Simon Blackburn - Arguments About God?

Only by disputations and debate may truths about God emerge. Adversarial proceedings about God, as if in a court of law, can provide insights.

[AFLoneWolf]

Why can't more debates, on any topic, be this civil?

[rationalsceptic]

No Atheist has ever said the world came from nothing..we know Complexity Science explains why we are here

[josegaleano]

My designer was Versace and after that there is no other designer

[mariachlin]

How do you explain causation by physical effects - such as heat and light caused by the sun, the information specified by DNA, etc.

[patrickboudreau]

In a world full of these two, we might be better without religion but since ours is a world full of simple human being, i think we should prolong religion a few hundred more.

[josegaleano]

I ask the designer for an explanation of the design and that still not answering

[SuperLeonti]

Why do you expel the inteligence as it was described by Nick Bostrom? Of course the God of religions is fantasy of men and the philosophical God is an exaggration of philosophers but we could be a computer game of higher intelligence. Why not? Is it more complicated than the fallacy of multiverse?

[plnthn]

Perhaps there is a god, perhaps there is no god. Now, how we can settled this ? We simply can't. So what should we do, if we are not that sure ? Look at religion instead....He said... SMFH!!!!

[carmelpule]

I would say that the idea of design, even in engineering, needs to be qualified as many inventions were not designed at all but merely "discovered" through observation when the unknown but existing action/process took place. Archimedes did not predict nor designed the fluid displacement theory but he discovered when it happened that he was entering a bath filled to the brim with water which overflowed. Galileo did not invent the pendulum but he happened to be in a church noting that the suspended candle chandelier gave a constant periodic function oscillation. Both actions existed due to the states that occurred before Archimedes and Galileo ever existed. Actions come about because many states are just right for the action to occur. It gives us a good clue when it comes to evolving that the procreation of a species needs male and female parts and together they give birth to a child who could be more able and more intelligent than his parents because the many states that he meets along his life increase his complexity. So it does not follow to argue the point that anything that exists must be created by something more complex than the thing itself.


One would suggest that the simple state that is very powerful to consider in evolving complexity, is any element existing in the universe which has volume and mass after electromagnetic energy existing in space changed from energy to mass according to E= mc^2. If one considers a volume of any element then the atoms at the center of the volume will be surrounded by other atoms and so the central atoms are homogeneously and symmetrically surrounded, but if one considers the atoms on the surface of the volume then the states of the surface atoms are totally different from those at the center and those atoms at a sharp point or a corner would still have a different unsymmetrical state to live in. These different states due to the different placement of atoms within the same volume of materials would give the material some particular characteristic due to the central state, the surface state, and the point or corner state. We all know that if the element was a conductor, then in a storm, the lightning strikes will have an effect on where to strike the conductor all due to the placement state of the atoms in a differently shaped volume metal.

Surface effects when two dissimilar elements touch each other may cause rust as in iron and moisture and so rust can be regarded as a surface effect due to the states found in each of the dissimilar elements, Solar panels, diodes, transistors and most active and passive devices in electronics have a state which contributes to electrical engineering functions. All this was not designed nor invented but discovered as nature did it all on its own when a man was still very primitive and even non-existent. The complexity of a modern computer may be boiled down to the surface effect of a PN junction, Such a complexity originating from a simple junction which nature itself, provided freely through the turmoil of the universe, as it formed from a hot volume to a colder settlement, where elements moved around to come close together and somehow react as they do in their marriages of movements. Nothing in the universe is random, it happens because certain states come about after some previous states came to be. Simple states can give rise to more complex states through a long evolution of developed states through billions of years.


The most difficult issue of understanding the universe is not to understand the evolution process as that is simply an evolution of states building up as time and space provided new additions in complexity. Presumably, all matter in the universe came to be through Energy transforming into the matter. I would say that the initial Energy was Electromagnetic energy which was always around and will remain around and our death is only our physical matter changing back to the original electromagnetic waves circling the universe which could be reincarnated into a new entity including feeding a worm. He who understands how a universe filled with electromagnetic energy changed into matter or what we call the big bang would come closer to the solution. It is known that an impulse function can be analyzed into its harmonics coming in phase at a particular location in space and time. Human intellect cannot explain that and so rather than say we are all ignorant, we need to appear to be clever amongst society for knowing that, "God made it" and we appear to be wiser by learning to make such vociferous statements backed by philosophies and postulates, rather than waiting a little longer to explain it using science.


