A Challenge from Bob Reid, received Jan 12, 2007

Graham,

I read this article with some interest. You quote Einstein as having said that all of creation is “inexplicable”. That being the case, should you not have left it at that - full stop?

Perhaps you could provide, to your readers, proof that these statements are not true:

  1. THE REASON FOR THE EXISTENCE OF THE UNIVERSE REMAINS UNKNOWN.
  2. A GOD DID NOT CREATE HUMAN BRAINS. HUMAN BRAINS CREATED GODS.
  3. EVERY ASPECT OF EVERY RELIGION IS MAN MADE (including all the books, dogma, rituals & uniforms).
  4. RELIGIOUS MODERATES GIVE RISE TO RELIGIOUS EXTREMISTS.

Finally, you might comment, is it best to go through life with BLIND FAITH or REASONED THOUGHT?

Dear Bob Reid:

I am delighted to receive this response from you. Thank you for it, and I shall give you brief answers which I hope you will consider carefully.

“You quote Einstein as having said that all of creation is “inexplicable”. That being the case, should you not have left it at that - full stop?”

Reply: Because, if you read on, you will see that Einstein is self-contradictary in this matter.

I quoted him further:

“a truly religious conviction that this universe of ours is something perfect and susceptible to the rational striving for knowledge.”

So, like many of us, Einstein believed two things at once: that the cosomos is ultimately inexplicable, and that it also is susceptible to rational striving.

1. THE REASON FOR THE EXISTENCE OF THE UNIVERSE REMAINS UNKNOWN.

Reply: I believe that this is true, as far as science goes. I am not even sure that it is scientific question. But if you ask me what I believe about the ultimate cause of the universe’ existence, I shall say: “ it exists because of the love of God.”

This can neither be proved nor disproved by you. But you can approve or disapprove it, which is an emotional and ultimately spiritual approach.

2. A GOD DID NOT CREATE HUMAN BRAINS. HUMAN BRAINS CREATED GODS.

Reply: I agree with the second half, but I think the statement is too narrow. I would say that human persons made the image of God within their consciousness of themselves and life around them. Brains are only part of the process.

Of course: there is no other way to human understanding than through human consciousness.

But as to whether God created brains and the human beings and the universe which sustains them, this can neither be proved nor disproved in science. Science is not competent to do so. But people can believe , or disbelieve, using some of the same processes by which their consciouness creates other things.

3. EVERY ASPECT OF EVERY RELIGION IS MAN MADE (including all the books, dogma, rituals & uniforms).

Reply: You have a firm grasp of the obvious.

But some of things which call forth worship and adoration are part of nature outside of human beings. People do the processing which makes them objects of religious belief.

4. RELIGIOUS MODERATES GIVE RISE TO RELIGIOUS EXTREMISTS.

Is it best to go through life with BLIND FAITH or REASONED THOUGHT?

Reply: No: religious extremists give rise to atheist extremists, which may explain why you have such ill-informed ideas about what religion is. Blind faith is the promoter of blind atheism.

Do you think that thinkers like John Polkinghorne, a life-long outstanding theoretical physicist, who keeps his faith and develops it, becoming an Anglican priest in mid years, has lived at any time with anything but a faith which responds to doubt, a faith checked out by reason, a faith tested and tried in a critical academic climate in which the historicity of scriptures and the credibility of doctrines were constantly challenged?

I myself had the good fortune to have a loving mother who taught me a few simple things about Christianity, and a loving father who was an agnostic and brought me up on evolution and Freud. Between the two, I learned to have a reasoned faith.

You as a human being are programmed to respond to light, natural light and light in the mind. The latter can give you enlightened doubt or enlightened faith, or both.