-It would be nice to have a magic friend in the sky.
-Einstein called him the 'old one' not the 'good one'.
Types of religion
-closed source: scientology
-shared source: islam
-open source: unitarianism
The two types of atheist
-God is more likely to exist than Santa Claus
-God is less likely to exist than Santa Claus
1. The practice of religion
It's time for the thinking portion of humanity (or at least the minority
which inhabits a region where it's safe to do so) to publicly admit
there is no evidence any known religion is even slightly true, and in
fact they all appear to be made up out of whole cloth. While the
universe is ridiculously complex, it could theoretically have appeared
or evolved by chance. The required statistics may be mind-blowing, but
that's inevitable with a system this large.
The biggest mystery about God (and perhaps the best remaining evidence
such as it is) is why there are so many believers for no known reason.
Religion has to be useful in some way.
Apparently, folks desire to believe in something bigger or higher than
themselves. They want to submit to an authority figure within limits.
Other drives are loyalty to peers, and the desire to accumulate status.
People can sense these urges directly, as if the universe is suffused
with magical forces. In this sense God is part of the brain.
Once life settles down to a steady routine, they also want to feel like
major elements of some ultimate plan. Religious texts helpfully explain
that humans are indeed the prime purpose of the universe, with a very
special future reserved for those who accept this truth and no other.
Further details are unnecessary.
Incredibly, religious people don't even care about the implications of
their beliefs. Most religions have a wonderful vision of the believers'
universe. What matters is that it 'feels right' on a simple level. It's
what they want right now: a tool to stop thought. They don't want to
worry about unsolvable problems anymore.
Prayer is a real phenomenon with measurable effects. Worshippers may be contacting a usually dormant part of themselves.
The most important reason for religion is denial: reality is actually
extremely horrific. The truth about existence would be fundamentally
unbearable, or at best meaningless.
There might be a market for a new religion: the church of the Unrevealed God. It would start by admitting all the core problems.
This
church would invent and abandon theories whenever a better one came
along, with no unalterable beliefs, except the goal to avoid all
versions of hell. It would attempt to approach the truth by any means
possible.
Members could choose to worship the highest entity or philosophical
principle in existence without knowing what it was. It could be
something meaningless to humans. A 'highest' principle may not exist,
since it's always possible to imagine something even bigger.
Perhaps members would worship the 'highest applicable aspiration' instead.
It
would still probably be pointless. There's no reason to think some
ultimate intelligence could consistently interact with our level of
reality, one of the lowest imaginable.
Could such a vague religion ever be justified, or become something more than feel-good wishful thinking?
The only way humanity could meaningfully interact with a supreme mind might be to try to become one.
2. The limits of logic
According to the most extreme philosophers (Wolfram, Hofstadter, Kurzweil), reality is math.
Everything we can and can't perceive is made of numbers. There is no highest number.
That means there are infinitely many other universes more complicated than ours, and endless hierarchies of minds.
There will be many aliens more advanced than humans, and other beings still more advanced than them, and so on forever.
Some
incredibly advanced entities must exist out there! To us, they would
appear godlike in every way. Because of complex statistical reasons,
they apparently can't influence events here, but their existence would
be just as incredible as the tenets of any religion.
Of course, the above hypothesis may also be just as crazy as any
religion. Philosophers will claim that if we can't detect these other
minds, they effectively don't exist.
All known systems can be organized, and that may also be the case for reality as a whole.
Reality could have natural or implicit organizing rules. Though it seems
like maximum static, it may have a simplified or embedded description.
The
sum of all complex systems might have a mathematical limit or certain
preferred outcomes. This could be interpreted as some ultimate force
controlling all reality.
If human minds can be described as equations, they may have logical
solutions. Our existence may be unusually typical, placing us near the
center or origin of reality.
People whose minds aren't cluttered with rigid rules are better able to
perform basic Bayesian calculations, and are therefore able to see
certain universal truths. Religious feelings or hallucinations may
reflect some simple average of the subconscious drives of all minds.
When any system becomes large and complex enough, it can be considered a form of intelligence. There is no larger system than everything, though no one knows whether reality is a smooth continuum.
The preceding theories are of course very unlikely, if not outright absurd.
It's
also unclear how any godlike entity could be omnipotent, though it
would be easy for such a mind to know every last detail about smaller,
simpler systems such as ourselves. It would have so many possible states
that it's hard to imagine how it could ever become organized, let alone
perfect in every possible way; the traditional interpretation of God.
Most possible minds should be infinitely chaotic instead.
Primitive humans only need a finite deity anyway. All our ethical and
material aspirations could easily be resolved by some entity with
immense but still limited powers.
One or more infinite entities may inhabit the outer edge of existence, but wouldn't remotely resemble our ideas of God.
The other approach hasn't been tried much. Could we create a negative proof?
Infinity
is a strange concept. There can never be a most advanced entity. Some
other being, even smarter and more powerful, must always exist.
Therefore, the most advanced being (God) is logically impossible.
The preceding argument doesn't seem quite radical enough.
There is perhaps one way the existence of God could be detected.
The
novel 'Cosmos' by Carl Sagan ends with a great discovery that should
have been part of the movie, but the producers went for easy
sentimentality instead.
In the book, humans and aliens discover the creator of this universe has
left a message inside the number Pi, and in many other numbers and
functions. That would be infinitely difficult to do, equivalent to making 1+1=3!
Any
being capable of transcending the laws of logic could reasonably claim
to be God, at least as far as we could ever hope to tell.
3. The ultimate test
Many 'holy' books are thousands of years old. They describe direct
interactions between people and various supernatural entities that
aren't taking messages nowadays, but appeared both accessible and
predictable in the past.
The tales are told in excessively formal language describing excessively
simple concepts, suitable for children and adults alike.
Science has come far in many ways. In order to keep believing in
religion, mankind has the right to demand some sort of proof of God's
existence. It doesn't have to be specific, but should be clear and
unmistakable.
It's time for a direct challenge to God!
The challenge could be met by having God perform one undeniable miracle
that the whole world could see, or at least a phenomenon that the
world's scientists couldn't explain, thereby providing definite proof of
a greater power, even if we can't begin to fathom it. God, if there was
such an entity, could easily send one unmistakable signal. At this
point, it's the least we could ask for. Unless of course he doesn't exist (which he almost certainly doesn't).
God
should turn around the moon, while keeping it in its present position
in its orbit. Simply reverse the side that faces Earth. It would not
affect the tides, and the moon would still look similar, perhaps more
granular and slightly less bright, but migratory birds would not be
affected.
There are several ways to do this: by simply bringing forward the side
that permanently faces away from Earth, or by flipping the poles and the
direction of rotation. Just flipping the direction of rotation would
cause tidal stresses in the moon that would take millions of years to
subside.
The world's scientists would be utterly unable to explain such an event. If nothing else, they would know without a shadow of a doubt that a greater being exists.
This
event should convince those people who currently are the biggest
doubters. Some of the most religious people, on the other hand, might
suspect it was just a natural occurrence. They would not be particularly
impressed; but they don't need any further proof of God's existence. Their faith would not be affected.
If there's no miracle, we can take it as final confirmation that God doesn't exist: unambiguous consent to stop worshipping him.
It's been over two years since my initial public challenge to God.
So far, there's been no response, but who knows, it could only be a matter of only a few seconds now.
If something does happen, the atheists will have been proven wrong, and they should frankly admit it at once.
The wait continues. Look up at the sky!
Be the first to read Infinite Thunder by Jack Arcalon.
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