Meshing Genesis with evolution is a bit tough, but I think theories like the living universe are more consistent with something made, for example by God, than something that just happened. (See, e.g., Intelligent Design theories and the "found watch" idea.) SNS22 actually made a comment along the lines of one of my long-standing beliefs, which is that it's really weird to imagine all of this just "happening" somehow, far weirder than it is to believe in God making it. As TMYEM's smilies suggest, though, at some point this all gets pretty stoney and I'm reminded of Donald Sutherland in Animal House, explaining that the universe may all be a speck of dirt under some giant's fingernail.
As Pregnant already stated, after billions of years of evolution the universe naturally looks ordered. The simple, over a span of time that is just about incomprehensible, has become the complex. So it's bound to seem so well-ordered that it must have been created. If we must be humble before God and admit that we are lesser beings who do not understand everything, why is it so hard to imagine that we are lesser beings before nature? Why must the thing that is "bigger than ourselves" be a deity?
Having said that, I'm happy to concede the possibility that a Creator got the ball rolling at the beginning of the universe. The Prime Mover is a reasonable idea. But even though that is possible it does nothing to convince me that the religions of the world are true. I realize we're not debating the truthfulness of religions here, so let's not get into that, but I'm just throwing that out there.
Another saying of Sherlock Holmes is that when all the evidence is painstakingly assembled and examined, and all the insufficient explanations for an event are removed, what remains, no matter how unlikely or improbable, is the truth. From what I gather the explanation we're getting down to is incredibly unlikely but it isn't called "God". But, no, I admit, God isn't ruled out yet. He's hanging in there.
Here's a question, though. If atheists will be so good as to concede that, yes, the universe could be created by a God, will the religious be so good as to concede that perhaps their religious laws are not infallible and perhaps even superfluous? A little doubt would be good on all sides.
The fundamentalists are certainly more of a danger in terms of causing a cataclysmic event, whereas materialism and nihilism are a threat in more of a slow burn sense, which makes them less noticable but dangerous in their own way.
I agree. I happen to think those things are the greater problem in the long term. I also think they are causing some of the fundamentalist nutcases to pop out of the woodwork.
I'm not sure what the solution is, but I think the answer could well be more religion-- enlightened religion, that is-- rather than less. The reasonable among Christians, Muslims, and other religions have a chance to lead instead of divide. Without wishing to make too big a deal over this one case, it does seem to contain the best and the worst of our present state of affairs. As it relates to
this subject, I'd love to see a lot more public officials like the governor of Illinois and a lot less of the people who want to change the law to bring religion into school.
To the charge that a "moment of silence" is small change compared to burqas, well, these things always start with little concessions. You might call it the beginning of an
evolutionary process.
