One of the more popular arguments for the existence of God used by theists is that the universe is finely tuned for life, and only God could have done it.
Over the past couple of decades it has become apparent to astronomers, physicists and cosmologists that if many of the constants of nature (e.g., gravitational constant, expansion rate of the universe, etc.) were just a hair's breath different, then our universe and life would not exist. This much is true. In fact, if the expansion rate of the universe was slower or faster than just 1 part in 10 to the 55th power (10^55), our universe would not exist as we know it. Astronomer Hugh Ross lists over 100 of these variables that need to be similarly fine tuned for us to exist, and he estimates the probability that all of them fall in the narrow window for life is on the order of 1 chance in 10^1050. Needless to say this number is extremely small, in fact it's almost zero.
Theists have jumped on this discovery and argue the only way to overcome that low probability is if God designed our universe and that it could not happen naturally by chance because the odds are too low. This is known as the teleological argument from fine tuning, or commonly called the fine tuning argument (FTA). The formal logic for the FTA is as follows:
Premise 1: The fine tuning of the physical constants of the universe is due to either physical necessity, random chance, or intelligent design (God).
Premise 2: The fine tuning is not due to physical necessity or random chance.
Conclusion: The fine tuning is due to intelligent design.
Over the next few posts I'll be pecking away at this argument. For starters, I tend to hate these types of "negation" arguments, for the lack of a better term. These are arguments where the proponent lists several possibilities, eliminates all but one of the possibilities, and thereby concludes it must be due to the remaining choice. These are weak arguments in general because it's easy to leave out a potential contending choice from the first premise and no positive evidence is provided for the remaining option.
To see how this is the case, consider the following example. Suppose you work in a bank and at the end of the day the manager discovers a shortage of $1000 cash. The manager searches all the employees and their belongings except for you. Since none of the other employees has the money the manager concludes you must have stolen the money and has you arrested. He doesn't provide any direct evidence that you took the money. No video surveillance tapes were checked to see if you stole the money. The manager didn't search you for the cash either. No, he just concluded that because nobody else had taken the money it must be you who took the loot.
The FTA has the same weakness. No direct evidence is provided that God performed the fine tuning of the constants. No documents are provided exactly how God performed this fine tuning. No video tape evidence is provided discussing with God whether he fine tuned our universe for life. Rather it just eliminates the other contenders leaving God as the remaining option, and as indicated above already, it's all too easy to leave out potential contending choices out of the first premise. For example, in the bank situation, instead of concluding that one of the employees stole the money maybe the wrong change was given to a customer, maybe the manager miscounted the money, or perhaps the money was misplaced somewhere else in the bank.
In the next installment of You Can't Tuna Universe I'll pick apart the premises in the FTA more specifically, and will provide an alternative possibility for the fine tuning of the constants omitted by theists. I'll also provide examples of how our weather must be controlled by God if we are to conclude that our universe was designed by God, so stay tuned!!
Tuesday, December 31, 2013
Monday, December 23, 2013
Twas the Night Before Christmas
Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a God.
Well, that's my rendition of the poem anyway, but it leads into the topic of my next post. Over the next couple of days millions of Americans will attend church to honor the birth of Christ, sing some songs and say a few prayers. However did you ever really think about whether God can hear you pray? Let's find out.
If God really does exist and let's say that he lives in heaven which is located outside our known universe, then how could he possibly hear our prayers? Even if our sound waves could travel across the universe (they don't) then it would take roughly 10,000,000,000,000,000 years for your prayer to reach God traveling at the speed of sound, and that's likely a gross understatement since the universe is constantly expanding. So you would long be dead and decayed by the time God got to hear your prayer.
If it's argued that God exists closer to earth, say outside the earth's atmosphere somewhere else within our universe, well there would be another problem. There is no such thing as sound in empty space. Set off a firecracker in empty space it would not make a noise. Sound requires a physical medium (air, ground). So there is no way an entity existing outside the earth's atmosphere could hear our prayers. Even if there was a way God could hear us pray from his location outside earth, there would be so much noise from everybody else talking that our prayers would be drowned out by all the excess commotion, kind of like trying to listen to someone talk when a loud band is playing at a bar and others are singing.
If it's argued that God is here on earth all around us, well I'm not buying that either. We know the weight of the earth's atmosphere and its composition precisely. God = energy and energy = mass (remember Einstein's equation E = M * C^2). If God was all around us then there would be excess mass in our atmosphere that is unaccounted for. However, that is not the case since we can account for every micro-gram. Therefore, God can not be all around us either. Moreover, if he was all around us here on Earth then there would be other issues like why would he let millions of innocent children starve each year, but that's another post for another time.
