h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: God & Science - A7428125
Author: John Doe - U248205

Posted it in the wrong place but I finally made it to the Alternative Writing thanks to some guidance and encouragement.

As you can see I'm probably confused so any help from aspiring students of science would be very welcome.

This is well-written and thoughtful. I guess they didn't want it in PR because it's an opinion-piece.

It all depends on your model of God, don't you think? If you conceive of God as the stuff that science can't explain, then I go along with you. It has some neat philosophical connotations, that idea, not least that it makes atheism a ludicrous notion. (If God is what you don't know, and He doesn't exist, then you must know everything and therefore be infallible - so aren't you denying yourself?)

This foot-in-the-door that you've established is a long way from justifying established religions, though. This kind of God is unknowable. The idea (for example) that we're made in His image can't be proved in this way.

What science has done is to demonstrate that most of the complexity of the world developed by natural processes from primitive elements. But there will always be a starting assembly of stuff (no matter how early in universal history or simple in structure) that has an inexplicable existence. I guess what you're saying is that's where God is.

Personally, I believe in God, but reject the idea that I can remotely understand Him. The closest I can come to doing His bidding is to respect what I take to be His creation. Heaven and Jesus and all that kind of book-detail - sorry, does not compute, for me at least.

Thanks for posting!

Pin

I am very encouraged by your reply and the way you summarised all I was trying to say. You reinforce my belief in a model of God that cannot be understood and maybe not meant to ever be understood by beings such as ourselves.

Ideas of conventional religion such as 'being made in His image' do not fit with an unknowable God. The foot in the door is to justify the existence of the unknowable God as the Prime Mover and not to justify religions.

As you say, "there will always be a starting assembly of stuff (no matter how early in universal history or simple in structure) that has an inexplicable existence. I guess what you're saying is that's where God is."

Once we accept that the natural processes working on the primitive elements have created the complexity around us it's not so far fetched to consider that these conform to a programme that was put in place for reasons that we cannot know.

To me, religions are man-made and are basic models with make belief to satisfy certain interests and needs. Their basis may be questionable but they have been known to trigger higher thoughts in people not satisfied with the simplicity and errors of these beliefs. As long as they are not harmful they maybe considered beneficial.

The whole idea of models is to provide a visualisation of something complex such as a God. If I understood you correctly your church is His creation which you respect. For me although I don't understand, I feel His force through the nature around me and my church is inside me where I communicate through my thoughts.