Day of the Week –
Wednesday. Hump day. A day to hump…right? No, that is not right. The “let’s get over the hump” day. “Let’s get that much closer to the end of the week” day. “Let’s get closer to the two days we do not get inundated with silly newsletters” day. Ok, I understand now.
Special Edition –
Not really special, but I wanted to really go off on this topic and I have no idea if that will leave me with room or energy for more. And it means that that list of topics that I have been frustrated in not getting to will be delayed more or just deleted altogether. But so be it.
Religion –
Or more to the point…god. And this was sparked by a reader who sent me a short video from PragerU, the organization begun by Dennis Prager, a very conservative and religious Jew. He is someone with whom I do not believe I have ever agreed. And over the years, I have been sent many videos from this place, all of which are, at their very best, simplistic and unthoughtful blurbs devoid of any serious intellectual content. Two come to mind immediately…one which argued that the solution to climate change was more fossil fuel use to power ever more powerful air conditioning units so we could be comfortable…and another that argued that since we had been listening for signs of extraterrestrial life for the past few decades without success this was proof that no such life existed. And to paraphrase another writer I follow, “I defecate you negatory.” I could go on here for many BNN editions, but I will limit this one to the particular video I recently viewed entitled “Does God Exist? 4 New Arguments.”
The Setup –
So this piece is delivered by Frank Pastore, a former baseball player who later turned evangelical scholar (?). And thus far, I have no issue. Believe what you believe. But he presents what he terms four big bangs that the scientific, or atheistic, communities cannot answer and so therefore…god. And that is the simplistic synopsis of his entire argument. “I cannot explain, therefore…god.” Like me saying I cannot explain how a magician does his trick, therefore…magic. But let’s look at each of these “bangs.”
The Big Bang –
This is an old one. The accusation that the current theory of the creation of our universe, called The Big Bang, states that everything came from that event and there was nothing before, or “something out of nothing.” But that is not what the theory represents. It makes no evaluation of what came before, not because there was nothing, but merely because we have no idea. And not knowing is, well, not knowing. It calls for more investigation, it calls for more theory, it calls for fine tuning your models to see if you can figure it out. But, as the old saying goes in bastardized phraseology, the absence of knowledge is not the knowledge of absence. Or put this way, “True ignorance is not the absence of knowledge, but the refusal to acquire it.” So Reverend Pastore’s basic question is flawed, therefore…idiocy.
Beginning of Life –
The second “bang” that he speaks of is a presumption that all of a sudden, there was life on this planet. Bang! and life arrived. And maybe on a cosmic scale it was quick, but, as I read recently in an article in The Week, “the prevailing theory of the origin of life on Earth holds that about four billion years ago a molecule called RNA took a crucial step: It generated a copy of itself. This copy made another copy, which over millions of years led to the creation of DNA and proteins-all leading, eventually, to the first cell.” Hardly a bang, but a process that lasted millions if not hundreds of millions of years. And if “god,” then why the long time to get it done? Oh and don’t forget his big point that because we have not gained the ability to create life, there is no natural explanation. Seriously, because WE can’t do it…god. Next…
The Diversity of Life –
Calling into question the Theory of Evolution, he simply dismisses the whole project because Darwin could not answer how evolution started. What? Since there is really no argument in the video, just a quick dismissal of the whole field…god.
The Human Conceit –
My term, not his. But his argument is that at the flip of a switch, we came to be our sentient selves separating ourselves from the “mechanistic” brain of other species. He states that even cells have brains, yet we are the ones who become self-aware. What? We became not only self-aware, but far superior to all other species on the planet. Our “Animal brain” becomes our self-described intellectualism. And this one is so conceited. We see our sense of life as being so much better and so different from all other life on this planet that there must be some divine intervention to make it happen? The things we appreciate, the art that we create, the things that we create, are beautiful to us solely because we say they are. There is no universal guide to any of it. There is no intrinsic scale upon which we can compare. So we say we are better, we say we are the only species that can appreciate “beauty,” that our definition of “good” or “truth” or “morality” is somehow universal, even in light of the fact that our definition and meaning of those concepts has changed over the course of human existence. No, we are not better, just more powerful.
So His Conclusion –
His argument is that in order to eliminate god, one must be able to explain how these four “bangs” happened instantaneously. And while not being able to explain something does not mean anything other than the fact that you cannot explain it, the last three took millions of hundreds of millions of years to happen. They were not instantaneous. They were random events that built upon themselves to eventually get us to where we are.
My Conclusion –
Bottom line…the fact that we do not understand everything about the universe and life means only one thing. And that is that we do not understand everything about the universe and life. There are many times in our life when there are more questions than answers, when our knowledge shows its limitations. Neil DeGrasse Tyson said that “as the area of our knowledge grows, so too does the perimeter of our ignorance.” So we must always strive to expand that boundary, to continue to ask questions and seek new knowledge rather than revert to the simplistic.
But That Said… -
But that said, I know how much solace many find in their faith. I know how the interconnections help many find community and support through their faith. And I can appreciate that. But faith is a personal thing in our society. It was intended as so by the founders of our country. And if Mr. Pastore feels that his understanding of the universe proves to him that science has failed and that makes god real to him, bravo. It is the respect of everyone’s individual beliefs and experiences that is important. I will respect his as long as he respects mine.
Food for Thought –
Two items there. Lunch was a salami sandwich with sauteed salami, sauteed sauerkraut, deli mustard, Swiss cheese, toasted on egg bread. And then dinner was Susie’s curried chicken salad on lettuce and/or crackers. Soooo good.
Conclusion –
I’m done. Briefer edition today, but maybe heavier? I don’t know but I am tired, so you all stay healthy and be good to each other.
Me.
Well done sir- I thoroughly enjoyed this Nugget. I vaguely remember Pastore as a mediocre pitcher for the Reds when I first moved to Cincinnati. Supposedly, he predicted his own demise in a motorcycle accident...god?