Those who hold that all things (the universe/multiverse/whatever) began to exist and were created (by an ultimate Creator or First/bottom Cause), and those who hold that all things (the universe/multiverse/whatever) ‘have always existed in some form/state’ agree on (at least) one point…
…namely that there is indeed an uncreated ‘thing’ which cannot be questioned, caused, created, [...]
Cheers to Bryson for directing me to an essay, which I discovered was one over several over at The John Templeton Foundation.
The essays are comprised answers to ‘big questions’ from a variety of perspectives – theist, atheist and agnostic. They make for interesting reading whatever your beliefs are.
Two of the ‘big questions‘ essays were of [...]
what do we mean by ‘nature’?
what do we mean by ‘natural’?
how do we account for either?
what do we mean by ‘account for’?
1. nature demands an explanation
2. a ‘natural’ explanation of nature… isn’t.
Thanks, Ian Luxmoore…
…for a friendly, respectful, engaging and thoroughly enjoyable conversation about life, god, the universe, morality and all the rest.
The Christian response to the ‘Faithful Science’ day-conference have been mixed.
Most of the appreciative and complementary feedback has been email or verbal. As for the less-appreciative feedback, unfortunately it’s been more public.
First, the Christian newspaper “Challenge Weekly” published a (to say it kindly) selective and less-than-inaccurate piece entitled “Conference fuels Controversy” (which can be viewed [...]
Just a couple quotables I’ve read recently by James Chastek at Just Thomism:
…the best arguments for naturalism are that we should get out of the armchair, stop using abstract language and start giving quantitative, statistical, and experimental arguments… But the arguments are all made from the armchair, using abstract terms, without quantitative, statistical, or experimental [...]
…and that is one of the first ‘things’ I believe about God.
The word ‘teleology’ (from Greek τελος ‘telos’ – meaning ‘goal’, ‘end’, ‘purpose’ or ‘that toward which things tend’) is not a street-level term. However, the concept of a purpose, goal, function or ‘end’ to things most certainly is. It’s a common as anything. Teleology is blindingly relevant.
…a somewhat better way to phrase the question (remember, words matter!) about god and reality, etc. would this:
Why does existence exist?
Answering the question by reference to any particular ‘thing’ that exists (a ‘force’, ’singularity’, ‘multi-verse’, ’string’, etc.) is to completely not pay attention to the question. The answer cannot be in terms of any merely-existing [...]
WP Cumulus Flash tag cloud by Roy Tanck and Luke Morton requires Flash Player 9 or better.
