in the loss of pride and professional self-esteem.
DeleteI used to be a convinced atheist myself. I found Christians embarrassing, so I completely understand and respect the mindset.
J Haggerty
Does he explain why 'God' waited 13.7 billion years?
DeleteGod does operate in billions and trillions of years, but then He is creator, and has given our scientists the opportunity to begin to unravel some of the staggering mysteries of creation.
DeleteThere has not been a society in the world which has not had some religious or transcendent experience.
You only need to visit Stonehenge or any megalithic site to realize such a fact. I am full of wonder to think that the people who raised the standing stones in the Shetlands have left us nothing in writing. The Jewish people have left us their canon, the Bible. Karl Barth called it 'this strange book'.
The Lord did call the Jews out of all the peoples of the world, a perplexing mystery. But they were to bring the whole of the pagan world to a knowledge of God.
As the old man Simeon says in the New Testament when he sees Jesus as a baby, 'A light to lighten the Gentiles and thy people, Israel.'
J Haggerty
So your answer is 'no', he doesn't.
ReplyDeleteMy answer is 'no, He doesn't'.
ReplyDeleteJim Watson and Francis Crick outlined the double helix structure of DNA in 1953. They then put forward their hypothesis, subsequently proven to be correct, that the structure carries the code of the genetical information. It does so, if memory serves, through the four kinds of molecule that are spaced along each strand of the double helix structure.
In 1953 I was two years old.
The Second World War, in which more civilians died than any war in history, was only eight years over.
I can follow the work of many brilliant scientists in the discovery of the human genome.
But life developed over millions of years.
J.B. Priestley said he was glad the universe was so vast, and not some localised affair.
The heavens proclaim the glory of something even if it isn't the G word.
J Haggerty