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Posted on 12/09/2004 2:20:12 PM PST by Republic_of_Secession.
Foxhole convert?
It took him to 81 to realize that? Bah, I'd reached that conclusion by my late 20s. I'm not a person of faith and am highly skeptical of the Old and New Testaments (and the Koran, and every other so-called holy book) but I do not believe the theory that random mutation and natural selection are solely responsible for the diversity of life as it exists today. And it revolts me that this dubious proposition is itself accepted as an article of faith by the so-called intellgentsia, with skepticism treated as heresy.
BTTT
Amazing...it's taken 81 years for this asshole to recognize an obvious, basic fact. Strange, what passes for elite intelligensia.
Wow. It's not a conversion but it's something.
What most scientists forget to remember about science is that there are rules and patterns. Else, why study it if it is completely random? Science is about writing down and understanding what is going on. For everything to be random defeats the purpose of science.
I was thinking the same thing. Being the son of a minister, one wonders just what he was taught about God as a child?
Belief in god makese a helluva lot more sense than believing in the UN.
Hmmm.
For what it's worth:
I was brought up in the reform Jewish tradition, Bar Mitzvah’d in 1963 and confirmed in 1964. During high school, I began dabbling in Hinduism (studying the Bagavhad Gita, reading Siddhartha and learning to play the sitar). I subsequently became a confirmed atheist, and remained so for almost two decades.
During the 1980s, my layman’s interest in physics, particularly my efforts to understand the theories of Albert Einstein, led me to contemplate the implications of the unified field theory -- a single mathematical equation that describes every process in the universe.
Einstein spent the last years of his life trying unsuccessfully to discover that formula, and although modern physics has yet to establish this Holy Grail of everything, I believe that it will one day be found. Stephen Hawkings has said that the discovery of this formula would be equivalent to “reading the mind of God.”
Through such readings, I eventually came to realize that the entire universe, which at the subatomic level is not solid, is nothing more than one incredible concept. To me that fact implies a single, universal mind at the core of creation. Once I had that insight, I felt I could no longer scientifically justify my atheism – especially since at about the same time, while I was training for my black belt in Korean Zen Sword, I began to notice that when modern physicists try to put their mathematical formulas into English, they end up sounding a lot like Zen Buddhists.
Of course, try as I might, I really couldn’t grasp the implications of all this intellectually since it really can’t be done. But in the early ‘90s, reeling from a great personal, professional and familial disaster, the only way I could find comfort was by spending hours alone in the famous Mt. Auburn Cemetery, where day after day I would walk among the tombstones or sit in the chapel sobbing and praying out loud for relief from my great pain. I experienced the healing that I felt there as finding my connection to God on a heart level.
To this day, when I feel the need for spiritual renewal, I head to the nearest cemetery by myself and pray to God for strength, wisdom, courage and guidance.
So when asked today what my religion is, I tell people that I am a “Cemeterian.”
Through such readings, I eventually came to realize that the entire universe, which at the subatomic level is not solid, is nothing more than one incredible concept. To me that fact implies a single, universal mind at the core of creation.
I'm not sure what you mean by 'realize', 'concept', and 'universal mind' in this passage. You have every right to use such words, but when you stretch them beyond their ordinary significations, it might be a good idea to explain yourself more fully.
Not really. He doesn't believe in a God who is personally involved in his life and he believes that when you die, that's all there is.
That's hardly a man who has taken Pascal's wager.
The very existence of matter and its conservation is empirical proof that there is a God - which Flew is conceding.
Thanks for sharing. That's quite a testimony.
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