So really, there is no physical way God can hear our prayers even if God existed. However, if it can be shown that there is power in prayer, then maybe God has a way that we just can't explain with known physics just yet. So let's see if praying really works, after all Jesus said in Matthew [21:22] that "Whatever you ask for in prayer with faith, you will receive." So let's see if Jesus is telling the truth.
First we can look at scientific studies, like that performed by the Cochrane Collaboration Group, who in 2010 performed a meta-analysis of all peer-reviewed medical trials to determine the effects of prayer on people with health problems. Their results showed that praying had no effect on the death rates or recovery rates of patients who had serious medical issues. What was more shocking was the authors suggestion that no further money be spent on determining the effectiveness of prayer ever again.
So where else can we look to see if prayer works. How about Professor William Lane Craig? He is one of the world's foremost Christian apologists and has probably debated in favor of the existence of God over a hundred times. What is interesting is that in all of his debates, not once did he use the power of prayer as evidence for the existence of God. If prayer really worked, he'd be all over it like a fly to honey using it to his debating advantage for sure. The fact he is silent on the subject of the prayer in his debates is telling.
There is one sure way you can find out whether prayer is effective. Simply pray that none of our military troops will be killed in battle in the middle East and pray that no Christians will ever get killed again by a natural disaster like a tornado, hurricane or lightning. You know neither of those prayers will ever come true even if they were blessed by the Pope.
For those who still believe the power of prayer despite the evidence against, then here's a simple challenge. If you really believe that God answers prayers, then there should be no need to carry health insurance, life insurance and homeowners insurance. Just think of how much money you can save through the power or prayer. Of course no sane person would do this because they know deep down praying has no impact on anything that happens on this planet.
In summary, there's no physical way God can can hear our prayers and there's no evidence that God is answering our prayers, contrary to the words of Jesus. So I say skip the church, skip the prayers, save the time, save the donation money and don't worship a liar and a fraud, even on Christmas.
Not a creature was stirring, not even a God.
Well, that's my rendition of the poem anyway, but it leads into the topic of my next post. Over the next couple of days millions of Americans will attend church to honor the birth of Christ, sing some songs and say a few prayers. However did you ever really think about whether God can hear you pray? Let's find out.
If God really does exist and let's say that he lives in heaven which is located outside our known universe, then how could he possibly hear our prayers? Even if our sound waves could travel across the universe (they don't) then it would take roughly 10,000,000,000,000,000 years for your prayer to reach God traveling at the speed of sound, and that's likely a gross understatement since the universe is constantly expanding. So you would long be dead and decayed by the time God got to hear your prayer.
If it's argued that God exists closer to earth, say outside the earth's atmosphere somewhere else within our universe, well there would be another problem. There is no such thing as sound in empty space. Set off a firecracker in empty space it would not make a noise. Sound requires a physical medium (air, ground). So there is no way an entity existing outside the earth's atmosphere could hear our prayers. Even if there was a way God could hear us pray from his location outside earth, there would be so much noise from everybody else talking that our prayers would be drowned out by all the excess commotion, kind of like trying to listen to someone talk when a loud band is playing at a bar and others are singing.
If it's argued that God is here on earth all around us, well I'm not buying that either. We know the weight of the earth's atmosphere and its composition precisely. God = energy and energy = mass (remember Einstein's equation E = M * C^2). If God was all around us then there would be excess mass in our atmosphere that is unaccounted for. However, that is not the case since we can account for every micro-gram. Therefore, God can not be all around us either. Moreover, if he was all around us here on Earth then there would be other issues like why would he let millions of innocent children starve each year, but that's another post for another time.
So really, there is no physical way God can hear our prayers even if God existed. However, if it can be shown that there is power in prayer, then maybe God has a way that we just can't explain with known physics just yet. So let's see if praying really works, after all Jesus said in Matthew [21:22] that "Whatever you ask for in prayer with faith, you will receive." So let's see if Jesus is telling the truth.
First we can look at scientific studies, like that performed by the Cochrane Collaboration Group, who in 2010 performed a meta-analysis of all peer-reviewed medical trials to determine the effects of prayer on people with health problems. Their results showed that praying had no effect on the death rates or recovery rates of patients who had serious medical issues. What was more shocking was the authors suggestion that no further money be spent on determining the effectiveness of prayer ever again.
