Religulous - Bill Maher

[GMichael]

(And that's when Mike's head exploded)

[Feanor]

Isn't there a point in science when even the most fundamental principles and partricles dissolve into an unknown singularity? Remember when Einstein came ever so close to reconciling the forces of nature? When pressed to explain he said, "God does not play dice"? While I am not saying that the invocation of God is necessary, I do think that the conceptualization of a unifying force that gives a sense of cohesiveness and comprehension to our universe is useful. Or is God simply Lord Occam's immortal razor?

Some would say that God is antithetical to Occam's Razor, (the scientific principle of parsimony of hypotheses). This is, postulation of a god is unnecessary to scientific explanation.

When Einstein famously said "God does not play dice", he was referring to idea of quantum randomness which was relatively new at the time and at odds with the Special Theory of Relativity, (or was it the General Theory?). Einstein was a very secular Jew and it should not be construed that he was advocating God as a prime mover.

[ForeverAutumn]

(And that's when Mike's head exploded)

FA gets hit by the splatter.

"EWWWWWW! GROSS!"

[Auricauricle]

I did not mean to indicate that Einstein was anything but secular; the statement was one of frustration and despair and his conviction that the universe is anything but random. I still wonder if the notion of God is a useful heuristic to some, who just can't embrace an ex nihilo genesis, but instead beat their head against the pillars of Xeno's Paradox (sorry GM).

Hey, FA! Need a face-cloth?

[Feanor]

I did not mean to indicate that Einstein was anything but secular; the statement was one of frustration and despair and his conviction that the universe is anything but random. I still wonder if the notion of God is a useful heuristic to some, who just can't embrace an ex nihilo genesis, but instead beat their head against the pillars of Xeno's Paradox (sorry GM).

Hey, FA! Need a face-cloth?

That's about it. Personally I haven't had a problem with ex nihilo genesis in many decades. In any case, as I've previously stated, the insinutation of God as an explanation for anything is simply absurd because to do so is to beg the question, where did God come from?

Xeno's Paradoxes, or some of them, still pose an intellectual challenge as I gather. But their logic is immediately refuted by empirical evidence.

[GMichael]

FA gets hit by the splatter.

"EWWWWWW! GROSS!"

That's me. All over you.

Again.

[Auricauricle]

Forgive the slide show, y'all...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfYuJ...eature=related

[nightflier]

Well far be it for me to get in the way of Auric and Feanor's Sisyphusian endeavors, but on the question of pre-ordainment, the simple answer that I've always found titillating is that time has no meaning to God (as defined by either Auric or Feanor).

GM, that panky is quite osé in a thread debating the existence of god - being all-knowing and omnipresent, I would suggest caution with that hanky.

[Auricauricle]

Thanks....Wait....Who're you callin' a sissy puss?

[Luvin Da Blues]

Man has always needed to believe in something. For some of us it's God, for other of us it's the belief in our selves etc etc.

Myself, I believe in the Church of Jimmy Hendrix.

[nightflier]

LDB, that reminded me of an episode of Family Guy where Peter started the Church of Fonzie.

[Auricauricle]

Well, he could do some pretty amazing things....What he did with the pinball machine at Arnolds was nothing short of miraculous.