Wednesday, January 18, 2012

The incomprehensible, everything good, god

When I wrote, in my previous post, that theists argue for irreducible complexity in biology as evidence for god, I was not (of course) referring to all theists. So what about a god that is not to be found in biology, chemistry, or physics? Victor Udoewa, in his recent Huffington article titled "Does Science Make Belief in God Obsolete?", wrote "it is clear that science may make belief in a certain concept of God obsolete. But it is a hard task to make belief in every concept of God obsolete." Seeking funding from The Templeton Foundation to promote his timeless and undefeatable version of theism, he asks: "What if there were concepts of God that had something to offer or add to the fulfilled? What if we had concepts of God based on creativity? On a positive definition of incomprehensible peace? On imaginative joy? On creative, problem-solving love?"

The god that is creativity, peace, joy, imagination, love, and other such general and positive capabilities, outcomes, feelings, and sentiments is a favorite gambit of liberal theists. Its strength is its weakness, in equal measure. There can be no evidence against this god nor can there be any evidence for this god. This god is claimed to be real but is defined as a fantasy. And that is why no one has any proper justification to believe in this god. Evidence is the proper foundation to justify beliefs about what is true or false regarding the reality of entities that are to be worshipped or otherwise asserted to really exist. Conservatives want evidence, but they don't respect evidence that contradicts their theism, so they tend to manufacture their own, alternative world "evidence". Liberals want to follow the real evidence, but they don't want the evidence to contradict their theism, so they tend to place their cherished theism out of harms way by defining their god to be beyond the reach of any possible evidence. Either way, it's the same failure, they are both failing to put the evidence first and follow it.

1 comment:

  1. I wholeheartedly agree with your statement and I am a conservative theist. I love the complexity of the universe and how it beckons men to explore and postulate seemingly unanswerable questions of the wonders of the world. I have a passion for astronomy in specific and I strongly believe that science and belief in God are not enemies, but two halves of the same circle; yin and yang if you will. Science will never have all the answers so I think that's where faith comes in to play. My belief in God is only strengthened when I gaze at the heavens. I can't offer you hard evidence that looking at the night sky proves God's existence but it's thrilling to consider that maybe, just maybe all of that was created by someONE instead of someTHING!

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