god-of-the-gaps. Should we or shouldn't we fiil in the gaps with God?
by KateWild 138 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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bemused
Kate
It's not a question of IQ, but I think a problem with just saying god did it when there is a gap in our knowledge is that it can remove the incentive to understand and deepen our knowledge and also create an unfounded belief in a god, which history has shown can become extremely prejudiced against alternative explanations of natural phenomema.
Ancient peoples thought that volcanoes were where dragons lived, Norsemen thought a thunderstorm was a sign that Thor was fighting Loki and earthquakes have been blamed on the wrath of god. All of these explanations have been proved wrong (although some people still believe in the last one!) but these beliefs all arose because someone invented a supernatural reason for something they didn't understand. Wouldn't it have been better just to accept that lack of understanding?
Bemused
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prologos
I. fill the gap in YOUR own words. please. we would love to hear them.
"ignorance" from a Hayden planetarium link?
New York around Central Park & HP was build, but the universe was not?
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cliff
Kate,
already answered above, I think. Do not confuse intellect with faith. Different planes.
Cliff
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MadGiant
“The agnostic does not simply say, "l do not know." He goes another step, and he says, with great emphasis, that you do not know. He insists that you are trading on the ignorance of others, and on the fear of others. He is not satisfied with saying that you do not know, -- he demonstrates that you do not know, and he drives you from the field of fact -- he drives you from the realm of reason -- he drives you from the light, into the darkness of conjecture -- into the world of dreams and shadows, and he compels you to say, at last, that your faith has no foundation in fact.”
- Robert G. Ingersoll (1833 – 1899)
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konceptual99
New York around Central Park& HP was build, but the universe was not?
Of course you can argue that something must have caused it and that something must be God. You can argue that the natural laws were designed and are not just a product of the interaction of gravity, magnetism and strong/weak nuclear forces. You can discuss the role of the supernatural in abiogenesis. You can put the God of the Gaps in these places and I won't argue with your right to do so.
However, please don't use this as a weak argument that there has to be an active and constant intervention to form and maintain the universe as we know it.
Gravity alone explains how minute particles of dust are able to come together to form planets. The structure of every star, planet, solar system and galaxy can be explained through physics. OK, there is much to learn but there is nothing in the physical laws known to science that requires the active intervention of God to form the universe.
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prologos
No, we should not fill in the gaps with god.
The gaps belong to us, our understanding. We should improve our understanding with research.
Nature's workings are seemless it seems,
gap-free, otherwise we would not be here to think about it, lucky us.
gaffe-free too, the dinosaurs' demise notwithstanding.
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konceptual99
Sorry Prologos but I think I misunderstood your previous posting. I thought you were arguing that since NYC has been designed and built then it is unreasonable to think that the universe does not have a designer and a builder.
Your subsequent posting suggests I was incorrect.
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prologos
K99: nobody argued here about god's "constant intervention"
the creator seems NOT to be a tinkerer. filling gaps as WE go.
he did not create that gap for himself it seems.
He is not tweeking the HICKS boson now, to help the people at CERN to further our understanding of why matter has gravity.
ALL this is already done. not in his ongoing works it seems.
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bohm
As long as we are clear the God in question is the flying spaghetti monster, I think it sounds like a sensible idea.
Frikkin' magnets, it's the spaghetti monster who press them together with his noodly appendages...