Tom Winnifrith Good Friday BearCast: An Easter Message and the Morality (lack of) of AIM

Comments

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   Malcolm Stacey

   25 March 2016, 06:50

   For the non-believers mentioned by Uncle Tom in his thought-provoking Easter Bearcast, you may agree with Stephen Hawkin that there is no God. However, the major law of physics, on which he is the world leader, says that things cannot come from nothing. He says, as far as my limited brain can discern, that gravity is the force that makes the universe happen. But gravity is something. Where did that come from? The only explanation is an Intelligent Designer. And if that sounds fantastic, then were DID everything come from? Happy Easter, chums.

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   Simple Moving Avarice

   25 March 2016, 17:03

   Malcolm – funny you should mention gravity in this context because there is a school of thought that the negative potential energy of gravitational fields actually exactly cancels all the mass in the universe, so the whole shebang sums to exactly zero! Wikipedia gives a brief overview here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero-energy_universe

   But then there is also a theory that we are all living in a simulation. If that is true, there could well be a God, and he might be reaching for the reset button at any moment now.

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   Paul Scott

   25 March 2016, 19:49

   Malcolm,

   Where did the intelligent creator come from then?

   Also why did he create so many appalling things, like diseases, parasites, insects that kill millions of people, etc etc? In fact when you look at Nature generally, it’s not fluffy & lovely. It’s violent & totally brutal – with most animals on the planet dying a painful death as lunch for another animal higher up the food chain.

   Also, why does God want to be worshipped? Is he really that narcissistic?

   Anyway, whatever your belief system, no matter how bonkers it is, have a nice Easter! ;-)

   Regards, Paul.

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   Malcolm Stacey

   26 March 2016, 04:29

   Thanks, Simples. I’d not heard of either theory before. Will look into it with interest. I’ve often considered that it’s all a dream, anyway.

   Hi Paul. I sympathise with everyone who cannot believe in God. He can hardly make it obvious, otherwise we would all live a life of hell, literally petrified in case we take a wrong move.

   The view non-believers take of someone like me is that we believe in an old man with a white beard in the sky. Actually, we don’t believe in anyone ‘up there’, or even ‘out there’. We believe that a divine force is all around us.

   I go to church, which admittedly is terribly old-fashioned, but I’ve no other way of being part of this force.

   I cannot prove God. It’s just a strong conviction based on the fact that we are surrounded by so many good things. I also happen to think that the wild things you talk of have a much happier life than we fettered humans. Being eaten sometimes is a small price to pay.As for the suffering in the world, we would suffer a far worse fate with boredom, if we didn’t have conflict.

   And God doesn’t want to be worshipped, but we have an overwhelming need to show our gratitude.

   You would be surprised how many scientists, still baffled by the workings of the universe, or more likely universes, work, believe in a Creator.

   Happy Easter to you, too.

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   bwakem

   26 March 2016, 04:53

   “The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.”
   ― Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion

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   Malcolm Stacey

   26 March 2016, 06:25

   Yes, Bwakers. But He’s mellowed with age.

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   MrMoto

   26 March 2016, 07:37

   Anyone intersted might want to try a Alpha course, atheists and christians alike. You can air your views without judgement. Worth a look

   http://uk.alpha.org/run
   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBf7kdmSWKM&list=PLvveTy3b9_9F7OZ9JuXugO5hvqVDUfnfp

   Charlie Mackesy well worth a look on Youtube too, great guy.

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   David Williams

   26 March 2016, 08:03

   Modern archaeology is providing fascinating insights into the spiritual thinking of neolithic peoples. Religion has been around ever since humans became conscious. It exists in hundreds of different and often incompatible forms. All of which leads me to think that it is man made and addresses the unbearable pain we feel when a loved one dies. I would like to believe but in all honesty cannot.

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   Marvin

   26 March 2016, 09:18

   All of the good things you see Malcolm are surely just a result of evolution (which is random variation acted upon cumulatively by natural selection) not least because it takes an evolved lifeform to even be able to acknowledge, let alone appreciate, those things. So I don’t get where the intelligent designer comes in.

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    warun boofit

    26 March 2016, 13:17

    Malcolm, I do not believe in god or anything similar but I am envious of people who genuinely believe. I believe there probably are aliens out there somewhere and that we are better off not meeting them as they would eat us. I believe that 13.7 billion years ago the universe emerged from a hole so small we could not even measure its size with a microscope and that eventually it will collapse and dissapear back up its own arsehole coming out the other side and the cycle will begin again. There are things that I cant get my head around. If there was nothing taking up space in todays universe at the time of the big bang then what was there for the big bang to expand into, is there infinite space that goes on forever past the edge of the universe that has always been there, how far out does this emptyness go ? We need a reference point to measure things from so that means empty space beyond the edge of the universe cannot exist ? Secondly when the universe does dissapear back up its own arsehole and comes out the other side what space is it that the new universe re inflates into, a different dimension and what then happened to the previous one ? It seems possible there are multiple universes all banging away over and over again. The only certainty in my mind is that so far we know virtually nothing but I certainly dont imagine the whole shebang could be controlled or influenced as part of a grand divine masterplan, anyway thanks for sympathising with me for being a non believer and happy easter to you too.

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    Backwoodsman

    26 March 2016, 13:59

    Christainity, capitalism, logic and reason – good luck with that Malcom

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    malcolmstacey

    27 March 2016, 06:28

    Thanks for all your comment, gang. But all my detractors are based on stuff they can see. 99% of what’s happening out there cannot be seen. Nobody has a clue – especially scientists. But my bet is that Something is controlling the whole mysterious shebang. And I think it’s God, which may be a collective term – and probably is.