THE ORIGIN OF RELIGION
  • HOME
  • BEN'S BLOG
  • About The Book
    • BookStore
  • Reviews
  • About The Origin of Religion
  • The origin of spirit
  • FINAL CONCLUSION
  • Contact

BEN'S  BLOG
Click on "Archives" for all blogs since November  2013

Answer To Josh Feuerstein's Proof that God Exists

1/27/2015

0 Comments

 
Josh Baby, You are at it again with an illogical tirade. Mount Rushmore? Bad analogy, there are many natural rock formations resembling faces and animals in the world, let alone in the trillions of  planets, asteroids, meteorites in the universe all formed by chance. Not perfect perhaps but that is the same as the imperfectness of any living organisms, There are many stretches of now useless DNA in our bodies, left overs of previous life forms who did not make it because they where not viable, indicating random assemblies being tried out and never developed or went extinct. Yes random assembly of a useful DNA is a very small possibility, but I suggest you read up on “probability”. When a weekly lottery has only a chance of 1 in 10 million (as an example) to win the top prize,  It does not mean that one has to wait 10 million weeks before it is won.  It could happen tomorrow! Creationists misunderstand probability from ignorance or in your case, of deliberately misrepresenting it to suit your purpose and rely on the gullibility or lack of understanding by many people.

The atmosphere is not fine-tuned at all. As a matter of fact the life forms have created the atmosphere and it therefor changed, as in the past where the oxygen produced by the early life forms changed it, Human life is changing the atmosphere again by creating more greenhouse gasses than can be absorbed. The atmosphere also creates natural disasters because it isn’t perfect nor is it fine-tuned, showing random changes once again. Since there are trillions and trillions of planets, going through all possibilities, this atmosphere here, combined enough for life to exist, but many in the universe are not. Lucky chance again. If not fine-tuned, according to your rant “ life would collapse by itself”. For once you are right. Life has collapsed trillions of time in the universe and there is a good change that it will happen here as well eventually. You are smart and educated enough to know that having a common ancestor with apes is not the same as “evolving from apes” but you are counting on the fact that many people do not understand the difference so you keep spouting that nonsense. If you study genetics you know that organisms can gain or lose genetic information, mutations happen all the time, radiation can do that. Again you exploiting the fact that many are not experts at genetics, or neuroscience or any other highly specialized studies, You just make up your own “explanations” to suit.

Finally. As I pointed out many times before, neuro science has determined that awareness dies with the brain, Altzheimer’s patients prove that. NO awareness after death, no afterlife everlasting.

PS You spout these untrue ideas because you make a living at it. I don’t profit from writing this post but feel compelled to let the people know that they are being flim- flammed. Have an enlighten day!

0 Comments

Supernatural vs Natural

1/20/2015

0 Comments

 
Important survey: Following are the two major speculations about the Natural and Supernatural. Please read these and vote at the end about which speculation is the more plausible. The more votes, the more meaningful the result it will be. It should be answered by every one, from atheist to fundamentalist Christians, so please SHARE it with all your friends and urge them to SHARE it with their friends. Have them report back to you and relay the numbers back to me I will of course share the result with you. Let’s make a real effort! The Supernatural position (SN) wlll be in bold, the Natural position (N) in cursive.

SN: In he beginning there is God (unknown origin)

N: In the beginning there is Energy (unknown origin

SN: Creation by God

N: Big Bang, through nature's laws

SN:
Stars, Galaxies, Earth, Plants, Animals, Insects, Bacteria, Viruses and Humans are formed in one week about 8000 years ago. Farthest stars are 8 lightyears away.

N: Stars and Galaxies are formed over billions of years. Observing galaxies billions of lightyears away.  The Earth is formed

SN: One man and one woman created and tempted by a serpent to disobey God. God punishes Adam and Eve and all of their offspring.

N:
Chemical and electrical actions between atoms create first self- replication molecules. Molecules in trillions of reactions result in some more complex molecules, only a very few are viable and evolve in sea life, plant life, animal life and eventually human life.

SN: World populated by sinful humans. God dissatisfied with the result and uses a  worldwide flood to wipe out all land life except for Noah’s family and a pair of each animal type.

N: Over 99.9% of these life forms are not viable or do not adapt to changing environments and go extinct. Observed through the study of fossils.

SN:
The surviving tribe eventually splits in different tribes. Only one tribe finds favor with God. Other tribes worship different Gods. God orders his chosen tribe to kill or enslave rival tribes who do not worship the same God. Other tribes punished by natural disasters.

N: Some surviving organisms became very successful and thrived for billions of years until a cosmic disaster, a large asteroid, hitting the earth, changing the environment, wiped out the dominant species to be replaced by other surviving species.

SN: God sends his son to atone for the sins of the Humans. He is not accepted by the chosen people but creates a new religion, many variations of this religion exists, each of them convinced they are the only correct one.

N: Many pro-human species evolved. The most aggressive human species eliminated or absorbed other human like species. DNA research indicates that only one Human Species survived.

SN:
Science, eventually, rectifies many early speculations about nature’s reality.

N: Human brains, because of its unique capacity compared to other animal species, uses science to reveal more and more about the reality of nature and the natural laws governing the universe.

