As I have mentioned, there is not only no evidence that supports the god hypothesis, there are also significant indicia of falsehood that come with the notion and its presentation by its advocates. It is a good idea to know what they are:
1. Faith is the single biggest indicator that the whole thing is false. Propositions supported by facts and logic don't require faith. Religion does.
2. Bad logic. The arguments used to support the notion are always logically invalid or unsound--often both. Particularly telling is the constant presence of bullying.
3. The proposition is quite extraordinary. An invisible being? With infinite magic powers? Really?!! The more extraordinary the proposition the greater the burden of proof. The existence of unicorns is a most extraordinary proposition. The existence of a being capable of creating a universe is an even greater one. In fact, I would say that unicorns are much more likely. After all, horses and their numerous relatives exist in fact, as do animals with horns. There is no question that the category of creatures into which unicorns would be grouped does exist. Supernatural beings, on the other hand, have never been shown to exist in any form.
4. Believers not only use bad logic, they use two standards of proof--one for their favorite god hypothesis and another for all other supernatural propositions. This indicates intellectual dishonesty and outright delusion. It robs both believers and their belief of credibility.
5. Past experience with such hypotheses that were proposed to explain something that could not be explained with science shows that such hypotheses have ALWAYS turned out to be fanciful myths once the actual, natural explanation is found. There is no reason to think this line of reasoning, which has always proven false in the past, will suddenly be proven correct in one of the cases yet to be disproven. That reasoning has been shown to be invalid, yet it is the best argument believers have.
6. Past experiences with other religions that even today's believers recognize as false, such as Thor or Osiris. So many false gods suggests that they are all false.
7. Past experience with the force so often used to convert others, and present experience with the bullying used to silence critics and those who disagree as well as the efforts to cover up what they have done in that regard.
8. Present experiences with formations of new religions. They are all the obvious creations of immoral, disturbed charlatans who are seeking to control others to get money or sex or both. The age of a religion doesn't immunize it from having had similar origins. In fact, it makes it more likely because the conditions and standards in the distant past were so much more lax. There was little or no science. Almost everyone lived in a world of myth. Their minds knew little else. There was no mass media with cameras and recording devices to record and report the charlatan's slip-ups. There was no mass communication to report the ludicrous nature of the cult's beliefs to the whole world before it had a chance to smooth away the rough edges and re-package what it had to say. There were almost no notions of mental illness. Schizophrenics who heard voices could easily have been taken seriously--which may explain the presence of "prophets" in ancient writings.
9. The holy writings of the various religions are clearly the work of people with the knowledge of bronze age tribesmen. There are numerous inaccuracies and clear instances of primitive ignorance. Furthermore, they steal their plot lines from earlier writers--just like any other fiction writer.
10. The universe does not show the slightest sign of any design or deity. A theologian once asked a famous naturalist what his study of the creatures of nature revealed about the almighty. The reply: "An extraordinary fondness for beetles." Meaning that since there are so many of beetles and so many species of them, then the almighty must be very fond of them. Could it be that beetles are in fact the "chosen ones"? The more likely explanation is that there is no design or choosing, just nature running its course like a mindless stream.
11. God as an explanatory model is no more useful or valid than saying "magic". Resorting to it serves only to sweep the questions behind an unnecessarily complicating additional layer of mystery. We had mystery enough already, thank you.
No comments:
Post a Comment