IDoNotGetIt

Religious people love to pretend that religion and science are compatible world views that should be given equal time.  In theory this might be true.  It isn’t necessary that religions conflict with science.  But the plain and simple fact is that they do.  And when they do, science should, and does win.  And it wins every time for one simple reason.  Science is the study of reality.

Reality is the constant that we all have with one another.  We might all have different interpretations of some event but science can show us the true nature of that event.  The observations that science reveals are objective and true for everyone, not any particular subset of people.

I’ve said many times before that science can’t be used to validate or invalidate religion but I realize now that that isn’t exactly true.  And many of the ridiculous “proofs” that I’ve responded to over the past 50 days have reinforced that to me spectacularly.  Science can, in fact, disprove or at the very least, cast serious doubt on certain claims that many religions make.  These claims being the ones that step into the realm of reality and out of the realm of philosophy.

Christians, for instance, think they are untouchable because their views are religious in nature.  But they aren’t.  Some of their beliefs are wrong.  Religious claims that step out of the philosophical realm should be able to stand up to scientific scrutiny.  So there is no conflict between religion and science as long as they are kept separate but as soon as you try to combine them, you are going to run in to problems.

In #45 (Day 42), a quote by Stephen Hawkins is used.

Science may solve the problem of how the universe began, but it cannot answer the question: why does the universe bother to exist?”

This is a good example of science and philosophy being separate.  Science can’t answer the question: “why does the universe bother to exist?” because it isn’t a scientific question.  It is a philosophical one.  If religion stuck to these kinds of things, there would be nothing to fight about with science.  No one would ever step on the others toes.

But they don’t.  Instead, you get religions like Christianity trying to step into the realm of science.  And coming out looking spectacularly stupid in the process.  Evolution denial must be the most ignorant, brainless, vacuous… really, there aren’t words strong enough to express how foolish evolution denial is.  Yet they deny it.  They have let their dogma push them into an area that religion is not qualified.  And they constantly make themselves look like fools to everyone who knows better.

This is a fight that ought not exist.  Evolution is true and that truth does not eliminate all theistic beliefs.  Christians, a long time ago, made a mistake.  They thought they were doing the right thing by telling this silly story about how everything was created and how life came about but they didn’t realize that they were stepping out of their area of expertise.  And, maybe it wasn’t even their fault, after all, science wasn’t exactly a well developed field of study at that time.  They were doing the best they could with the knowledge they had available to them.  But now we know better.  It’s time to get over it.  The book is wrong.  It is obviously wrong to anyone with half a brain who looks at it with an open mind.

Evolution denial makes you look like a fool.  And worst of all, it makes your religion look foolish.  Stick to the philosophy.  Come up with answers to the questions like “why does the universe bother to exist?”  There is still a market for that sort of thing and there probably always will be.

I’m out of “proofs” or “reasons”, what ever you want to call them, early because a few of them just couldn’t be answered separately in good conscience.  However, that doesn’t mean I’m out of stupidity.

These “proofs” are all, each and every one, based on common, well documented, misunderstandings and lies.  Some are wrong on many levels.  For instance, number 39 (Day 36) is wrong because it is a fallacy but on top of that, it isn’t even based on facts.  Even if it were proven that women discovered the empty tomb of Jesus, this still wouldn’t make this a good argument for the existence of god.  But the fact that it isn’t based on real facts makes it wrong on top of wrong.

This isn’t unusual for these kinds of arguments.  Believers have already “fooled” themselves.  They already believe so they can’t see the illogical reasoning they put into these “proofs”.  They don’t understand that this is the kind of crap you get when you try to prove something you already believe rather than believe something you have proven.  That is an extremely important distinction.

I am frequently asked, “do you believe anything?” or “what DO you believe?”  My answer is: “I do believe.  My beliefs are based on facts and the logical conclusions you can draw from those facts.  You give me the facts, if they check out, I’m a believer.”

50. Jesus Christ is either who he says he is, or he is the biggest con man history has ever known.

Really?  Those are the only two options you can think of?  This is another false dichotomy argument.  There are an infinite number of other possibilities.  I tend to believe that he was probably just a mentally ill person who got followers and then after he was executed, his nutty followers started making up wild stories that evolved over the millennia.  That’s just my opinion but it is much more believable than “he was god”.

