In reality, unanswered questions and "mysteries" are not good excuses to believe that we can "explain" events through supernatural, immaterial "causes" like gods, angels, spirits, etc. First, the absence of any other answer is, by itself, never enough to justify some answer. Second, even if we don't have a provable and unequivocal answer to a question, we may have clear and unassailable evidence that certain alleged answers can't be correct.
Stephen Law explains why admitting that the origin of the universe is a "mystery" does not concede anything to theism by offering an analogy:
Sherlock Holmes is having a bad day. There’s been a terrible murder. There are hundreds of suspects. And he just can’t figure out who dunnit.
However, while Holmes can’t say who the culprit is, he is quite sure that certain people are innocent. The butler, in particular, has a cast-iron alibi. So Holmes is rightly confident the butler didn’t do it, despite the fact that he doesn’t know who did.
In the same way, an atheist can admit that there is a mystery about why the universe exists, and that they are utterly baffled by it, while nevertheless insisting that there’s overwhelming evidence that, whoever or whatever created it (if anything) it certainly wasn’t the all-powerful, all-good God of Christian theology.
They can be as sure of that as they can be that it is not the creation of an all-powerful, all-evil God. For there is, in both cases, little evidence for and overwhelming evidence against (too much suffering, in the case of the good God; too much good in the case of the evil God)...
Don't make the mistake of supposing that, because there’s a deep mystery about why there is anything at all, that puts theism and atheism on an equally rational/irrational footing. It doesn’t.
What this means is that, even if the origin of the universe forever remains a mystery that we can't quite answer, this cannot create any sort of equivalency between disbelief in gods and belief in gods — or at least belief in certain types of gods. It must be conceded that not all religious theists believe in the "all-powerful, all-good God" of traditional Christian theology, but if they think that their god is a likely candidate for explaining something like the origin of the universe, then they are free to make their case. In doing so, they must accept the possibility that it can be demonstrated that their alleged god can't explain the universe, even if we don't have any provable alternatives to offer.
Good find, Austin.
i frequent am awed by the complexity and beauty of the world/universe, and also appalled by its ugliness and messiness. Neither of which requires the existence of invisible sky wizards.
They say “beauty is in the mind of the beholder”, and i think its true. Moreover, i think beauty IS the mind of the beholder. It is only what we think it is. It’s just a thought, a feeling. That’s not to say it is trivial, but rather that it is not a miracle. Life gave us a way to experience these things, perhaps to allow us some sanity.
Science/reality does not require your belief in it. It doesn’t ask for faith, only for your eyes. Scientific theorems can always be tested and is always open to modification as we learn more. Religion has no such feedback loop.
Doesn’t it betray a certain anxiety, even desperation, on the parts of the “faithers” that they seem to feel the need to pounce on every perceived opportunity to fill every gap, no matter how big or small, or of what duration, with their G/god(s)?
Sometimes they seem to be “certainty junkies”, people who have simply failed, or refused, to make their peace with our all too human condition of ambiguity, inconclusiveness, and provisional, imperfect understanding.
All of which would be fine if they’d just take a break from trying to pressure the rest of us into towing their lines!
Oceanic feelings seem to be part of being a mature person. Nothing has a patent on them, nor can anything really explain them so far. Even if they turned out to come from some sort of brain damage, I would still cherish them.
If it is hard to figure out how the universe came to be without God, how much more difficult is it to figure out where God came from?
I was gonna say the same thing as Lyle G. I never understand how “creationist” can’t see the universe beginning out of nothing, but as soon as they say god made the universe out of nothing it all makes sense to them!?
Then you ask them “What made god?” and they say something stupid like, “God has always been, and is “outside” of time and space.” also add that, “God can see all things and all time as in a blink of an eye.He is here now and a thousand years ago and a thousand years in the future all at the same time.?” or some such non-sense. Sounds like crazy talk to me.
Question: If everything is preordain (already happened) and god knows what everyone will ever do etc. Where is and how can we humans have freewill?
Chuck