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for Can Science and Religion Mix?

3/17/2013 c1 5galileogalilei
I'll just go on right off. In religions, it's generally 'nothing exists until X makes it exist'. That's true. Please tell me, how exactly is the Christian seven days of creation ANYHOW symbolic of the Big Bang?

The Big Bang was a singular moment in time. One instant. Less than a second, less than a nanosecond, less than Plank Time. Not even a real explosion, just the sudden moment where the universe began. The incredible inflation that followed less than a second after is separate.

Even the nature of the Big Bang itself is hardly understood. The Singularity theory, of all matter being packed up and suddenly expanding, is only a hypothesis. Physicists wind back the clock of the universe towards the Big Bang, but have never actually gotten there.

There's a certain point going back(About a plank-time after the Big Bang) where the level of energies involved is so high that we need laws of physics to explain it that we have yet to discover. It's essentially putting a first grader infront of a Calculus problem. They just don't have the tools to solve it, just as we don't YET have the tools to solve that. Also, the Big Crunch theory is really just a guess, a seemingly unlikely one at that, so no point talking about it. There's also the Big Chill, where the universe expands forever, the Big Rip, and so on. There's an experiment being prepared to figure out which it'll be, just wait for those results to come in.

Even if the oscillating universe theory was true, WHY would that ever point to there being a Supreme Being? We are Sentience Chauvinists - we are sentient, we do things, so we instantly assume that for anything to happen, something sentient must be behind it. An arrogant and close-minded view.

I can say beyond a reasonable doubt that, when we die, we blink out. Poof. End of the line. Our minds are never truly inactive because of the signals passing through our brain. When you die, those signals just stop. It's been proven that when the signals are impaired, sentience is impaired, so logically must conclude that when those signals stop, sentience stops.

Your logic about the infinite past is nothing short of erroneous. You say that, since time extends back infinitely, it means a Supreme Being MUST have started it. I'm sorry, but started INFINITY? You can't start infinite by its very nature. It's simply impossible. Then, what? Did that Supreme Being exist for the eternity before? Where did they come from? Or maybe that infinite string of universes(Also not proven) just... existed for the eternity before? Like you're claiming a Supreme Being would have?

'Why does everything exist in the first place?'. Why is anything anything? Our mission as a species is complex. At our bases, most biological level, our only purpose is to reproduce. Nothing more. Doesn't matter how, just reproduce. However, thanks to our sentience, we can GIVE ourselves any other purpose. Our purpose as a species is what we say it is.

'Somehow we know what's good and what's bad'. That can actually be explained scientifically. Not enough time on my hands to write it out, so I'll simply steer you towards the book The Selfish Gene. It explains it better than I ever could.

TL;DR?

The Big Bang isn't yet well understood, the Big Crunch isn't proven, alternate universes aren't proven, saying a Supreme Being existed at the beginning of an infinite past is paradoxical, when you die you /die/, our purpose is what we say it is, and evolution can accurately explain all our personalities.

Good night, and pleasant dreams.
9/11/2003 c1 127godawful teen-angst poetry
I've been wanting to write something similar to this for a while now...I'm roman catholic, as well, and yeah, I don't see any reason why science and religion must be mutually exclusive. Both leave plenty of room for interpretation, and are such abstract ideals that they can easily be mixed. I like your style, you expressed all of this very eloquently. A very nice piece, all in all.

~lyv
9/8/2003 c1 4valisol
I can actually kinda hear you youself reading this in my mind... because it souds so much like what you'd say... hehe
5/22/2003 c1 28Arayuldawen
I totally believe you. I am Catholic, and I believe in many scientific things, such as evolution. You have some very good points. I have never heard of the Big Crunch Theory, ya learn something new everyday ^_^

~Arayuldawen~
5/8/2003 c1 Cardassia
A really clear and interesting essay that puts across your point well. Personally I'm a Christian and I believe that God made the Big Bang happen, also that the six/seven days it took to make the world are symbolic as well. Our RS class at school was drawing out the scientific and religious views to the beginning of the world and its surprising how similar they are.
5/7/2003 c1 64not sure yet
very very interesting, a topic that is always in constant debate but so far ive found that science allows for religion completely and it also allows for none and really has nothing to do with it in many senses, like how you left the decision up to the reader and made some strong solid points that i found interesting, anywayz, excellent job
5/7/2003 c1 28ChaoxAngel
We all strive to understand our origins, and all these can be derived as a part of that process. I stay on the neutral side of thinking, as we humans living in this dimension would never know whose' school of thinking is the actual way in which we existed.

Meanwhile, you've brought up a good argument here, I hope to read more of this from you.

~DW
5/7/2003 c1 15Radyn
I think you made a decent argument in favor of the universe being started by a "Supreme Being".

However, I disagree with the quote:

"Why does everything exist in the first place? It all goes back to religion. We must be in harmony with everyone else, and be good, or else the world will be destroyed somehow."

Why does it have to go back to religion? Is that the only possible explanation for the apparent state of harmony in the universe? Just because there is a religion does not mean there will be order. Only if the people sufficiently believe in the religion, then there it will have an impact on their lives. Religion exists only if people want it to; otherwise there would be no basis in it.

And I also agree with Loganberry. Human consciousness does not allow us to truly experience the past. So is it really all right to assume that there was a God who waved his hand in a random fashion and thus created everything? In my opinion, the past only truly exists during the human timespan. Because are able to create the physical representation of "history", the past as we know it is written according to our own perspective. We cannot ever know what happened during the countless aeons from the Big Bang to the first human. All we can do is make theories and hypotheses about the past.
5/7/2003 c1 jk-89
i would like to point ou that evolution is as much a theory as creationism. And no they don;t mix. If you are Christian, then you believe that God creted Adam, do you not? He and Eve then 'fell' to earht. They did not evolve form some primitive species. that is totally agianst what the Bible says.

And it is very fallicious to interpret the Bible according to your own opinion. The only people allowed to that are scholars. And they say that the Bible definetley states the world was created in literally six days. That in itself is false, so I think that pehaps the Bible is not really the word of God.
5/7/2003 c1 27Loganberry
Yes, I can understand this. You're saying that evolution etc did happen, but that the whole process was set in motion at the "beginning" by a Supreme Being.

The only part I would disagree with is the implication that because we don't know what happened in the far distant past, there must therefore have been a Creator. It's one viewpoint, but not the only one. For myself as an atheist, I don't know, but can't see how it could have been caused by God.

Clear and readable writing, which puts your case well.

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