I am open to the idea of a creator, in the sense of Aquinas’s “prime mover” (although I find several flaws in Tommasso’s actual theory), but can neither prove nor disprove it. I do not believe in a god/gods that “intervene” in the affairs of men.
there is a constant in the universe which is escaping me right now that has 16,000,000 digits to the right of the decimal or so, and one to the right or left and the universe would be impossible and there is no known reason for it for it can vary hugely in the math models. All the others we have discovered can vary as much as 3% to 5% and things would still be as they are.
Prime mover indeed.
The nuns taught me, “God helps those that help themselves.”
Perhaps you are saying the same thing.
Many great men have attempted to prove or disprove the idea of God, after St. Thomas - I am not one of them.
I used to lack all faith, for good and rational reasons. For one thing, I understand and admit why the “idea” of God is valuable to the human species - it is a defense mechanism against stress.
The typical human is absolutely terrified by the very idea of entropy.
I don’t mean chaos, I mean entropy.
It scares the hell out of people.
And humans, like all animals, can literally die of stress.
Religion is an immediate resolution to that problem - “If you go to church on sunday, and asteroid won’t fall on your house!”
“Well, one fell on Fred’s house...”
“SEE! Proves my point! He missed church last Sunday!”
“He was in the pew next to you.”
“Yeah, but he didn’t mean it!”
So, yeah, I get it.
But the stress of not believing is still going to kill you.