(April 8, 2025 at 10:31 am)Drew_2013 Wrote: I believe the universe was intentionally caused to exist by a being capable of doing so.
Is your reason for believing this a form of 'god has to exist'?
I do like the concept of a god that is a scientist, and for whom this universe is an experiment. This god would not care about us at all aside from our usefulness as data. This version of god would explain all of the questions theists have about the universe that they feel cannot be explained without a god, while also explaining why such a being shows no interest in us whatsoever.
I don't believe in this god, for the same reason I don't believe in any other: there's no evidence in favor of it. The closest I can get is the 'god has to exist' approach, where gaps in our knowledge and understanding (and more accurately, gaps in MY knowledge and understanding) still have enough room to fit whatever fantasy I can cram into it. Is this also your dilemma, or do you have something more that gives you reason to believe?
"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