Humans, being limited in their knowledge are all like handicapped people with a missing leg needing crutches to hold on to and be able to limp and move forward rather than staying in the same place due to their body and mind limitations. Religions act like crutches and similar to artificial engineered prostheses to help mankind. To take away the artificial crutches from a handicapped man is to bring him to mental and physical inactivity and so one must always look upon an artificial crutch or prostheses which support a handicapped man as a very useful entity as long as one is not fanatical about using his artificial prostheses. Art could be looked upon as a religion is being a crutch and a prosthesis to help those needing emotional support. All military personnel is handicapped and like religious people wanting to hold on to a crutch to get by in life, and pilots, soldiers and sailors and Admirals, Wing Commanders and Army Generals all need to face their life wearing around them and attaching to themselves artificial prostheses as, rifles, guns, bombs, tanks, aircraft carriers, and destroyers and aircraft and ejector seats. Even atheists need to use their engineered prostheses in and outside their homes so religiously to get by in life and so they should not take away anyone's emotions supporting crutches, even if they are homemade simply made crutches or prostheses as shown in this submitted video.

[rwc]

Brilliant man found how God can't do what seems impossible to him. Nothing is too hard for God!!!

[wackygrillachristian]

A lot of respect for Dr. Blackburn, but he needs to point to the explicit contradictions (or at least bring out what I assume he thinks are the implicit contradictions) between a timeless God and a God who acts in time in order for his argument to have the power that he was shooting for. Great conversation, but I would have loved to have seen stronger followups of his assumptions - especially when that final argument has refutations dating back to the 13th Century (which, he will of course be aware of). Classic case of 'I just wish he said more... I'm left wanting', and because of that his argument contains leaks.

[CedanyTheAlaskan]

I am confused, he is a professional philosopher and it sounded like he combined the Cosmological and Fine-Tuning arguments. They are very different. I am may be wrong though.

But like him, I am not convinced by the Fine-Tuning argument and think there are several issues with it. Same goes for the Ontological argument and some forms of the moral argument.

I think the strongest philosophically argument is the argument from contingency. Now that also has two big divides. One set focuses on sort of backtracking the universe(meaning all what exists) to a single point where it doesn't go any further, because the past can't go on forever(what they argue). The other set focuses on what sustains existence contingently. Both I find very appealing.

I also cringed at the "big daddy in the sky". Really? You? This is the sort of thing I expect from internet trolls

[bayreuth]

Some basic misunderstandings here. It is clear that Mr Blackburn is not an expert in the field.

[Leibo]

"There is no such thing as society" (Margaret Thatcher)

[OnCharmLee]

[Wrong God]

If God is the most primordial being that must exist even without any physical world, it must exist completely by itself and absolutely self-sufficiently, without requiring or relying on anything.

God must not be a tangible or personal being that think or act, being constrained by physical space and time. God does not need to create or judge the universe, and to hear individual prayers or wishes. God must be absolutely free from any responsibility or obligation. There is no reason that heaven and hell must exist.

Greed, desire, and mental weakness make fiction and illusion. Humanity has so far established God as human center and earth center. All religions have wronged God by ignorance, greed and wishes, have blind believes and unscientific superstitions, and are corrupted.

Physical worlds come out from God as secondary and temporary existences, but are never intentionally created by God. (When I enter deep meditation, I feel the phenomenon that energy is generated, gathered and scattered and disappears, and that the physical world is temporarily formed and then disappeared.)

God certainly exists. However, human beings have erroneously erected gods centered on human beings and the earth based on human desires, ignorance, wishes and purpose. Human beings need to understand the right God to understand everything correctly and live free and peacefully.

OnCharm Lee (Author of the Book “Humans & Truth – human life is the awakening process”)

[sharonhennessy]

Why should we categorise God is such a way? That's when we miss Him, He is God and He can be in time and out of time.

[rationalsceptic]

God creates the Universe yet cant write his own Book!!

[junevon]

good voice... but out of the point, and wrong! reread Sir. Antony FLEW: there is a GOD.
or wherever book from Dr. Gerald Schroeder... oh, by the way... God Bless!

[whatarefriends]

He doesn’t know anything but that there is no God

[ingenuity]

Isn't it obvious, there is no "God ".