9/6/09

Christopher Hitchens – The Atheopic Principle

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Posted by Ken
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6 comments:

  1. Madame ArcatiSeptember 6, 2009 at 7:58 AM

    An example today of how a newspaper distorts research on religious and mystical experience. http://madamearcati.blogspot.com/2009/09/god-tarts-and-misleading-sunday-times.html

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  2. MordecaiSeptember 6, 2009 at 10:08 AM

    Consider two possible "worlds":

    1) Christianity is correct. God created the universe and gave us the Bible to tell us how it went down.

    2) God created some metaverse that included Satan. Satan created the Universe we live in as a relatively short-lived and localized prank. Satan gave us the Bible to completely mischaracterize history and theology. Everything that we think we know about Christianity comes from Satan. Satan answers our prayers. Satan fine-tuned the constants. One day Satan will reveal himself and say "Yo, you got punk'd!"

    Can a Christian explain how they know that #1 is true yet #2 is false? As far as I can tell, the two realities would be indistinguishable. Do you accept that your choice to believe #1 over #2 is arbitrary? If not, let me put the question to you that you put to Hitchens, "How do you know?"

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  3. James RedfordSeptember 6, 2009 at 12:12 PM

    Hi, Mariano.

    God has been proven to exist based upon the most reserved view of the known laws of physics. For much more on that, see Prof. Frank J. Tipler's below paper, which among other things demonstrates that the known laws of physics (i.e., the Second Law of Thermodynamics, general relativity, quantum mechanics, and the Standard Model of particle physics) require that the universe end in the Omega Point (the final cosmological singularity and state of infinite informational capacity identified as being God):

    F. J. Tipler, "The structure of the world from pure numbers," Reports on Progress in Physics, Vol. 68, No. 4 (April 2005), pp. 897-964. http://math.tulane.edu/~tipler/theoryofeverything.pdf Also released as "Feynman-Weinberg Quantum Gravity and the Extended Standard Model as a Theory of Everything," arXiv:0704.3276, April 24, 2007.

    Out of 50 articles, Prof. Tipler's above paper was selected as one of 12 for the "Highlights of 2005" accolade as "the very best articles published in Reports on Progress in Physics in 2005 [Vol. 68]. Articles were selected by the Editorial Board for their outstanding reviews of the field. They all received the highest praise from our international referees and a high number of downloads from the journal Website." (See Richard Palmer, Publisher, "Highlights of 2005," Reports on Progress in Physics website.)

    Reports on Progress in Physics is the leading journal of the Institute of Physics, Britain's main professional body for physicists. Further, Reports on Progress in Physics has a higher impact factor (according to Journal Citation Reports) than Physical Review Letters, which is the most prestigious American physics journal (one, incidently, which Prof. Tipler has been published in more than once). A journal's impact factor reflects the importance the science community places in that journal.

    See also the below resources for further information on the Omega Point Theory:

    "God Proven to Exist According to Mainline Physics," December 26, 2008 http://www.armleg.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=122&mforum=libertyandtruth

    Theophysics: God Is the Ultimate Physicist http://theophysics.110mb.com , http://geocities.com/theophysics/

    "Omega Point (Tipler)," Wikipedia, April 16, 2008 http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Omega_Point_%28Tipler%29&oldid=206077125

    Tipler is Professor of Mathematics and Physics (joint appointment) at Tulane University. His Ph.D. is in the field of global general relativity (the same rarefied field that Profs. Roger Penrose and Stephen Hawking developed), and he is also an expert in particle physics and computer science. His Omega Point Theory has been published in a number of prestigious peer-reviewed physics and science journals in addition to Reports on Progress in Physics, such as Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (one of the world's leading astrophysics journals), Physics Letters B, the International Journal of Theoretical Physics, etc.

    The leading quantum physicist in the world, Prof. David Deutsch (inventor of the quantum computer, being the first person to mathematically describe the workings of such a device, and winner of the Institute of Physics' 1998 Paul Dirac Medal and Prize for his work), endorses the physics of the Omega Point Theory in his book The Fabric of Reality (1997). For that, see:

    David Deutsch, extracts from Chapter 14: "The Ends of the Universe" of The Fabric of Reality: The Science of Parallel Universes--and Its Implications (London: Allen Lane The Penguin Press, 1997); with additional comments by Frank J. Tipler. http://theophysics.110mb.com/deutsch-ends-of-the-universe.html

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  4. tremorSeptember 6, 2009 at 2:14 PM

    @Mordecai

    If you take your #2 seriously you're already doomed. You can't beat evil being that rules you and toys with you, you can't even tell if it's happening. The same is true for example for solipsism.

    I would rephrase your question as: how do you know that the Bible tells the truth?
    The answer is very simple: we don't know it, we believe. We take it a priori.
    However there are some additional things that help us to build and keep our faith: external (e.g. science, witnesses of faith) and internal (moral law within, experience of beauty and purpose of the world).

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  5. MordecaiSeptember 7, 2009 at 11:09 AM

    @tremor

    If only all Christians were as honest as you.

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  6. JeremyDecember 11, 2009 at 3:11 PM

    @ Mordecai
    He's not unlike other Christians I speak with. They "just believe" and don't require tedious facts to back anything up. This is hard to fathom, since millions of Muslims "just believe" too, often more so, in their counterpart deity and text, and each is hedging their bets that they are right.

    @James
    "require that the universe end in the Omega Point (the final cosmological singularity and state of infinite informational capacity identified as being God"

    This is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard of.

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