What the hell is up with that crap anyway?  What was his big sacrifice?  He already knew that he was some kind of deity.  He knew that he couldn’t die (for real).  Hell, what decent human being wouldn’t sacrifice themselves to save everyone who ever lived if the reward was being a god?  That’s not a sacrifice.  A sacrifice is when you do it and don’t get any reward, you just die.

49. God has proved himself to us in numerous ways, all around us. The atheist needs to put his glasses on. What more can God possibly do if man has shut his eyes to him?

More preaching.  I don’t wear glasses and I thought your god was infinitely powerful.  What the hell do you mean “what more can God do?”  He can create the universe but he can’t provide me with convincing evidence of his existence?  What kind of impotent god do you believe in?

48. Could it possibly be that the missing link does not exist?!

Yes.  As a matter of fact I’ll say this, the missing link that will satisfy people who do not believe evolution, does not exist.  Every time a missing link is found, it just creates two more missing links.  It’s like Zeno’s dichotomy paradox.

“The” missing link is a red herring.  It will never be found and more importantly, it isn’t necessary to prove evolution.  The proven facts that make up the theory of evolution are unequivocally substantiated and grounded in science.  The proverbial missing link is just another idiotic card (like the “it’s just a theory” card) that creationist and their ilk like to trot out every now and then to make sure no rational person takes them seriously. It’s ok guys, we know you are ignorant fools, you don’t have to constantly reinforce that knowledge by showing your massive ignorance of the scientific process.

47. If we are the product of evolution – by sheer accident, chance, then we are still evolving. Does it just so happen that we exist here today with everything so finely tuned for our living. as we now have it?

This actually made me laugh out loud.  I tried to remember if I was ever childish enough to ask a question like this, even when I was a Christian.  I don’t think I was.  What a monumentally silly question this is.

Evolution is a fact, yes we are still evolving as is every single other life form on this planet.  Evolution is a product of life as we know it, it has always occurred and it always will, it can’t be stopped.

So to answer this asinine question, Yes, it just happens that we exist here today.  I’ll let you in on a little secret, there is nothing special about today, different people lived here a few centuries ago and they could have asked that same silly question.

46. We cannot confuse God with man. With God in the equation, all things, including miracles are possible. If God is God, he is Creator of all, inclusive of scientific law. He is Creator of matter & spirit.

This is just preaching.  Save it for your fellow followers.  I don’t believe in god (any of them) and therefore don’t have to waste my time contemplating silly questions like this.

45. Stephen Hawkins has admitted; “Science may solve the problem of how the universe began, but it cannot answer the question: why does the universe bother to exist?”

How pathetic do your beliefs have to be to force you to grasp at any little insignificant thing that comes out of the mouth of any, authoritative, public figure you can find?  First it’s Albert Einstein and now Stephen Hawkins.  And this is the best you could do?  This is supposed to be a compelling reason to believe in god, Hawkins asking “why does the universe bother to exist?”

44. It is easier to believe that God created something out of nothing than it is to believe that nothing created something out of nothing.

As I’m trying to think of an answer to this, I realized that it was the good ol’ “do you beat your wife often?” question.  If I disagree with it, it seems like I believe that “nothing created something out of nothing” and if I agree with it I’m saying I believe in god.

So how many fallacies are in that one sentence.  At least two, loaded question and false dichotomy.

Perhaps, it is that the universe wasn’t created in the manner that Christians like to pretend it was.  Perhaps its creation was of a natural origin not requiring any intelligent being.

43. A speaker in Hyde Park who was attacking belief in God, claimed that the world just happened. As he spoke, a soft tomato was thrown at him. “Who threw that?” He said angrily. A cockney from the back of the crowd replied; “No-one threw it – it threw itself!”

Once again, I’m almost speechless.  This is a reason to believe in god?  Well, I guess you got me.  This is inarguable, right?  How could I deny the existence of god in the face of this kind of evidence?  Oh wait a minute, I see it now.  Ha ha, you almost got me, but I see your strawman.

The formation of the planet we live on (henceforth, the world) happened but I’ve never heard anyone other than theists claim that it “just happened” aka “god did it”.  The formation of the world as we know it is described in great detail by astrophysicist and geologist.  I highly recommend you research it.  It is extremely interesting.  And if, in your research, you find something that says “it just happened”, you aren’t reading a science book, you’re reading a religious book.  Throw that away and get the truth.