Well put Carl. It bothers me, also, when my adherence to Roman Catholicism is treated as irrational or somehow oppressive.
-- Andrew On Aug 8, 7:21 am, Carl Jokl <[email protected]> wrote: > It is not as if they are mutually exclusive principles and I have been > in Academia. > > I have had plenty of experience of being treated like a freak for > choosing to believe in something. If you want to talk about reason > then I have some logical reason points. Atheism is an active belief in > the absence of any supreme being existing. Usually this is coupled > with the believe that the world, universe and life are all byproducts > of random chance. > > From a logical standpoint it does not seem reasonable for me to look > at the Universe, the world, the incredibly complex life that exists > within it and dismiss it as just some fluke of accident or chance. I > see order and complexity as implying some kind of intelligence. I > think chaos theory has been abused to state that given infinite time > that anything that is possible to happen will eventually happen. > However I might question whether it is possible for such order to be > created at all by fluke of chance. If I consider how I would expect > the Universe to look if it was devoid of any intelligence or any > controlling influence then I would expect to see chaotic matter and > randomly moving energy. If out of that some structure were to be > randomly created I would logically expect that it would be like > creating a snowflake in a furnace and that sooner or later the > overriding chaotic nature of the Universe would destroy any fleeting > order that was created within it. What I observe in our Universe and > our world in particular is a highly complex structure which adapts and > seems to increase in sophistication as time goes on. This implies to > me some kind of intelligent design. > > Getting from that foundation to believing in something like the Bible > is a big jump. For me it involves a such a complex chain of > dependencies that Maven couldn't hope to cope with however it is > certainly not a matter of believing on something just for the sake of > it or to fit in or blindly without question but there are reasons > behind believing in each principle. I do resent the implication from > others that religious belief is just so irrational that it is evidence > that an individual is flaky and illogical. > > My personal ethos has a big impact however of my work and business > ethics and desire to see a computer industry more focused on moving > the world forward than squabbling over rich people trying to get > richer or maintain their wealth for which Software Patents have proved > invaluable in that agenda. > > On Aug 8, 11:59 am, Casper Bang <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > > > > > > > It's easy to forget how sensitive religious people are when you're not > > > around them. Most people I choose to talk to are atheists (that's not > > > actually how I choose, at least not consciously), but all my wife's > > > family are Catholics; before I was around them I'd have said something > > > like that without worrying too much. > > > Now I'm reminded of Sheldon Cooper in the Big Bang Theory. Not too > > surprising though that people in academia would favor causality and > > reason over crucifix and bible. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Java Posse" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en.
