RE: Are We Living In God's "Matrix"?
September 12, 2014 at 5:20 pm
(This post was last modified: September 12, 2014 at 5:21 pm by Tonus.)
(September 11, 2014 at 12:28 pm)sswhateverlove Wrote: I ask because of the absolute nature of the atheist perspective. Most atheists I know argue they are 100% sure there is no intelligent design, no influencing entities, however, how can you be so sure? What is it that confirms that for you?I think that it's our approach to pretty much anything else. There are many things that we do not believe in until sufficient evidence or proof gives us reason to do so. Only when it comes to gods (sorry-- "intelligent designers") do we change the parameters and demand some flicker of acceptance that it is 'possible.'
I understand that there are people who believe that science is actively conspiring to deceive everyone by denying god, even if it means that they lie about their discoveries and research. Or maybe they just believe that scientists are unwitting pawns of some evil force that wants to keep us from discovering god. But science just works with what we can detect and examine and test. And so far, no god (sorry-- "intelligent designer") required. Until they or I discover otherwise, why would I care that my certainty should be 99.9% instead of 100.0%?
"Well, evolution is a theory. It is also a fact. And facts and theories are different things, not rungs in a hierarchy of increasing certainty. Facts are the world's data. Theories are structures of ideas that explain and interpret facts. Facts don't go away when scientists debate rival theories to explain them. Einstein's theory of gravitation replaced Newton's in this century, but apples didn't suspend themselves in midair, pending the outcome. And humans evolved from ape- like ancestors whether they did so by Darwin's proposed mechanism or by some other yet to be discovered."
-Stephen Jay Gould
-Stephen Jay Gould
