Computer \"reads\" memories... (Humans)

by dhw, Wednesday, March 24, 2010, 13:25 (5165 days ago) @ David Turell

DHW: If atheists have faith that the machine can be built, and theists have faith that it can't, good for them. I prefer to wait for the evidence before I make a decision.-DAVID: It is going to be a very, very, very long wait. George took his leap of faith, I've taken mine. There is no other way. God is concealed, will always be, and His presence will always be inferred, with stronger and stronger inference as biologic science continues to demonstrate an ever increasing complexity that underlies life. Join George, Pascal, and me!-Pascal's wager has always seemed to me one of the silliest arguments for God that anyone could possibly offer. You can't force yourself to believe something. The fact that you can't lose if you opt for God does not shed even a sliver of light on the question of God's existence, let alone his attitude towards his creations.-I have the utmost respect for your faith and for George's, and I would not have launched this forum in the first place if I hadn't been looking for answers. But in all honesty, I don't feel the need to take a decision. If God doesn't exist, or does exist but doesn't care, I shall die and that will be the end of me. If he does exist and does care, I may find out a bit more when I've shuffled off this mortal coil, and I just hope he'll be more tolerant than many of his devotees here on Earth. If he's not, I could be in trouble, but fear is not a basis for belief (as you make clear in your response to Matt).
 
The question I do have to ask myself is whether I'm now so comfortable with my ignorance that I'm subconsciously resisting the very good reasons that you have for believing and George has for not believing. These include on the one hand the enormous complexity of life's mechanisms, and on the other the absence of evidence for the presence of any divine being ... let alone one that shows interest in and concern for us and our fellow creatures. At present I can see no way round these two obstacles. They simply cancel each other out, and so I don't think my agnosticism is just an easy solution. But unlike the logical ass with his two identical bags of hay, I shan't starve to death. You say: "There is no other way". I say there is: to keep looking, but to accept the unlikelihood of ever knowing. On the way, though, I'm learning all the time, thanks to you, George, BBella, Matt, and the many others who have joined us and then left us again.