- Dec 7, 2009
- 10,132
- 382
- 126
But you don't live in the right universe...
or
The one thing God could do to convince me of it's existence.
What could he do? Reverse the expansion of the universe. That would do it. As you know, I'm an atheist but that doesn't mean that God's existence isn't still, well possible.
Let's start at the beginning.
The human mind is flawed. As if that wasn't obvious by now. While the conscious mind can discern reality from fantasy, the subconscious has trouble doing that.
So we as humans are susceptible to suggestions that we, for example, kill people that think differently than us. You can see that throughout history people have managed to convince other people to do just that: kill on their behalf because those guys over there <-----> are evil.
Well it turns out that some people really are evil. I mean if evil is someone who will bring about the destruction of humanity, maybe even the entire universe.
We have weapons that can destroy entire cities at a time while we have people that can be convinced to believe things that are not so. This is unsustainable for very long.
Some people might believe that God exists and will magically just fix everything. If a being like that existed, there would be no stopping it from already having done so. So that's out.
Some might say "Well I believe that something out there exists that can help us humans do the right thing. I don't believe in the religion I was brought up in because of all the lies and/or nonsense I encountered from them. Something greater than us just has to exist because..xyz"
This belief has roots in fear. Fear of your own demise. That's ok. That's normal. It's a matter of your own survival instinct, which is a good thing.
So if that something isn't God, then what?
An alien race of beings smarter than humans perhaps? The chances of an alien civilization that is smarter than us existing are pretty good. Partly because we're ignorant idiots (on the cosmic scale we know very little of the universe) and partly because there are so many stars, so many galaxies that the probability is high an alien race might exist than can at least do better than we can and might be willing to help us, or maybe destroy us if we are a threat to the universe's existence. But why destroy something that can be helped? No need to. If they can help us be as smart as them, then we would only benefit them in their endeavors.
Here's the problem with that: The universe is expanding, and the expansion is accelerating. We have evidence of this. There is no denying it now.
Simply put time is running out. Any alien race's planet that's going to help humanity is going to disappear. Galaxies greater than a certain distance away are flying apart. They eventually reach an event horizon of sorts, the boundary which lies where the velocity of recession is greater than the speed of light c. The edge of our observable universe. We've observed this. so there is evidence of that too, so don't try denying that either or risk coming of as, well wrong.
Maybe they are already helping us, maybe not. There's no evidence of that as far as I know, so that's pure speculation at this point, at least for me.
Maybe they can help us even if their home planet flies off to a region receding from us faster than c. That boundary is for US because we can't observe or interact in any way nor glean any information from something moving away faster than c. Maybe that's not a boundary for them. Or God or whatever you want to call this supposed alien(s) that can help us. Who knows? But the probabilities of these supposed maybes are starting to become infinitesimally small. That's a lot of maybes that have to come together as real, and not imagined.
Speaking of imagining things. Religious folks, especially extremist ones, have been convinced by some people that certain other people are evil, or wrong, and must be destroyed.
Muslim extremists are happy to lop off the heads of people they think are evil merely because someone told them so without evidence.
This is the problem with people who don't agree with science. Who don't agree that evidence is necessary to believe something.
The head of the Church of Scientology was quoted as saying he is bent on the destruction of psychiatry. Psychiatry. You know, the science of the study of the human mind.
Folks if we are going to get anywhere, if we are to make progress we had better figure out a way to stop people from being so easily convinced to kill people on little to no evidence that they are evil and must be stopped. We had better continue study of the human mind.
Maybe the COS leader was misquoted. Who knows? Without evidence, we don't. So I'm not calling for his destruction either. But even if there is evidence, maybe he can change his mind to the right path. So basically I'm not calling for anyone's destruction unless they call for the destruction of science. There is still hope they can change their mind.
There you have it. I hope this little glimpse of reality helps humanity.
I'm open to questions and/or suggestions, feel free to post, criticize or disagree. Or agree if you like! But you don't have to.
Real scientists are always open to being questioned. I may not have time to answer all, but I will try to answer what I can. Good luck, and may God Bless humanity (if God exists).
or
The one thing God could do to convince me of it's existence.