So where else can we look to see if prayer works. How about Professor William Lane Craig? He is one of the world's foremost Christian apologists and has probably debated in favor of the existence of God over a hundred times. What is interesting is that in all of his debates, not once did he use the power of prayer as evidence for the existence of God. If prayer really worked, he'd be all over it like a fly to honey using it to his debating advantage for sure. The fact he is silent on the subject of the prayer in his debates is telling.
There is one sure way you can find out whether prayer is effective. Simply pray that none of our military troops will be killed in battle in the middle East and pray that no Christians will ever get killed again by a natural disaster like a tornado, hurricane or lightning. You know neither of those prayers will ever come true even if they were blessed by the Pope.
For those who still believe the power of prayer despite the evidence against, then here's a simple challenge. If you really believe that God answers prayers, then there should be no need to carry health insurance, life insurance and homeowners insurance. Just think of how much money you can save through the power or prayer. Of course no sane person would do this because they know deep down praying has no impact on anything that happens on this planet.
In summary, there's no physical way God can can hear our prayers and there's no evidence that God is answering our prayers, contrary to the words of Jesus. So I say skip the church, skip the prayers, save the time, save the donation money and don't worship a liar and a fraud, even on Christmas.
Saturday, December 14, 2013
'Tis the Season
Well it's the holiday season, and this December 25th over 250 million Americans will celebrate Christmas. But does anybody research why so many celebrate Christmas? Well duh, it's to celebrate the birth of Jesus of course. Yeah I get that part, and for the moment I'll suspend discussion about whether Jesus was really born on December 25th (the evidence in the Bible points otherwise). But back to the previous question, why do so many celebrate the birth of Jesus? Let's look at some popular responses more critically.
1) Jesus was the son of God. Really? Where's the proof of that? Of course where's the proof that any God exists? There have been many impostors over the centuries claiming to be the son/daughter of God. Remember David Koresh of Waco, TX? He claimed to be the son of God and had 100+ followers, but of course nobody really believed he was the son of God (except those in the Waco compound). Joseph Smith (founder of the Mormon religion) was thought to be a prophet of God and to have been directed by an angel of God to a buried book of sacred golden plates in the 1800s; however today it's obvious he was a fraud yet there are still millions who practice Mormonism. So how do we really know the Biblical Jesus wasn't a similar crackpot who started with his own small legion of followers in Galilee, similar to what Koresh had in Waco or Smith had in Utah? The answer is we really don't know. The only "evidence" is from the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. However the Gospels weren't written by eyewitnesses or by followers of Jesus. They weren't even written by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John (the true authors were anonymous). They were written 30-60 years after Jesus' death and are based upon hearsay and rumors, which allows for embellishment and fabrication of history, and was followed by centuries of likely manipulation by the Church before we get to the copies we read today. Bottom line is the Gospels are not a reliable source of historical information and there is zero credible evidence that Jesus was the son of God. See my November post on the resurrection of Jesus for more insight.
2) The teachings of Jesus are brilliant. Really? I'm aware of all the passages which say that Jesus loves us and wants peace on earth which is all well and good, but are you aware of all the teachings of Jesus that priests don't reveal at Sunday mass? Well, here's a short list in blue font directly from Jesus's Sermon on the Mount [Matthew 5-7]:
3) Jesus died for our sins.
This one is the most sickening of all. Why should one person die to forgive another of their sins? I can not imagine a more stupid base for a religion than that. Does that mean I now have a free pass to commit as many sins as I want? Crazy. Why not just forgive someone's sins if they confess and the are sincere? Why does there have to be a killing too? What would you think of two parents if they killed their only son just to forgive their daughter of her sins? You would think the parents were nuts and a jury would probably sentence them to life in prison. See the contradiction? So you see this whole notion of blood sacrifice for atonement of sin is a pretty ridiculous concept. Moreover, I would rather spend my time worshiping our fallen military, who really made the ultimate sacrifice by giving up their lives so that we can enjoy the freedoms we have today.
Therefore upon deeper analysis I fail to see any compelling reason to worship the birth of Jesus.
