-------------------------------------------------------------------------- | 3rd Annual Konkan Fruit Fest, Goa - May 6-8, 2005 | | | | Today's Events include Mango Eating Competition, Fruit carving and | | Cultural Programs. Check out http://konkanfruit.swiki.net | -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Santosh Helekar wrote: However, until this description is supported by objective physical evidence, it would remain a working hypothesis. The latter is never the case with faith - a fact that should be quite obvious to anybody who has some commitment to possessing a scientific outlook today.
Mario replies: As long as the "mathematical description" remains unsupported by objective physical evidence, it remains a hypothesis. This seems to be the dilemma that Prof. Antony Flew, a lifelong defender of atheism, faced, when he grudgingly conceded that it was "equally reasonable" for others to believe an alternative hypothesis of a higher being. Flew's specific explanation bears repeating as a contrast to the assertions that the "positive atheists" will continue to make on Goanet, and I can predict this without the benefit of a single mathematical calculation: "Several weeks ago I submitted to the Editor of Philo (The Journal of the Society of Humanist Philosophers) a short paper making two points which might well disturb atheists of the more positive kind. The point more relevant here was that it can be entirely rational for believers and negative atheists to respond in quite different ways to the same scientific developments. We negative atheists are bound to see the Big Bang cosmology as requiring a physical explanation; and that one which, in the nature of the case, may nevertheless be forever inaccessible to human beings. But believers may, equally reasonably, welcome the Big Bang cosmology as tending to confirm their prior belief that "in the beginning" the Universe was created by God." ----------------------------------------------------------------------- * G * O * A * N * E * T *** C * L * A * S * S * I * F * I * E * D * S * ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Make your mother in Goa happy on Mothers' Day. http://www.goa-world.com/goa/expressions/mothersday/ Limited "Mother's Happiness" packages. First come, first serve. -----------------------------------------------------------------------