SN: Recognition of the role of the brain, instead of the heart, as the seat of awareness and the reality of death is real

N: Recognition of the role of the brain, instead of the heart, as the seat of awareness and the reality of death is real

SN: Speculation that awareness can survive the death of brain activity and live on in a supernatural manner.

N:
The reality that awareness dies with the brain activity is recognized through the observable facts such as Alzheimer’s disease. No awareness before birth and after death is what we observe in Nature.

SN: Observable phenomena leading to the speculation of the survival of awareness after death is the “Near Death Experience” (NDE). It relies on anecdotal testimony of peoples whose Brain function became so small that they were declared Brain dead, then  revived and related stories about a short visit to heaven.

N: Near Death Experiences (NDEs) are not acceptable as proof of short visits to heaven because real death did not occur (“near’ does not mean “actual”) and is explainable by well known and testable phenomena such as dreams, hallucinations, hypnosis, medicine, drugs, etc.

SN: People, who are approved by God because of their devotion to him, will be awarded eternal life in the supernatural realm or condemned to eternal punishment if not accepted

N: No afterlife, heaven, hell or any other supernatural phenomena is observed although many researchers did attempt to do so.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Which "speculation" do you find more plausible? The Natural (N) or the Supernatural (SN)

Submit
0 Comments

Intelligent Design vs Random Accident

1/12/2015

0 Comments

 
Let’s make a list of what we know so far of the universe and can observe with our senses and instruments. Although we do not know yet their origin, we have observed in nature: nuclear particles, forming atoms, atoms forming molecules, nuclear forces, how they interact, chemistry and how it makes more complicated structures, cells which replicate and multiply and become more complicated. We observe very complicated structures, which have evolved over a long, long, time and resulted on life on this planet. We do not know (yet) how that happened. Here are the two main choices we can look at.

1.     We assume there is a Supernatural intelligence of unknown origin, who created the natural particles and natural forces described above and then designed life as we know it.

2.     Random combinations of the particles and forces over a long time that resulted in the observable life forms, alive or extinct we observe to day.

The first choice has no basis in observation and is purely speculation. The difficulty raised by the opponents of no 2 is that, if you calculate the odds of a single DNA molecule arising by nature by trying all the combinations of interaction of atoms and molecules, even if you tried a million different combinations per second, the universe is not old enough to have that happen and since it happened, we are here after all, it must be an imaginary supernatural force who did it. This totally arbitrary conclusion, is due to the misunderstanding of the nature of probability. A quick example: look at our lotteries. If the odds are one million to one it does not take one million draws before someone wins. It might be won on the first draw! (Please type “Probability of Evolution” in the search box on the Home page of my website then click on the heading, for further explanation about Probability). Random development also explains why life is not perfect, why over 90% of all species we observe, went extinct and why we have so many diseases and imperfection, spontaneous abortions etc. which would be hard to explain if what we observe is the result of an imaginary Super Intelligent Deity’s creation.

Now, setting aside our natural tendency of cognitive dissonance, which we all suffer from to some extend, and make an honest, unbiased judgment, which choice sounds more logical? You be the judge.

0 Comments

Atheism is not a Religion

1/6/2015

1 Comment

 
If you wonder why religious people so desperately want to call Atheism a religion, is that if you assume that, then  you can “argue” religion is one of many religions and that since their religion is the only correct one and all others are wrong, it follows that Atheism is wrong.

They are incorrect on two points. First of all they regard Atheism as a life style, which it is not. Atheism simply means that it rejects the existence of a God. Nothing more. There are conservative Atheists, socialist Atheists and so on. Life style has nothing to do with it. Secondly comparing Atheism with religion is a “Fallacy of Association” (red herring) which states that the quality of one is comparable to the quality of another by an irrelevant association. Atheism is not comparable to a religion because they are not associated.

Religion vs non-religion is an opinion, not an association. You cannot say that ”non-religion” is a “religion”, just like you cannot say that “non-belief” is a “belief“, ”non writing” is “writing” or “no money” is “money”. You are either religious or you are not. That’s the choice, that’s an opinion. Now if you are religious you can be a member of thousands of religions and you can believe that yours is the only correct one. If you are non-religious, you have rejected all of them. If ”non-religion” was part of the list of religions and you reject all of them you would be rejecting your own ”non-religion” religion, a contradictory statement. This is called “an inductive informal fallacy of association”.

Conclusion, religious people cannot logically call non-religion a religion and then use that to bolster their argument. It is an OPINION. When you are religious, you have an opinion and then secondary you “believe” that one of them is correct.

1 Comment

    Ben Vande       
    Weerdhof
    Andrews


    Retired Teacher
    Author
    Videographer






    Archives of
    previous Blogs

    February 2023
    January 2023
    November 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    March 2022
    January 2022
    October 2021
    August 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    February 2021
    December 2020
    October 2020
    August 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

    Click RSS feed for previous blogs

Ben's Blog

About Origin OF Religion

About THe Book

BooKStore

Contact

  • HOME
  • BEN'S BLOG
  • About The Book
    • BookStore
  • Reviews
  • About The Origin of Religion
  • The origin of spirit
  • FINAL CONCLUSION
  • Contact