It seems to me that religion by definition is a means to control a large group by a singularity or very small group.
Ask any of the past historical figures, or present leaders for that matter, who had/have power. It did not matter whether it was spiritual religion or political religion, it served the purpose of imposing an individual's or a small group's desires on a large mass of people.
Sincerely,
MT
Insightful as always MT - I am going to package all your threads and sell them as an ebook, lol...
Actually, in my humble opinion, the so-called "Bible" should be left out of all SCIENTIFIC discussions related to the origin of existence."
I look to QUANTUM PHYSICS, SCIENCE, REASON & LOGIC to form much of monotheistic beliefs.
QUANTUM PHYSICS HAS PROVEN WHAT MANY MYSTICS HAVE SAID FOR YEARS - THE EXISTENCE OF AN ENERGY NOT BOUND BY THE NEWTONION
OR QUANTUM MECHANICAL SPACE/TIME Paradigm.
THIS IS NOT PSEUDO-SCIENCE!!
THIS IS SCIENCE!!
Science says that matter/energy can be neither created or destroyed.
If something can be neither created nor destroyed the only logical conclusion is that it is INFINITE.
In other words, it has always existed.
The Big Bang Theory - contrary to the masses' belief - DOES NOT EXPLAIN WHAT HAPPENED at what's been described as 1 trillionth of a second BEFORE "PLANCK'S MOMENT".
The only way that energy can exist is if a phenomena exists/existed outside of the space/time paradigm - in other words something not bound by c, aka the speed of light.
In the 14th chapter of Darwin's work, "Origin of Species" he states quite clearly that is theory is PREDECATED ON THE KEY ASSUMPTION That a naturally occuring, reproducing organism is the FOUNDATION of Evolution.
Therefore, if we take the scientific observations that:
1) Matter/Energy can neither be created nor destroyed - i.e. it has always existed
2) Since physical reality is bound by both time and space (i.e. c= 299 792 458/2) it is LOGICALLY FINITE - Therefore something on this plane of the physical which is FINITE could not have produced something INFINITE.
This is grade school, Aristocratic logic; it cannot be refuted rationally
3) According to the popularly held belief in Evolution, we exist solely due to a reproducing organism (again see the 14th Chapter of "Origin of Species"
4) Then, it is clear that something a) infinite and b) self producing was in fact the First Cause.
Antony Flew is known as the 20th century's most famous atheist. He wasn't interested in any stories about a guy named Adam and one woman named Eye "getting busy" in the garden of even serving as a LOGICAL, RATIONAL argument for the existence of a First Cause.
While at Oxford, he wrote “Theology and Falsification" and for years has debated priests, preachers, etc. on their crusade to make people believe that the LITERAL INTERPRETATION of the King James version of the Bible is scientifically correct or accurate.
Several years ago, after reading about the breakthroughs in DNA research and being a man unswervingly committed to rationality and reason, taking the argument put forth above (i.e. infinity + Darwin's work), his LOGIC AND REASON lead him to the following conclusion:
“It has become inordinately difficult even to begin to think about constructing a naturalistic theory of the evolution of that first reproducing organism,” “My whole life has been guided by the principle of Plato’s Socrates: Follow the evidence, wherever it leads.”
"It seems to me that the case for an Aristotelian God who has the characteristics of power and also intelligence, is now much stronger than it ever was before."
Max Planck the Father of Quantum Physics and Nobel Prize winner said quite emphatically:
""All Matter originates and exists only by virtue of a force. We must assume behind this force the existence of a conscious and intelligent Mind. This Mind is the matrix of all matter.""
Martin Reese, the famous theoretical physicist stated:
"In the beginning there were only probabilities. The universe could only come into existence
if someone observed it. It does not matter that the observers turned up several billion years later. The universe exists because we are aware of it."
Pascal Jordan said,
""Observations not only disturb what is to be measured, they produce it."
John Wheeler the dad who gave me up for adoption (HAHA, J/K...say that because I love the guy)
is another one. Princeton PHD Professor and student of Neils Bohr, he was one of the greatest theoretical quantum physicists of the past 109 years....
He said,
"“You can talk about people like Buddha, Jesus, Moses, Confucius, but the thing that convinced me that such people existed were the conversations with Bohr,” (see NY Times article)
The list goes on and on. For anyone who finds this stuff interesting, I'd encourage you to investigate the SCIENTIFIC FACTS and not be brainwashed by Jerry-Springer like interpretations of Scientific Truth.
As one professor has said in a current book I am reading about the relationship between consciousness and physical reality, he tells the author
"
Though what you're saying is
correct, presenting this material to NONSCIENTISTS is the intellectual equivalent of allowing children to play with loaded guns".
Many people drink up so called scientific "facts" the way holy rollers "drink up" whatever they hear in church.
ACCEPT NOTHING AS FACT WITHOUT YOUR OWN PERSONAL INVESTIGATION!
As Brian Josephson the 20-something year old Nobel Prize winner in physics smartly asserted:
"
“One of my guiding principles…has been the scientist’s motto ‘Take nobody’s word for it (nullius in verba) a corollary of which is that if scientists as a whole denounce an idea this should not necessarily be taken as proof that the said idea is absurd: rather, one should examine carefully the alleged grounds for such opinions and judge how well these stand up to detailed scrutiny”
OK, soap box proclaimations over! Now I am off to build a landing page which I'll use to sell the Midas Touch ebook I'm about to push, lol