Month: November 2022

My position on Science, Religion, and the Nature of Existence

I am not a scientist, but I believe in science. I would never argue with a scientist on any scientific subject. But I would argue with them when they venture into territories that have nothing to do with science.

I am not religious, in fact, I am strongly anti-religious. I am a Darwinian. Life on earth evolved via natural selection. I see no evidence for biological intelligent design. I think it is very likely that life also evolved in many other places throughout the universe. That is, however, only a logical deduction. There is no scientific evidence of other life in the universe, and likely any such evidence will forever be beyond our reach.

I agree with perhaps ninety to ninety-five percent of cosmologists who agree that the universe is extremely fine-tuned. However, there is no scientific evidence as to how the universe became so fine-tuned. However, I believe the logical conclusion points to some kind of cosmic entity or intelligence as a fine-tuner. And if that is the case, then this fine-tuner would likely have a logical reason for doing so.

 I agree with many scientists, like Jim Baggott, John Horgan, Sabine Hossenfelder, and many others, that such concepts as the multiverse, string theory, and the anthropic principle are not science. To quote John Horgan, “These multiverse theories all share the same fundamental defect: They can be neither confirmed nor falsified. Hence, they don’t deserve to be called Science. – Multiverse theories aren’t theories—they’re science fiction, theologies, works of the imagination unconstrained by evidence.”

I am not a materialist. I believe there is overwhelming evidence for the existence of the non-physical spiritual world. I believe that evidence is denied because of, in the words of Neal Grossman, resistance to a paradigm change, intellectual arrogance, and social taboo.

That evidence will be discussed in future essays on this blog. These essays will, very likely, be part of my next and last book.

But for now, enjoy the short essay below.

Sodom and Gomorrah

The Rest of the Story

Read More

A year or so ago I wrote a short essay on the Biblical chapter, Numbers 31. That is where God tells Moses to take vengeance upon the Midianites. I hoped to use the essay in a book or perhaps publish it on a website.

After completing the essay, I emailed it to my oldest son, Rusty, for his criticism. (Rusty is a materialist, that is he believes nothing exists except the material world.) I was stunned by his reply:

“No, no, no, Dad, far too graphic. That is shocking; You just cannot write stuff like that.”

So, I took his advice and deleted the essay.

Then today began thinking about all the shocking stuff in the Bible, the genocide, the drowning of all the world’s people, including toddlers, babies, and animals in a flood, the eternal burning of unbelievers in hell fire… Then I thought of a line I had read many years ago:

          Some people can be reasoned into sense, and others must be shocked into it.

          Thomas Paine:   The Age of Reason

Dammit, I thought. That chapter is one of the most shocking things I have ever read. If it is okay for that story to be published in the Bible, just why can’t I just try to explain how it all must have gone down or had to go down? If a person can just read about something happening without thinking about the details of how it had to happen, then that person is not being honest with him/herself. they can just imagine that nothing really nasty happened, but not all that bad. They just say to themselves, “nothing else to report here, so let’s move on.” A lie by omission.

No, hell no, I will publish this essay. Sure it is horribly shocking. But what the Bible said happened was shocking. This is presented as the holy work of God; therefore, it is only fair that if they say it happened, then it is only fair that we can try to describe the events as they surely must have happened.

I decided to rewrite the essay. But make no mistake, this essay is not intended to be an appeal to reason. It is intended only to shock. Read More