pbs.org/kcet/closertotruth/e … ow_02.html
Michael Shermer and an interview with a Muslim scientist and a Christian Scientist. Nothing like a good discussion with great minds.
I have read two of his books. When I went to this site you gave what struck me at first was this excerp from Nancey Murphy:
“Science can tell us how chemicals bond but only religion can answer the why questions, why do we have a universe like this at all?â€
It made me wonder:
Does religion really answer the “Why” or does it, by sleight of hand, cover up the question?
Why do we have a universe like this at all? Suppose we ask a christian; what would he say? Probably, that God created the heavens and the earth. Right there, as part of the answer we must imply the existence of God. But then I ask: "Why do we have a God like this at all? That’s where the christian closes off the possibility for asking “Why” yet again. There are no more why’s. Your why questions quota is filled. Why? Because God. Why God? There is no such question. If you make such question then you imply another sort of God which would imply that what you considered “god” before was not God but a demi-god or another creature of God. But all the implications aside what is truly telling of such a debate is an inability to approach and end of the question- that in the end why extends into infinity; that in the end why simply promotes as deep another surface.
In the Matrix movie, Neo is convinced by Morpheous that he has been living in a dream world and he awakes into the real world. he finds that in the real world he is weak and limited, but in the dream world, with the help of morpheous and some well placed programing, he finds that there are no limits in the dream world. Then in the second movie he finds that he can do things in the real world that he though possible solely on the dream world. The question is then: Is this real world that morpheous has shown him but another level of the matrix- a dream world outside of the dream world simply mistaken as the real world by men like morpheous?
One leaves one certainty just as one enters it- by fixing on one idea.
If the idea of God as an answer holds weight it is because we now have the conditions which we sought.