I Know That God Does Not Exist

"There is still the question of what was behind the process that gave the universe those properties."That is indeed an interesting question. But our experience has been that whenever we study something in nature to find out what's "behind" it we come up with a purely natural explanation - no wizards behind curtains controlling everything. Until someone comes up with some actual evidence for an intelligence propping up our natural world, I'll continue to consider arguments saying the universe is so marvelously intricate there must be intelligence lurking behind it somewhere to be . . . non-starters.In the meantime, consider this: everything in the universe, the locations of every atom, the history of where every atom was throughout history could be encoded as a string of numbers. A very long, complex string of numbers, but still just a coding. In fact, you could code it as a single number if you choose, even a binary code: 011110010100...So perhaps we don't exist at all, we are just characters in an elaborate book. And every different number is a different universe with a different history.But in reality nothing exists, because even if nothing exists, there must still be numbers, even if nobody is there to think of them.

I wasn't thinking of any experimental data on the positions of atoms, I was merely thinking of the similar question, "Is the universe just a simulation?" and removing the simulator, leaving a pure number.

Perhaps there will always be more to learn.But that is no excuse for superstition.

You, yourself, believe a highly complex intelligence can develop without being built by some intelligent agency. That is, you believe that your god exists.If you believe that, you cannot claim it is impossible for our material universe (a thing far less intricate than your god) to develop without being built by some intelligent agency.

Is the holographic theory anything like the hypothesis that our universe is just "a program on someone else’s hard drive"?

Not exactly, no. But what can be done exactly in science anyway?I was thinking of a simulation. Can you think of some way of proving we are not in a simulation? The next step is to throw away the simulator and think of everything as merely a numeric code and us as characters in a book encoded in that number.

Turtles all the way down...?

Indeed! For that reason, of course, I don't think there's any real value in discussing the question of whether or not we live in a simulation. Except that it provides an answer to those who ask why there is something rather than nothing: one can respond, "How do you know there is something rather than nothing?"

When you write, "beliefs can really only be discussed philosophically and not historically accurately due to the fact that there is such controversy between the apologists and the mythicists" what do you mean? Does that mean your question about Jesus could be answered, "We do not even really know for sure if Jesus existed or is only a mythical figure in the writings of second-century Christians"?

Since you say your god, unlike matter, cannot be "observed, measured and described by physical laws" there is really nothing to discuss about your god: either it does not exist or it does exist but we have no way of knowing that it exists, which is the same for our purposes here.Not sure what you mean by "build itself" or how it is relevant here. All life builds copies (or new versions) of itself, but that is, presumably, not quite the same thing.Let me try to explain the inconsistency of your views.When you are confronted by the notion that after the formation of the Earth chemical processes, powered by a great deal of energy, either solar or volcanic, eventually developed life, which eventually developed into creatures with self-awareness and intelligence, you say that this couldn't happen unless there was some intelligent agency interfering with the natural world.That is, you claim that before intelligence can exist, there must be some intelligent agency in existence!

What is intelligence? What is consciousness? What is self-awareness? Why do humans feel this strange need to invent powerful entities that influence and judge all of us? Why is there something rather than nothing?Lots of tough questions.

You're not quite correct. I said life builds new versions of itself. I didn't say that the earliest forms of life weren't the results of self-replicating chemical compounds developing from non-living chemical compounds.As for intelligence having to exist before intelligence can exist . . . isn't that a contradiction in your position?

The concept belongs to the antiquity of our species, the ancient, superstitious times. Volcanoes spewing lava? Lightning blasting trees and houses? People falling in love with people they really shouldn't? Senseless evil? Beautiful rainbow? Just imagine a Vulcan hammering away at his forge, a Jupiter throwing thunderbolts, a Cupid firing arrows, a Beelzebub scheming to tempt humanity, a Voice from the heavens telling Noah someone powerful has made a deal with him and his descendants . . .It's irrational. It's powerful, moving stories, but it's irrational.

If it ever was rational to imagine a thunderbolt-throwing being on a mountaintop back in Classical times (when humans may not have known any better), it certainly isn't nowadays.For the same reason there is no rationality behind a "modern" god like those of the Christians, Jews, Hindus, Muslims etc. (or even the "god that failed" of the Marxists).

Are you asking what's irrational about the image of a bearded, naked man on a mountaintop gripping a chunk of glowng, superheated plasma with an electrical current running through it, preparing to propel it down to the ground?