Mumbai-Central.comWhere Mumbaikars meet |
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tip of the day: Jis kisaan kaa sathi NOCIL wo hardam khush-haal.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
This was quite an amusing diatribe. As an atheist, here are my responses:
> An atheist is said to be someone who denies the existence of the
>Creator. This is a good definition, provided that we mean by it that the
>creator whose existence they deny is only the God of religion, the one true
>Creator. Otherwise, atheists do believe in creators, albeit they do not
>recognize them by that name. This is so because atheists, in their endeavor
>to find alternatives to God for explaining the existence of the temporal
>things we see around us, invent some imaginary entities and give them some
>of the essential attributes of God.
This argument is neither cogent nor correct. First, atheists do not deny the
existence of a Creator. They deny the existence of God. Creation is another
argument altogether. Atheists do not seek "alternatives to God for explaining the
existence of the temporal things". They seek rational, scientific explanations for
explaining the existence of temporal things.
> Thus materialistic atheists used to believe in matter as such a god.
>But this matter-god of theirs is not the matter with which we are familiar
>in our daily life; it is something that is eternal and everlasting, hence
>the statement, which used to masquerade as a scientific fact, “matter is
>neither created nor destroyed.”
There is of course no such thing as a scientific "fact" in the sense used here.
Science has only a set theories/explanations which have proven through history to
regularly fall to better theories/explanations based on testing and observation. No
true scientist would ever claim true finality for any theory. Only measurable
levels of certainty are required (eg. we are 99.9999% sure that the speed of light
is a constant in a vacuum).
>Scientists now believe that everything - matter, energy, even space and
>time - had a beginning. In fact they speak about a moment of creation of
>all these things.
Modern "big bang" theory does not imply a "creator". The theory does not attempt
to postulate/theorize about the causation of the big bang. It simply attempts to
understand and define the processes which occurred early in the history of the
universe ("big bang" and onwards).
> Another such imaginary god is Nature (with a capital N). The nature
>with which we are familiar is the totality of natural things. But when we
>are told that Nature does this or that, as atheists are prone to say, we
>find ourselves at a loss. What is this Nature? If it be the one we know,
>how can it cause or create itself? But if it is something else, then we
>want to have proof of its existence.
>
> The same applies to evolution. Now evolution, scientifically speaking,
>is “the gradual process by which the present diversity of plant and animal
>life arose from the earliest and most primitive organisms…” (Concise
>Science Dictionary). But the Evolution of the atheists is not this process;
>rather it is the agent which brings about the process. Only in this
>unscientific and imaginary sense can evolution take the place of God;
>otherwise, a believer who accepts the theory of evolution can easily
>reconcile it with his belief in God, by saying that that process is itself
>the work of the Creator.
Atheists do not claim that "Nature" or "Evolution" are agents of any sort.
Evolution by most all atheistic standards is indeed a theory describing a process.
Again, we see an attempt to redefine the atheistic argument from "non-belief in
God" to "a search for a replacement for God". These are entirely contradictory
stances. A search for a replacement inherently implies the existence of something
needing to be replaced. Atheists do not believe that God exists in the first place.
They merely attempt to fill a void.
S. Lynch
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To Subscribe [Unsubscribe] send a blank message to
nukkad-list-request@mumbai-central.com
with the word 'subscribe' ['unsubscribe'] (without quotes) in the Subject
of your message.
The list is archived at http://www.mumbai-central.com/nukkad/archive.html
Use the form below to subscribe or unsubscribe to the list.
|
Site directory
|
Today's news
|
Film reviews
|
likhaai
|
nukkad
|
Stocks
|
Discussion boards
|
Photos
|
Puzzles
Restaurant Guide | Train Guide | Bus Guide | Mumbai Information | Image Galleries About us | Advertise here! | Feedback Donate Sponsored Link: Are There Lucky Planets In Your Astrological Marriage House? | Articles on travel and USA-specific tips |
|
|
Get notified about site updates To get updates about the Mumbai-Central.com site via email (only 1-2 messages per month), sign up! |
|