1) Jesus was the son of God. Really? Where's the proof of that? Of course where's the proof that any God exists? There have been many impostors over the centuries claiming to be the son/daughter of God. Remember David Koresh of Waco, TX? He claimed to be the son of God and had 100+ followers, but of course nobody really believed he was the son of God (except those in the Waco compound). Joseph Smith (founder of the Mormon religion) was thought to be a prophet of God and to have been directed by an angel of God to a buried book of sacred golden plates in the 1800s; however today it's obvious he was a fraud yet there are still millions who practice Mormonism. So how do we really know the Biblical Jesus wasn't a similar crackpot who started with his own small legion of followers in Galilee, similar to what Koresh had in Waco or Smith had in Utah? The answer is we really don't know. The only "evidence" is from the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. However the Gospels weren't written by eyewitnesses or by followers of Jesus. They weren't even written by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John (the true authors were anonymous). They were written 30-60 years after Jesus' death and are based upon hearsay and rumors, which allows for embellishment and fabrication of history, and was followed by centuries of likely manipulation by the Church before we get to the copies we read today. Bottom line is the Gospels are not a reliable source of historical information and there is zero credible evidence that Jesus was the son of God. See my November post on the resurrection of Jesus for more insight.
2) The teachings of Jesus are brilliant. Really? I'm aware of all the passages which say that Jesus loves us and wants peace on earth which is all well and good, but are you aware of all the teachings of Jesus that priests don't reveal at Sunday mass? Well, here's a short list in blue font directly from Jesus's Sermon on the Mount [Matthew 5-7]:
- You shall not get angry with someone or call them an idiot or you will be judged. You shall not curse at anyone or you are in danger of going to hell. Really? So if some drunk driver kills the members of my family and I curse at the drunk I'm the one that goes to hell?
- If a man looks at a woman with lust he shall gouge out his eyeball and throw it away, otherwise he will be thrown in hell. Really? In that case you would think most of the male population would be walking around blind!
- A man is guilty of adultery if he marries a divorced woman. A woman is guilty of adultery if a man divorces his wife. The punishment? According to the Bible the punishment is death [Leviticus 20:10]. Gee, 50% of marriages end in divorce, and 80% of those divorced remarry. Wow, according to Jesus we should kill off a good chunk of our population.
- Do not resist an evil person. Really? If someone breaks into my house with the intention of doing harm I'm supposed to just let them? If a woman is about to be raped she should let them? If an evil dictator wants to start a war and invade the USA, we should just let them? Sorry but Jesus is an idiot, most rational people would fight back.
- If you are sued in court and lose, give them more than the judgment. Really? Bet the ambulance chasers are Christians, LOL.
- If someone asks for something then give it to them without question. Cool. Mr. Buffett, kindly send me a check for 10 million dollars!
- Love your enemies. Really? Never felt much love for Osama Bin Laden.
- Keep your gifts to charity private. Hmm, the IRS requests otherwise on Schedule A. Guess that also means goodbye to the Bill Gates Foundation, the Tiger Woods Foundation, and the Michael J. Fox Foundation.
- Do not pray where others can see you. Really? Then exactly why were churches built?
- Do not accumulate wealth on earth. Really? So what shall millions of Americans do with their IRAs?
- Do not worry about every day life - whether you have enough food and drink or enough clothes to wear. God will take care of that. Really? And how many millions of children starve to death each year on the planet?
- Do not plan for the future. Really? Sorry, but Jesus you're really an idiot.
- Do not judge others. Really? If a gang of obvious thugs is heading your way exactly how am I supposed to survive without judging others?
- Pray for something and you will receive what you ask for. This is very dangerous. Just ask the parents of sick children who ended up dead because their parents thought that praying was better than taking them to a hospital.
- If a town doesn't accept the words of Jesus, the town shall be destroyed in a manner worse than Sodom and Gomorrah [Matthew 10]. Oooh, now we're rolling. Guess we should kill off over half the world's population that doesn't follow Christianity.
- Children who speak disrespectfully of their parents must be put to death [Mark 7:10]. Wow, who would think Jesus would condone killing children.
- To get into heaven you must sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor [Mark 10:21]. Really? Maybe the Vatican can set an example and give all its net worth to the poor.
- Jesus says that slaves must obey orders from the master or face severe punishment [Luke 12:47]. Another example of outdated morality in the Bible.
- You can not be a disciple of Jesus unless you hate your father, mother, wife and children [Luke 14:26]. Wow, what a monster.
- People who don't believe in Jesus shall be thrown away like useless branches to be gathered into a pile and burned [John 15:6]. This passage served as impetus for the killings during the Inquisition.
3) Jesus died for our sins.