What could he do? Reverse the expansion of the universe. That would do it. As you know, I'm an atheist but that doesn't mean that God's existence isn't still, well possible.
Let's start at the beginning.
The human mind is flawed. As if that wasn't obvious by now. While the conscious mind can discern reality from fantasy, the subconscious has trouble doing that.
So we as humans are susceptible to suggestions that we, for example, kill people that think differently than us. You can see that throughout history people have managed to convince other people to do just that: kill on their behalf because those guys over there <-----> are evil.
Well it turns out that some people really are evil. I mean if evil is someone who will bring about the destruction of humanity, maybe even the entire universe.
We have weapons that can destroy entire cities at a time while we have people that can be convinced to believe things that are not so. This is unsustainable for very long.
Some people might believe that God exists and will magically just fix everything. If a being like that existed, there would be no stopping it from already having done so. So that's out.
Some might say "Well I believe that something out there exists that can help us humans do the right thing. I don't believe in the religion I was brought up in because of all the lies and/or nonsense I encountered from them. Something greater than us just has to exist because..xyz"
This belief has roots in fear. Fear of your own demise. That's ok. That's normal. It's a matter of your own survival instinct, which is a good thing.
So if that something isn't God, then what?
An alien race of beings smarter than humans perhaps? The chances of an alien civilization that is smarter than us existing are pretty good. Partly because we're ignorant idiots (on the cosmic scale we know very little of the universe) and partly because there are so many stars, so many galaxies that the probability is high an alien race might exist than can at least do better than we can and might be willing to help us, or maybe destroy us if we are a threat to the universe's existence. But why destroy something that can be helped? No need to. If they can help us be as smart as them, then we would only benefit them in their endeavors.
Here's the problem with that: The universe is expanding, and the expansion is accelerating. We have evidence of this. There is no denying it now.
Simply put time is running out. Any alien race's planet that's going to help humanity is going to disappear. Galaxies greater than a certain distance away are flying apart. They eventually reach an event horizon of sorts, the boundary which lies where the velocity of recession is greater than the speed of light c. The edge of our observable universe. We've observed this. so there is evidence of that too, so don't try denying that either or risk coming of as, well wrong.
Maybe they are already helping us, maybe not. There's no evidence of that as far as I know, so that's pure speculation at this point, at least for me.
Maybe they can help us even if their home planet flies off to a region receding from us faster than c. That boundary is for US because we can't observe or interact in any way nor glean any information from something moving away faster than c. Maybe that's not a boundary for them. Or God or whatever you want to call this supposed alien(s) that can help us. Who knows? But the probabilities of these supposed maybes are starting to become infinitesimally small. That's a lot of maybes that have to come together as real, and not imagined.
Speaking of imagining things. Religious folks, especially extremist ones, have been convinced by some people that certain other people are evil, or wrong, and must be destroyed.
Muslim extremists are happy to lop off the heads of people they think are evil merely because someone told them so without evidence.
This is the problem with people who don't agree with science. Who don't agree that evidence is necessary to believe something.
The head of the Church of Scientology was quoted as saying he is bent on the destruction of psychiatry. Psychiatry. You know, the science of the study of the human mind.
Folks if we are going to get anywhere, if we are to make progress we had better figure out a way to stop people from being so easily convinced to kill people on little to no evidence that they are evil and must be stopped. We had better continue study of the human mind.
Maybe the COS leader was misquoted. Who knows? Without evidence, we don't. So I'm not calling for his destruction either. But even if there is evidence, maybe he can change his mind to the right path. So basically I'm not calling for anyone's destruction unless they call for the destruction of science. There is still hope they can change their mind.
There you have it. I hope this little glimpse of reality helps humanity.
I'm open to questions and/or suggestions, feel free to post, criticize or disagree. Or agree if you like! But you don't have to.
Real scientists are always open to being questioned. I may not have time to answer all, but I will try to answer what I can. Good luck, and may God Bless humanity (if God exists).
:biggrin:
Facebook
Twitter