what paper is that? obviously it would be impossible to calculate the probability of abiogenesis unless you know exactly how it happened.
No, but many atheists I know tell me they feel great comfort to know "I know I don't need to live a theistic life". But you still exist after you die. Your matter doesn't dissolve into nothing.
Impossible for you perhaps but not Mr. Godel. I am sure you can find it. It is in my book, Godel's Theory of Systems.
Have you seen me talk about any of these things? If you think you have, you probably have me confused with someone else. I generally don't concern myself with stuff like this. I'm really not all that "into" science. Does that mean I can't be an atheist?
no. impossible by definition. if you don't know what happened you can't know what the probability of what happened is. the probability of abiogenesis is an empirical question, not philosophical or mathematical. Gödel would be no more an expert about this than I am. Also he was no different than anyone else who intellectually compartmentalizes their predisposition towards theism.
e_blazer, I appreciate your being thoughtful. But my definition of faith comes from people who are believers, particularly Christian - they have told me in so many words that there can be no evidence for their god, or the divinity of Jesus, or virgin births, et al, but that they accept it on faith. In fact, in many churches (and other religious houses) belief in something that is improbable or all out impossible is praised and rewarded. Precisely because there can be no evidence. Not sure if I am stating that clearly. The universe is about time but NOT random chance. That is a common creationist "error". I put error in quotes because this is another concept that has been explained ad infinitum. Humans don't exist because a pile of bones and nerve cells jumped together and made a body by chance. Evolution, both in stars and galaxies and atoms, and more locally of life, is not random chance. And not divine. There are physical laws of the universe that make hydrogen and oxygen form water; it is a lower energy state than the atoms individually. Changes in individual organisms are random, but whether they persist is not. I can't cover all cosomology and evolutionary biology in a post, but the universe is about time and laws of physics. Given time and laws of physics, everything else can, and did, happen. At any rate, no way in hell, heaven, or earth can atheists form a universal church. We simply do not have commonality. Just being atheist is not enough. You doubt me? Look at all the varieties of Christian churches, many of whom have spent a lot of time killing one another although they all profess belief in the same god and the same book and the same savior! At any rate, e_blazer, as salaam alaikum. Peace be unto you.
Ah, but just think how much better informed we will be as to whom deserves the attention the next time a ruckus break out. No sense in wasting time on each other.
