Well you see that is (one of) the problem(s) with religion. Every believer I’ve met has a different interpretation and countering them is like trying to nail jelly to the wall.

@GHIAGHIA

Another book for your list (not about religion directly but about junk ’science’) is Ben Goldacre’s recently published ‘Bad Science’ which is based on his blog and Guardian column. He takes apart Homeopathy, Gillian McKeith and others. It is an excellent read.

Paula

I don’t have to ‘believe’ in it, it exists. It’s real. It’s understandable. It’s observable.

The problem as *I* see it, it that these real, understandable, observable things are NOT given reverence by most people. Most people seem to want myths, stories and mysteries, yet ignore the awe and beauty surrounding them in the real world.

I can’t start a war over the existence of electromagnetism, but I can start a war by thinking my God is the most powerful or the only ‘real’ God and wants me to spread his word by force if need be. I can’t allow a whole continent to continue to be overrun by an epidemic, but I can allow AIDS to destroy Africa because I think my God believes that ‘life’ is sacred (oh, the irony). I can’t force anyone else to live their one and only life in the way *I* choose, because of the existence of electromagnetism, but I can if I believe my God wants me to. Boy can I.

If you delve even slightly into Christ Consciousness (as opposed to the Christ served up in the Bible Belt and by nasty nay evil US policitians) you will see that your idea of “The Force” is a pretty damned good analogy for Spirit!

I am certainly no Bible basher, never have been and never will be but I do think there is a FORCE and there is plenty of your luscious science to back it up.

Want to know more? Read Hands of Light by Barbara Ann Brennan or e me.

Hope you are well. Have been watching Brian at work on various youtubes etc and he’s ace. Love and hugs,

Yasmin xoxoxoxox

Only if you believe in the self as an individuated body of matter that maintains identity over continual change rather than an emergent property of a biological computational system that continually updates it own operating system and working parts.

Sorry guys but we are just meat machines… really sophisticated … but meat machine nonetheless.

I could never understand christians’ hatred of Judas either. After all, if Judas had not “betrayed” Jesus there would be no crucifixion, no resurrection, no christianity as we know it. I like the interpretation of Jesus in The Last Temptation of Christ–the person who keeps Jesus on track and the one whom Jesus entrusts to turn him in. This Judas more closely resembles the Judas of the Gospel of Judas–see Elaine Pagels’ The Gnostic Gospels.

-R

Yes it is. Another one is that every seven years, every cell in the human body will have been replaced at least once. Seems like the information that makes up an individual lasts a lot longer than the arrangement of cells and atoms that make up that individual. Does that count as a soul?

I’ve heard it be likened to wind blowing in a dessert. The wind may blow sand grains together such that they form a pattern, but without the wind, the grains just fall to the ground. The sand is lifeless, it is the wind that is important.

Seems like life is just a flow of energy. In entropic terms at least, life does hold a particular scientific curiosity.

Every atom that you were born with are no longer in your body – or rather make up your body.

All the atoms have been replaced…and they are continuously being replaced.

So in essence, you are continuously being “reincarnated” – yet you are still YOU.

Isn’t that wonderful?

The leap of faith is then to say, if the Universe reached such a state then the concepts of time and space lose any credible meaning. You’re left with absolutely nothing, a void. Perfect conditions for another big bang.

I think the paradox has to be that there was no ‘origin’ to the Universe. Either this Universe is infinitely old of there have been infinitely many Universes before this one. I think I’m right in saying that the brane collision theory supports an infinitely old Universe (where the Universe is now defined as being beyond the 4D creation we live in to include the higher dimensions of string theory)? Speaking personally, I think an infinite Universe is also one which chimes well with Buddhist teachings; there having been an infinite opportunity for intelligent life, it becomes a bog standard certainty. The human race thus loses its self-importance and its identity. Leaves on a tree that die in the autumn but which will return again one spring. Not the same leaves of course but then neither different to the leaves that went before; true reincarnation.

Anyway, requiring infinities is one area where ‘religion’ and ’science’ would seem to agree. The difference is of course that theists believe in an infinitely powerful God. Who knows, maybe people switching to believe in an infinitely old Universe instead of an infinitely powerful God will prove to be the last nail in the coffin for theism?

This is what I mean by ‘placeholder’.

The actual answer will be certainly loads more complicated than a literal big bang (my personal favourite theory is the one espoused by Neil Turok… unfortunately, it involves string theory which sounds like bollocks to me, but it apparently rather pleasing mathematically… whatever… at least it’s not the quantum theory of multiple universes which makes me fucking FUME…). I am satisfied with a ‘placeholder’. I am content and not at all panicked with a ‘we don’t know yet’.

It’s so much more satisfying than a ‘God did it as it said in a book written 2,000 years ago so stop asking questions.’… cos then, as usual, I’ve got to get a definition and ‘proof’ of God. And that’s never happened yet…

Please can one of you people attempting to defend religion PLEASE tell me where the information content is in the sentence ‘God did it.’ All I ask is that you explain to me exactly what that content is in those 3 words. Please. Three words. Clearly, it’s blindingly obvious to you, so you must be able to tell me what ‘God did it’ means. Go on.

You say that: “textbooks bleat out phrases like ’scientists now believe the universe is 13.7 billion years old and that it all started at one point and has been continuing to expand ever since.’”

What’s wrong with that? Scientists (the most highly qualified people using the best methods and resources available to our species) BELIEVE this to be true and with good reason. That’s what our schools are for, to teach people to the limits of our knowledge and encourage them to take it further. Religion does not belong in a classroom unless you’re explaining it in an unbiased, accurate, historical and sociological context.