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WHY DO PEOPLE BELIEVE IN GOD?


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Guest imported_El Mamerro

Edika, you would probably enjoy this article. It's about a seemingly inevitable convergence of science and religion happening right now. Smart, you would probably like this too... kind of related to the "Only God can make a frog" deal.

 

An excerpt:

 

 

The existence of 50 billion galaxies isn't the only mystery that's prompting scientists to rethink their attitudes toward the divine. Beyond this is the puzzle of why the universe is hospitable to living creatures.

 

In recent years, researchers have calculated that if a value called omega — the ratio between the average density of the universe and the density that would halt cosmic expansion — had not been within about one-quadrillionth of 1 percent of its actual value immediately after the big bang, the incipient universe would have collapsed back on itself or experienced runaway-relativity effects that would render the fabric of time-space weirdly distorted. Instead, the firmament is geometrically smooth — rather than distorted — in the argot of cosmology. If gravity were only slightly stronger, research shows, stars would flame so fiercely they would burn out in a single year; the universe would be a kingdom of cinders, devoid of life. If gravity were only slightly weaker, stars couldn't form and the cosmos would be a thin, undifferentiated blur. Had the strong force that binds atomic nuclei been slightly weaker, all atoms would disperse into vapor.

 

These cosmic coincidences were necessary to create a universe capable of sustaining life. But life itself required an equally unlikely fine-tuning at the atomic level, yielding vast quantities of carbon. Unlike most elements, carbon needs little energy to form exceedingly complicated molecules, a requirement of biology. As it happens, a quirk of carbon chemistry — an equivalence of nuclear energy levels that allows helium nuclei to meld within stars — makes this vital element possible.

 

To the late astronomer Fred Hoyle, who calculated the conditions necessary to create carbon in 1953, the odds of this match occurring by chance seemed so phenomenally low that he converted from atheism to a belief that the universe reflects a "purposeful intelligence." Hoyle declared, "The probability of life originating at random is so utterly minuscule as to make the random concept absurd." That is to say, Hoyle's faith in chance was shaken by evidence of purpose, a reversal of the standard postmodern experience, and one shared by many of his successors today.

 

This web of improbable conditions — making not just life but intelligent life practically inevitable — came to be known as the anthropic principle. To physicist Charles Townes, an anthropic universe resolves a tension that has bedeviled physics since the heyday of quantum theory. "When quantum mechanics overthrew determinism, many scientists, including Einstein, wanted the universe to be deterministic," he points out. "They didn't like quantum theory, because it leaves you looking for a spiritual explanation for why things turned out the way they did. Religion and science are going to be drawn together for a long time trying to figure out the philosophical implications of why the universe turned out favorable to us."

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religion, and the idea of god is heavily promoted by oligarks. the reason why they promote it is because religion can be used to control people. it also gets people into a dogmatic state of mind. this is very favorable for the oligarky. people gravitate towards religion, and god out of desperation. if u look at rich people, they are seldomly religious, but if you look at poor people, they are frequently praying to god for a better life because they dont know any better

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@dady I feel where your coming from, but also think it’s arrogance as a species to think we can wrap our minds around concepts that could conceivably be exponential orders of magnitude beyond our current capability to understand. Think of a bug looking at the newest iPhone and assuming it can make any sense of what makes it work. That post a couple back from @imported_El Mamerro is a very interesting read, especially the excerpt he posted. Besides really saying we don’t know as much about the universe than we’d like to believe, it really demonstrates the infancy of our understanding. No doubt at the very least we can agree there’s probably much more we don’t understand than we do and not for nothing but some of what that article goes into stuff that reminds me of hints of something more than just dumb luck evolution you see echoed out frequently in nature and life in general.

 

Give that article a read: https://www.wired.com/2002/12/convergence-3/

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