Backstage w/Supak: organic, progressive, environmentalist

My Half of a Conversation about a Prime Mover

My stagehand friend Jeff made a post to our union newsgroup in response to some study saying Atheism is waning in Europe.

Hey, whoa, whoa, whoa... Aldous Huxley, like Hunter S. Thompson, is one of my heroes. Huxley, like Thompson, wrote under the influence, and was very good at it. He didn't just do drugs in his old age, and what's wrong with that anyway? You say it like doing mushrooms occasionally, especially when you're old and not too worried about your long-term health anyway, is immoral or something.

One reason atheism is not expanding is because of what my daughter said to me when she was 6: "You can't be an atheist, Dad, because you have no faith."

I think a lot of people who used to think of themselves as atheists have just realized that they're really agnostic. That being said, and knowing a little about logic, ONLY flawed logic calls for a prime mover.

To posit a God only complicates your ontology.

A exists.

A exists because B made it.

Logic demands proofs. What is your proof that B made A? Oh, right, there is none. So, then the second statement is illogical.

"The best answer is usually the simplest." Albert Einstein, who refused to believe this axiom in the case of religion.

"The individual who is aware and in possession of free will must have some characteristics or have some embodiment of or at least a reflection of the Image of his Maker since intelligence and free will are not quantifiable they must, logically, not be of this universe."

Damn, that sounds like Plato, Jeff. It assumes a lot, including a maker. Why is it impossible for me to be aware and in possession of free will because that's how our brains evolved? Over millions of years of natural selection, brains with those abilities have managed to breed more than brains without them. Pretty logical, no?

Intelligence and free will are not quantifiable? Hmmm.. I'd say you have a lot of intelligence. I'd say [a Bush loving rapture-ready union brother] doesn't. Quantification complete.

Free will? A tougher argument. To argue that everything we do isn't determined is like trying to argue that everything in the universe didn't double in size last night.

I'm sure my friend Jeff knows there's no hard feelings.