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Why I Believe
It seems to me that these days, people equate a belief in a deity with stupidness. It is implied that all the smart people do not believe in a God. In an interview, Richard Dawkins (a major proponent of atheism) said that if you believe in God you are ignorant or stupid. Is this true? Let's start with me. I have a GPA of 4.0, am taking an advanced math class, and am writing an article on Teen Ink. Am I stupid? Few would say that Isaac Newton is stupid, and he surely wasn't ignorant. Yet he believed in God, and even more he was inspired by him. The same goes for Johannes Kepler, Galileo, and many more. These people are all extremely smart, yet they believed in a God. Therefore, I do not believe that just because you have faith in a deity you are stupid; just as it is ridiculous to assume that all atheists are stupid for NOT believing. So why do I believe? If you were walking through the woods, and came across a pocket watch lying on the floor of the forest, what would you assume? I would assume that someone had dropped it, but would you be bold enough to say that it just came to be, and that it had no creator, no initial place of origin? Human beings are thousands of times more complex than the most complex watch. We have millions of neurons, more storage space than a computer, an engine that keeps us alive on something other than gasoline. Not only are we highly complex, but we are also living a perfectly designed house, made just for us! It is just the right distance from the sun, our moon is just the right distance away to influence the tides, we have layers of atmosphere, each designed to block a specific harmful radiation from the sun. And to say that all this happened by chance, would be more stupid than saying it happened by chance. And you know what? Even when I die, and find out that there IS no God, there will be no loss. I won't even have a chance to realize that I was taken in. Deceived. But if I die and DON'T believe in God; well, that's another story.
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This article has 8 comments.
Oh, and, as to Dawkins, here's my opinion of him as an agnostic atheist myself:
He's a fantastic promoter of the science of evolution. He is, however, a terrible promoter of atheism, and does not represent the non-religious at large. Most of us just want to be left alone by our governments and those who would discriminate against us. Most of us are non-theists, not anti-theists.
Mind talking with an atheist that doesn't think you're stupid, but finds your arguments flawed? If that's not fine, don't bother continuing. I find the argument of intelligent design a false one. Here is why:
The very idea of it is presumptuous. I already have knowledge that a watch has been designed and created. In fact, if I worked hard enough, I could probably find the person or at least the company that made it. I can't do that with god. There's no information, no telephone number, no imprint of a name, no way form of verification. The very argument of creation needing a creator assumes a creator the moment it perceives the subject as created. The conclusion is reached before the argument even begins.
That is not to jump to say "well, if someone didn't create it, then it happened by chance". I don't believe that, but I certainly don't believe in god. Everything I know about the universe is that it is systematic. It is, as you have stated complex. It has laws, which we do not create, we simply observe. A basic understanding of mathematics tells me that one variable in addition of another variable will always come to the same end result if the variables are exactly the same as they were the last time. If this is so, why would anyone believe in chance? I believe I, and the rest of this world, and the future, are/will be the end result of variables. I am as tall as I am because of my genetics, my habits, and my environment. My personality is as it is, because of the environment I was raised in, the way I was raised, and the things and people I have experienced. If I were to relive my life the exact same way over and over, I, at this moment, would be exactly the same as I had been.
Was the world designed for us? Is the world just right for us, or are we just right for the world? The prior seems like backward thinking to me. It is no miracle to me that we exist, when the conditions were met that we should. As I understand your thinking, you see the equation as 2=1+1, or, rather Humanity=Sun+Earth+Est. Instead, I see it the other way around. 1+1=2. The conditions resulted in humanity, instead of the conditions being specifically carved out to fit human need.
Everything from the beginning(the beginning, being a very mysterious thing, of which we are still continuing to discover and study) did not happen by chance. Rather, a simple chain of events, just as everything else in life. I don't think "Wow, god's amazing and magnificent for making this canyon." I think "Wow, I wonder what caused this canyon? Continental shift, earthquakes, decay of structure from a pre-existing massive river? That must've taken a lot of energy and time... that's just astounding."
As to your other position, your position on the end of your life, it's really quite a fallacious wager. One that actually has a specific name and has been used for centuries in fact! Pascal's Wager. A single large stain on a good mathematician and philosopher's name, Pascal's Wager proposes as yours does, that not believing in god has the danger of hell, whereas believing in god has no danger if god does not exist. It assumes that the only two variables are "A god" or "no god". What of other gods? You may find yourself in Islamic hell for being a Christian instead of a Muslim. What of Tartarus? Will Hades treat you well for not believing in he and his siblings on Mount Olympus? Will Odin have mercy? What of Shiva? Will you be reincarnated well as a result of Christianity? Or, maybe you'll be punished by a deity has not revealed itself and that no one has ever spoken of. Who knows? Who should I believe? With so many different eternities of everlasting torment to choose from, my mind is boggled. So, I'd rather believe based on a logical conclusion, rather than the emotional restraint of fear. That's just me though.
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Favorite Quote:
Blegh. - Abraham Lincoln
I don't think you're talking to me, but I'll reply anyway...
Then why is it that UV rays are harmful at all? If anything, they should be beneficial. Everything should be beneficial, because we should be adapted to take the most advantage of our resources. Life should not be "sheltering" itself from harm, so to speak -- there shouldn't be harm at all, because we are adaptations.
PS: Could you use paragraphs? I mean this is the nicest way possible, but the huge blob is hurting my eyes. No offence.