The Moral Argument for God

[Pat Mustard]

From Wikipedia:

"Dark matter is a hypothetical kind of matter that cannot be seen with telescopes but accounts for most of the matter in the universe. The existence and properties of dark matter are inferred from its gravitational effects on visible matter, on radiation, and on the large-scale structure of the universe. Dark matter has not been detected directly, making it one of the greatest mysteries in modern ."

Let's play with this just a bit to see how a Christian might meme this:

God is a hyperthetical kind of being that cannot be seen with telescopes but accounts for all of the matter in the . The existence and properties of God are inferred from its effects on the human intellect, emotions and will, and on the finely-tuned design of the universe. God has been detected directly in the form of His incarnate Son and Holy Spirit, making the Holy Trinity one of the greatest mysteries in modern theology.

I'll illustrate the difference between dark matter and your imaginary friend yhwh using the concept of luminiferous aether (I was going to use phlogiston, but the aether is more aesthetically pleasing). The concept of luminiferous aether was current in science to explain outer space and how light traveled from the sun to us until well into the 19th century. Once it was shown that luminiferous aether was non-existent (through the Michelson-Morley experiment) it was dropped, and better theories of outer space and what light was were developed which massively increased our understanding of the universe (for example Relativity). Essentially the aether was a means to explain a group of phenomena that scientists hadn't gotten a handle on at that stage and was dropped when understanding and knowledge improved.

Now it may turn that dark matter is the 21st century luminiferous aether (scientists did posit it to explain something they don't quite understand after all). If that is the case it will be dropped as quickly and as easily as the luminiferous aether was, and substituted with something better.

On the other hand, you've got all the human concepts of god (for it is man who created god, not vice versa) which upon any objective examination of the facts can be shown to be false, and have been shown to be false. But, unlike the luminiferous aether these concepts have not been dropped, they have propogated and multiplied and impeded our understanding of reality.

You see, athrock that is the difference between us and you, when we are shown reality and have it explained to us, we drop the falsehoods quite readily and accept the reality. You on the other hand, deny the reality and hold on to the comfort blanket of the idea that god watches over you, and has made you special. But lets face it, we exist on a pale blue dot, there's no way we're special and we're probably not unique (considering the vastness of space, the amount of stars, and the amount of planets around those stars, and finally the sheer extent of time, I'd put money on some other creature out there having at least gotten as far as us at some stage in the 13odd bn years of existence), and it is preposterous that if there were a ultimate being out there it would find us the remote bit interesting, never mind so central to reality as to send part of itself to proselytise at us.