This one is the most sickening of all. Why should one person die to forgive another of their sins? I can not imagine a more stupid base for a religion than that. Does that mean I now have a free pass to commit as many sins as I want? Crazy. Why not just forgive someone's sins if they confess and the are sincere? Why does there have to be a killing too? What would you think of two parents if they killed their only son just to forgive their daughter of her sins? You would think the parents were nuts and a jury would probably sentence them to life in prison. See the contradiction? So you see this whole notion of blood sacrifice for atonement of sin is a pretty ridiculous concept. Moreover, I would rather spend my time worshiping our fallen military, who really made the ultimate sacrifice by giving up their lives so that we can enjoy the freedoms we have today.
Therefore upon deeper analysis I fail to see any compelling reason to worship the birth of Jesus.
Tuesday, December 10, 2013
The Problem of Miracles
One reason why the Bible is just not believable (besides all the blatant scientific errors it contains) is due to the endless number of miracle stories it says happened. Let me explain further with an analogy.
Suppose I was testifying in a courtroom murder trial as an eye-witness and I said that I saw the defendant shoot the victim. Now without knowing any other information you might have no reason to discard my account of the event and if you were on the jury you may even vote to convict the defendant based in part on my testimony.
However, let's say in the cross-examination the defense attorney asked me what I was doing earlier that morning before the murder. Suppose my response was "I went for a jog through the trail in the woods and I encountered a UFO hovering over a lake, and was then promptly abducted by the craft whereupon they did a brain transplant and teleported me back to earth with x-ray vision whereupon I could see through the walls of the apartment building that the defendant murdered the victim." Well, in that case you would probably ignore my testimony that I saw the defendant shot the victim. Why? Because my credibility was destroyed by the UFO miracle story.
So how does this relate to the Bible? Well, the Bible is littered with similar miracle stories that are totally unbelievable. What are some of these stories? Here's a brief list (believe me, there are many more ... really too many to list here in this blog):
Something to think about before putting money in the collection bin at church.
Suppose I was testifying in a courtroom murder trial as an eye-witness and I said that I saw the defendant shoot the victim. Now without knowing any other information you might have no reason to discard my account of the event and if you were on the jury you may even vote to convict the defendant based in part on my testimony.
However, let's say in the cross-examination the defense attorney asked me what I was doing earlier that morning before the murder. Suppose my response was "I went for a jog through the trail in the woods and I encountered a UFO hovering over a lake, and was then promptly abducted by the craft whereupon they did a brain transplant and teleported me back to earth with x-ray vision whereupon I could see through the walls of the apartment building that the defendant murdered the victim." Well, in that case you would probably ignore my testimony that I saw the defendant shot the victim. Why? Because my credibility was destroyed by the UFO miracle story.
So how does this relate to the Bible? Well, the Bible is littered with similar miracle stories that are totally unbelievable. What are some of these stories? Here's a brief list (believe me, there are many more ... really too many to list here in this blog):
- Virgin Birth [Matthew 1:18-25]. Virgin births are not observed in humans and if they were the product would likely be another female, not a male.
- Daniel & the Lion [Daniel 6]. Daniel was thrown in a lion's den and survived because God sent angels to shut the mouths of the lions.
- Jonah & the Fish [Jonah 1:2]. Jonah spent 3 days and nights in the belly of a whale after being eaten, but then prayed to God and the fish spit Jonah back on the shore alive.
- David & Goliath [1Samuel 17]. A young early teen David killed a 9' 9" giant in Goliath by slinging a rock at him.
- Samson & Delilah [Judges 16]. Samson pressed the pillars of a temple and the temple collapsed killing several thousand enemy Philistines.
- Joshua takes Jericho [Joshua 6]. The walls surrounding the town of Jericho collapsed when the priests in the Israelite army sounded a long blast on their horns.
- Parting the Red Sea [Exodus 14]. God parted a 1600 foot deep sea by blowing an east wind allowing Israelites to escape the Pharaoh's army.
- Stopping Earth's Rotation [Joshua 10:12-14]. The sun halted in the sky for an entire day despite the physics against that.
- Talking animals [Genesis 3:1-5, Numbers 22:28-30]. Snakes and donkeys can talk in words!
- Life Span [Genesis 5]. Humans routinely lived over 900 years.
- Noah's Ark [Genesis 6]. Noah gets tens of thousands of animals and hundreds of thousands of insects to board an arc and spends over a year at sea providing them food and disposing their waste.
- Resurrections. Too many to list. Jesus wasn't the only resurrection. Matthew 27:50-53 describes how there was an earthquake and the bodies of many saints who were dead came back to life and entered the holy city.
Something to think about before putting money in the collection bin at church.
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