Reply to my Mom.

I love my mom, and she only wants the best for me, and from her perspective the best for me includes believing in a god. Specifically the one that she believes in. She sent me an e-mail today giving a heart wrenching tale of an atheist who in his final weeks of life found god. I can respect that, however I did take a moment to respond to her and let her know how I feel. Here is that e-mail. :





We all cope with death in different ways. This person chose to believe that he was not dying for no reason at all. Most of us do make that choice. I however, have long since decided that believing in something to make you feel better is not something I want to take part in. I can assure you that when I am on my death bed I will not look for an imaginary savior, but a good doctor who can possibly help me. I do not have time to devote to things that cannot be seen, heard, or tested.

The concept of god is infallibility. That is "incapable of failure or error; ; "the Catholic Church considers the Pope infallible"; ... according to wordnet.
In science if a theory were infallible then it would be useless and not workable. It is the equivalent of answering the question "how do plants grow?" with "they get larger." Then no one is allowed to contest that answer. Nor, add too it, take away from it, or modify it in anyway. It is the one and only answer that can be given. If we tried to apply answers like this to the real world, all that we have, everything that makes our lives better (and saves millions of lives as well) would be useless. If your mechanic said, "A car runs because a hidden force makes it run.", would you expect him to be capable of fixing your car?

I know what you are thinking, this has nothing to do with GOD!! Of course it does. When someone dies, or if bad things happen, people say "It was God's will." Now, tell me where there is room to inquire further? If I were to ask, "What is god's will? How does it work? What is the criteria of his will? What are the rules it follows? How is God's will implemented? What force does God's will take to interact with things in the universe to make God's will happen? " I would not only be shunned for asking such things but I would get angry looks. I know! It has happened to me before. We are not allowed to ask such things about god because he is above questioning, he is, as I said before, infallible.

Now let us at last go back to the mechanic metaphor. What if, after your car stopped running, the mechanic (without even looking under the hood) tells you, "It was the hidden force giving out, you lost the hidden force." And you start to ask, "Can we get it back? What makes this force? Can I buy this force? Is there something we can do to fix this force? How come the guy down the street still has this force and I don't?" Without even a moments hesitation, your mechanic holds up his hand and says, "Whoa! Sir, we aren't meant to know such things, it is just the will of the force."

Now hopefully, you can see my point.


I love you too mom,