I could quite easily fit my understanding of science into any religious view - God can do anything, so he made the world this way, and even made atheists to challenge my faith. Once I believe in magic I can invent anything. It's all down to the premises; so that a valid argument can be claimed to be a sound argument, or I can simply claim that it's beyond reason and the premises stand alone unchallengable.
I could quite justifiably, by the absolutist religious view, believe that in fact there is a God. But my God isn't omnipotent, though he is omnibenevolent. He spontaneously came into existence about 20 billion years ago, came up with a plan for our universe, and currently we are its latest enhancement. He's really sorry about the crappy mess he's left us in, and has wanted to atone - that's why he created a representation of himself as Jesus, but he hadn't anticipated our design flaws, so we screwed that up for him. He tried again with Mohammed, but that was a real cock-up. Eventually he settled on the Enlightenment. It was always going to be difficult - unlike his future creation Microsoft he decided to avoid any pretence at compatibility with previous versions - it was his Linux, and it had its own flaws, but did have certain benefits in that it wasn't proprietary, it was open source! Anyone could contribute and everyone could benefit. As with all good projects the Enlightenment is an ongoing development, new anti-religious security patches are being contributed by many sources. He hopes to eventually convert all customers. And there's an incentive for existing and upgrading customers alike - a free pass to heaven, where you'll be met by Steve Jobs with some great gifts.
I suppose if I believed the above I could be aspect blind, in that I don't see how my premises upon which it all stands can be at fault. But I'd KNOW I'm not, wouldn't I? Any objections?
2 comments:
Hi! I think your Blog is a lot more interesting than you subtitle claims. I am not all that well versed in theology and while I believe in God, I do not believe in religion nor the dogma that goes along with it. Also, I have no doubts Jesus existed, but I don't think he was anything more than a mere mortal. A smart mortal, likely, but mortal nonetheless. All of the magic stuff kind of makes me laugh. Legitimate scientific proof, IMHO, pretty much eliminates the possibility that any of the religions that I know so little about could possibly be true.
Those are my own personal beliefs, but I do understand why many would completely reject the existence of any kind of God, given that I am not even sure exactly who or what the God is that I believe in, or even if it should be called "God."
Looking at the comments in the previous diary I think that the ?philosophical? arguments being made by you and your readers may all be a little out of my league in so far as my education on this subject.
Thanks for the link, and I have gladly added your Blog to my Blogroll. You should see the link show up the next time I update my Blog and ping technorati. Also, judging by your Blogroll, thanks for participating in Blogroll Amnesty Day! (Just taking a guess there:)
Hi Stephen,
Thanks for your feedback. Your blog was listed on someone else's, so I thought I'd take a look. So many good blogs and so little time. I want to read more of yours and similar because, despite the criticisms of blogging it's such a great way to pickup opinions from such a diverse range of people. I have a stirring interest in US politics, triggered really by Tom Paines The Rights of Man, that I haven't had time to indulge in yet, so picking up snippets from blogs like yours really helps, so I hope to get more time on it.
Thanks on the link.
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