11-Year-Old College Grad Wants to Pursue Astrophysics to Prove God’s Existence

[I_am_not_mafia]

Don't forget that orthodox dad is standing right there in his flowing robes. How could that not influence an 11 yr old's statement.

True. Maybe he's already an atheist but is manipulating his parents for funding.

[The Industrial Atheist]

Cue the Mental Gymnastics! Then...sadness.

[I_am_not_mafia]

Cue the Mental Gymnastics! Then...sadness.

Then lots of hard drugs, addiction, a life of crime and a violent death followed by being dumped into a canal.

[Brian37]

My friend's neighbor, in his neighborhood, has a super intelligent kid about 13 years old, egghead, and an atheist, but loves Trump and claims whites are being bullied in this country. So while theism is a problem, you can have parents whom indoctrinate their kids on politics too.

[Whateverist]

To be fair to him, he is only 11 and has obviously been raised in a religious household so has had no real chance to find out that his god does not exist.  He's probably got the same drive as many scientists, to understand the world and to make a big discovery but because of his upbringing this gets translated into something religious. After all, has he really had any need to question whether his understanding of reality is fundamentally flawed.

Saying that though ... if this kid is supposed to be ready to enter college, then even a rudimentary perusal of pop-science books on astrophysics will reveal just how large the universe is. Does he genuinely expect to look through a telescope and see Heaven? Or has he been inspired by some bullshit argument about fine tuning and thinks that he can prove this. Moving from an arts education to astrophysics is tough for anyone, yet alone an 11 year old.

He'll soon crash and burn and will need to pick himself up again. If not then he'll be introduced to the scientific method and critical thinking skills which means his religious belief will quickly fall away. And that will be painful.

Well said.  Even the kid whose father manipulated him into describing going to heaven and meeting God during a 'NDE' recanted when his brain had matured a bit.  I expect we could see some more of that in this case.

[brewer]

Cue the Mental Gymnastics! Then...sadness.

Then lots of hard drugs, addiction, a life of crime and a violent death followed by being dumped into a canal.

I'm thinking bad gigolo with the come on line "Want to see my assteroids?".

[Crossless2.0]

Cue the Mental Gymnastics! Then...sadness.

Then lots of hard drugs, addiction, a life of crime and a violent death followed by being dumped into a canal.

You left out the hundreds of sad back alley hand- and blow-jobs (it goes between 'addiction' and 'a life of crime').

It's that, or he finds a niche market peddling his "proofs" in books and on the conservative Protestant paid lecture circuit. A little apostacy (from his father's perspective) and some spit and polish courtesy of the William Lane Craig playbook, and he might be able to make a nice chunk of change, assuming he hasn't by then figured out that science isn't in the business of supplying such proofs or he is too shameless to care.

I hope he becomes a great astrophysicist, who does groundbreaking work and leaves pandering to the idiots to other people.

[Minimalist]

OP: The programming is strong in this one.

Somebody, quick, find him a 14 year old girl!

Better yet, teach him what his right hand is for.

[brewer]

OP: The programming is strong in this one.

Somebody, quick, find him a 14 year old girl!

Better yet, teach him what his right hand is for.

Incel in training?

[LastPoet]

He's 11 now. $100 says he'll be an atheist by the time he's done with astrophysics.

There is also the possibility that his upbringing will make him desist astrophysics and embrace theology instead.

At any rate, he is bright. Lets hope his young mind is able to be emotionally stable.

Other than that, I don't like gambling :-P