Cosmology: standard universe model confirmed (Introduction)

by David Turell , Saturday, August 05, 2017, 15:12 (2456 days ago) @ dhw

DAVID: But Tony's point, I think, is God did it. His further point is we think we may know how it all came about, but we don't, but can still believe in God

dhw: Tony has gone to a great deal of trouble to explain the possible scientific flaws in the whole theory, for which he has my thanks. I’m sure reblak will support this scientific debunking, and reblak is an atheist. But of course Tony thinks God did whatever happened – he is a theist – and of course we don’t know how everything came about, and of course you can believe in God whatever anybody else’s theory may be. In the great quest for knowledge – one of the most admirable manifestations of the indomitable human spirit – we come up with all kinds of nebulous theories to explain the things we do not understand: dark matter, dark energy, strings, multiverses, Mother Nature, God…But giving them a name doesn’t make them real. A quote from Dawkins has stuck firmly in my mind as a wonderful example of blinkered faith: “If there is something that appears to lie beyond the natural world as it is now imperfectly understood, we [= atheists] hope eventually to understand it and embrace it within the natural.” (The God Delusion, p. 14). Substitute “…we [theists] hope eventually to understand it and embrace it within the supernatural” and you have the complete package! Meanwhile, we poor old agnostics are attacked by both sides because all we want to do is “understand it”, and we don’t allow our endeavours to be directed by our hopes!

" Giving them a name doesn't make it real" must always be a major philosophic point. Processes in health or illness were given names without understanding, and added nothing in our ability to help patients.