Store up for yourselves treasures in Heaven
where moth and rust cannot destroy and thieves cannot break in and steal

Monday, April 12, 2010

The 1.6% Solution

1.6% of the North American population is philosophically illiterate. What we know for a fact is that for any universe to exist (either this universe in which we live, or the infinite number of universes these people hope exists), either matter has to be eternal or the immaterial Cause of matter has to be eternal.

There are these two options and these two options only.

. This population knows that the material infinite does not and cannot exist.

. However, this cult also a priori denies that anything Supernatural does or can exist.

Since neither of the above options are allowed, this small group of believers waits for a third option to “miraculously” arise. And even though this isn’t going to happen, those who belong to this population have to maintain their implausible position or their belief system will collapse.

4 comments:

  1. or the immaterial Cause of matter has to be eternal.

    Woah! Hold your horses.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I like the capital 'C' of Cause. No bias there obviously. Why not say Who while you are at it...

    PZ says-
    "That's the obnoxious part of religion, and why it's in conflict with science. Science is the world of Let's-Find-Out, while religion is always the land of You-Can't-Know-That. "

    All religions that I am aware of teach a great deal of things one can know. (It is best to live by these rules… Jesus taught…)

    Our best, our most tested science (physics), more or less begins with a clear statement of what you can't know (Heisenberg's uncertainty). "

    Yet, some people pretend to KNOW that

    either matter has to be eternal or the immaterial Cause of matter has to be eternal.

    There are these two options and these two options only.

    ReplyDelete
  3. (Heisenberg's uncertainty). Yes I’m sure that the universe is quantum event. Which by the way does NOT come into being out of nothing. We just popped into existence and perhaps today we’ll just pop back out of existence and back into what? A vacuum? A vacuum is not nothing Hugo. Where was it? Hmm? Surrounded by a tiny speck of space? Just naming something - ANYTHING - is not science, Hugo. It’s avoiding the scientific evidence that we already have, avoiding it for no other reason that you don’t like where it’s pointing. I thought you people followed the evidence where ever it leads?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Even though it is closely related, the quote mentions Heisenberg's uncertainty but the point was not to give an explanation to the Big Bang, or anything else.

    The point was to indicate the difference between a dogmatic religious approach, and a scientific one.

    You claim to use a scientific approach, but at the same time you claim to KNOW more about the beginning of the universe than the average physicist.

    That's the point, nothing to do with quantum fluctuation or anything like that...

    ReplyDelete