It's been pretty funny watching the attention of blog atheistdom going on from the brief Higgs boson excitement of just two days ago. Beginning with the bizarrely held idea that, somehow, the Higgs belonged to atheists, that it was a confirmation of their ideology and the other bizarre idea that religious folk would be perturbed by its discovery and continuing to the inevitable loss of collective interest in the topic. I've been tempted to quiz the atheists on the political blogs who were all caught up in the Higgs hype to name the last three subatomic particles that got a similar amount of razzle dazzle. Only the few with a knowledge of that branch of physics among them would skew the results, making that an ineffective measure of how devoted to science the self-appointed Sci-rangers really are.
I've never encountered an atheist who understood the most basic concept of the belief in God the creator. God created the entire universe, every last part of it, including the subatomic particles, everything. Anyone who believes that would believe that whatever science can discover about the physical universe is merely a description of something about God's universe. That concept is, literally, the first recorded religious idea in the Jewish scriptures, that God created the heavens and the Earth, the stars the sun, everything. If you believe that then all science can tell you about it is some of the details of how it was done and what it looks like at higher resolution.
Science can tell you nothing about the idea that God created the universe, though some of those who invented science, Galileo, Descartes, Newton, believed that their discoveries were revelations of God's action in the universe. I think they were a bit optimistic as the subsequent culture of science tended more and more towards materialism, blinded by the impressiveness of the discoveries of their methods. It's really not surprising, though, that, as the difficulties of finding what they wanted to rose, taking up more attention and time, more dedicated preparatory study in mathematics and the physical universe, the habits of thought developed by scientists would lead to an ideological materialism and, so, atheism. The oddest thing about that must be that, as they focused on narrower and narrower aspects of the universe and human experience, that so many scientists mistook their narrow view as being ever more macrocosmic. That can only be done by ignoring, not only the possibility of God, but the actual validity of non-scientific, human experience. That has been done by asserting that all of the universe, all of human experience is reducible to physical law when there is absolutely no evidence of that being true. That assertion is typical of atheism, you get the most extreme reaction from atheists when you point out the real problems of that faith in promissory materialism.
to be continued.
"It seems to me that to organize on the basis of feeding people or righting social injustice and all that is very valuable. But to rally people around the idea of modernism, modernity, or something is simply silly. I mean, I don't know what kind of a cause that is, to be up to date. I think it ultimately leads to fashion and snobbery and I'm against it." Jack Levine: January 3, 1915 – November 8, 2010 LEVEL BILLIONAIRES OUT OF EXISTENCE
Friday, July 6, 2012
Wednesday, July 4, 2012
Doesn't it Make Your Heart Bleed?
"Cern should really build a larger auditorium. The present one is nice and cosy, but it is embarrassing and sad to see many distinguished colleagues queueing up at five in the morning knowing that they have a slim chance to get a seat, after working for 20 years on finding the Higgs boson,said Dorigo (a scientist on the CMS experimental team at Cern)."
Well, that's gratitude for you. The thing cost 8 Billion dollars (that they'd admitted to the last time I looked) and who knows how much to operate. You've got to wonder how much of that came out of Dorigo's, Higgs' and the other "many distinguished colleagues" pockets.
It's a subatomic particle, for Pete's sake, it's not the solution to global warming or hunger. I'd like to see a list of practical benefits to living beings that have come out of the quest for the last three or four subatomic particles and an honest estimate at the cost.
Well, that's gratitude for you. The thing cost 8 Billion dollars (that they'd admitted to the last time I looked) and who knows how much to operate. You've got to wonder how much of that came out of Dorigo's, Higgs' and the other "many distinguished colleagues" pockets.
It's a subatomic particle, for Pete's sake, it's not the solution to global warming or hunger. I'd like to see a list of practical benefits to living beings that have come out of the quest for the last three or four subatomic particles and an honest estimate at the cost.