Head Rush: God Told Me to Write This

October 25, 2002

God Told Me to Write This

Robyn’s got a funny take on Christmas vs. Chanukkah over at SmackTHEWeasel.

It got me thinking about a conversation I had with my buddy Jack last night…

The holidays for me mean family gatherings and tradition. Not a celebration of religion. I walked away from mine many years ago, and walked away from belief in an omniscient, supreme being several years ago.

Some question the “spirituality” of atheists, and look at you as if you’re a soulless being doomed to eternal damnation in one of the rings of Hell. However, I don’t think lack of a religion takes away from spirituality, although the term does refer to one’s soul and concerns with the after-life. As much as I joke about it, I don’t believe in Hell, or any hereafter, although it is a nice concept. One made to assuage the fear of death.

To me, spirituality is the goodness inside each of us. Humanity. Life energy.

So, Jack and I had a brief discussion last night about being atheists. We joked that, when was the last time a war was fought between 2 different sects of atheists? Or, when was the last time someone murdered someone else “in the name of no one!” ? Atheists don’t have rulebooks that tell them why it’s OK to kill those with religions.

Now, I’m not saying we’re perfect. I can’t even say “we” in the sense that it’s not exactly a hierarchical organization. I’m just saying that religion, for all the good it does, also does a lot of evil. This ... is not earth-shattering news.

I am not knocking any specific religion. Everyone is free to believe in whatever they want to believe in. I see all religions as equal. No one is better or worse than the other. They are just different. I do believe that some have horrible tenets that serve no purpose other than to create hate and discrimination for the sake of pushing a selfish agenda. That, the world can do without.

Personally, I believe in the energy of the universe. I believe that that universe is expanding, and sadly, will one day reverse the process and collapse in on itself. I believe there was no time before the universe was formed. Since the inception of the Big Bang Theory, scientists have been asking, “What is the universe expanding into? What happened before the Big Bang?” In order to explain this, scientists resurrected an idea originally from Einstein that there is in seemingly empty space a form of vacuum energy, sometimes referred to as “dark energy,” which is pushing everything apart. So how will a collapse occur?
Physicists say that dark energy could become negative and the universe could collapse some time in the very distant future, perhaps in a trillion years.

But, getting back to the questions on the origin of the universe, and how it relates to religion … Wondering what happened before the Big Bang presupposes the existence of space and time independently of the universe. I recently read that Augustine, the Christian saint and philosopher, repeated a joke that God was busy creating hell for people who tried to answer such questions before explaining that God wasn't doing anything before creating the universe. Without the universe there was no time, Augustine argued. In so doing he anticipated Einstein, whose theory of general relativity explains that space and time are created along with everything else in the universe. The time-space continuum.

There's no place to step outside and see the whole show.

Some may argue that a scientific view of creation is depressing and leaves one hopeless. Not necessarily. I had no awareness before life, and not having awareness after life ... well, I won’t be aware to know the difference. Consciousness is part of the power of the brain. I will not attempt to explain consciousness today. It’s something I will attempt to do during an 7 year residency. However, I believe we should live for the now. In the relative scheme of things, life is way too short.

If there is a God, well, I can’t imagine that, in its infinite power and wisdom (it did create the universe, then, if you argue it came from somewhere) it will actually be as judgmental and prejudice as mankind, and abide by the rules and laws set forth by mere mortals.

Posted by LA at October 25, 2002 10:25 AM

Comments

And for those of you who do beleive in a Heaven and Hell, and that the Bible is truly God's spoken word...

The temperature of Heaven can be rather accurately computed. Our authority is Isaiah 30:26:

"Moreover, the light of the Moon shall be
as the light of the Sun and the light of
the Sun shall be sevenfold, as the light
of seven days."

Thus Heaven receives from the Moon as much radiation as we do from the Sun, and in addition 7*7 (49) times as much as the Earth does from the Sun, or 50 times in all. The light we receive from the Moon is one 1/10,000 of the light we receive from the Sun, so we can ignore that ... The radiation falling on Heaven will heat it to the point where the heat lost by radiation is just equal to the heat received by radiation,
i.e., Heaven loses 50 times as much heat as the Earth by radiation.

Using the Stefan-Boltzmann law for radiation, (H/E)^4 = 50, where E is the absolute temperature of the earth (300°K), gives H as 798°K (525°C). The exact temperature of Hell cannot be computed ... [However] Revelation 21:8 says "But
the fearful, and unbelieving ... shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone." A lake of molten brimstone means that its temperature must be at or below the boiling point, 444.6°C.

We have then, that Heaven at 525°C, is hotter than Hell at 445°C.

Posted by: LA on October 25, 2002 11:18 AM

when you said "I am not knocking any specific religion" I was hoping you'd finish with "...actually, I'm knocking ALL religions!"

Posted by: Eric on October 25, 2002 02:50 PM

God called. He wants his omnipotency back.

Posted by: Robyn on October 25, 2002 09:52 PM

So, what you're really saying is I should pack a jacket 'cuz it might be a little chilly where I'm headed?

Posted by: MJ on October 26, 2002 02:34 PM

Too bad - omnipotence is ALL mine, and I'm not giving it back. Finders keepers.

Posted by: LA on October 27, 2002 08:43 PM

It's just graffiti, you jackass. Ignore me and I'll go away. Hahahahaha.

Posted by: Harry on November 1, 2002 11:11 PM

Or maybe you could check your logs, get my I.P. address, complain to my ISP...

Hahahahaha.

I think you should just put a button on every page that says: "If you agree with my brilliant viewpoint on this subject, please click here. Otherwise, please go away."

Hahahahahahahaha.

You should have just left my opinion posted and called me a jackass. I would have been fine with that. Instead, you pulled a well-reasoned argument down - like the candy-assed prig that I'm sure you are - thus qualifying you for a little harmless mayhem. Consider yourself lucky - I'm tired of this and I'm not going to wreck anything. Bye. Dipshit.

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