Hello and welcome to another The Wonderful
Truth video In this video we will discuss whether or not
the existence of a transcendent ‘God’ is probable, and the reason why i use the word
‘probable’ is because you can’t prove a negative. This means that you can’t disprove statements
or claims that we in practise are unable to observe. For instance, you can’t prove to me that
Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy or Leprechauns doesn't exist. You also can’t disprove that there is a
five headed dragon orbiting some random planet in the galaxy of andromeda, or perhaps a
flying spaghetti monster or a teapot hovering around in space. Neither is it possible to prove the non-existence
of ‘God’, whether it’s Yahwae, Thor, Zeus, Poseidon, Kali, Hades, Zao-Shen, Amenra,
Vishnu, Aphrodite, Apollo, Ganesha or any of the countless examples of man-made deities. So, how can we examine claims like these. How can we examine the existence of god? Well, we can use two simple methods:
First, we can look at the evidence at hand. Now usually it’s whomever that makes a claim
that has the burden of proof. But since theists haven’t provided any such
evidence for the existence of god, we won’t be able to take use of this first method. Now, if you’re sitting at home yelling at
your computer and at the sound of my voice - because you most definitely have good evidence
for the existence of god - you shouldn’t write it in the comment section of this video. No, you should finish up that scientific article
of yours, publish it, and take a flight straight to Norway, to receive your Nobel Peace Prize
for finally revealing to humanity, how the world actually works! Now, until that happens, we shall move on
to the second method of examining the existence of god. In this second method we shall take use of
that 60% fat, weird looking, slimy, juicy hard drive that hides beneath your skull - also
called a ‘Brain’ - because, we shall in this second method use ‘Logic’ in order
to enhance our understanding of the probability of the existence of a ‘God’. You probably don’t have a hard time figuring
out that the examples I mentioned before are so unlikely, that you will inside your head,
deem them not to be true. This is logical. But in terms of the list of gods - dependent
on whether you are an atheist, monotheist or Polytheist - you only subscribe to that
‘god’ or those ‘gods’ that your religion claims to be true. Or perhaps you are a believer in a non-personal
god - or some other version of a god in which there are also numerous examples of. Either way, you are perfectly capable of figuring
out on your own, that all those other gods that you don’t believe in are so unlikely
to exist, that you once again, inside your head deem them not to be true. But your logic reaches bedrock the second
your own religion gets inserted into the equation. With the use of logic I will therefore imply
that you think critically about your own god or gods, just like you do with all of the
other gods that you don’t believe in. I hope this video can help you do that. So when talking about the probability of “any
god”, we must first and foremost define god. Now, it will be extremely hard to define what
‘god’ is / or what ‘god’ is made of - because there isn’t an agreement amongst
theists on these questions. Secondly however, we can try and define what
theists claim ‘god’ does / or what ‘god’ is capable of - naturally, there is also disagreement
amongst theists here, but, i will now try and define the most frequent abilities that
‘god’ has. The list is as follows:
Perhaps you believe in a God that created the cosmos and all the physical laws within
it. Dependent on what version a god you might
believe in, god perhaps: even took the liberty of creating all the
planets, solar systems and galaxies individually - the sky, the oceans - everything within
our cosmos and the world as we know it. Or perhaps you believe in a god that just initiated
the ‘big bang’ and basically did nothing afterwards besides spectating. Perhaps you believe in a God that also created
life. Created you and all the animals that have
ever existed. Or perhaps you find Darwin's theory of evolution
to make sence, and therefore perhaps god just initiated life - just like the big bang - and
afterwards just spectated how life evolved. Perhaps your god is capable of listening to
prayer. God knows what you are thinking. God might answer your prayers. If your god is a real ‘bad ass’ god might
even intervene in the real world and perform miracles as ‘god’ sees fit. Perhaps god controls certain aspects of the
world such as the sun, the weather, the moon or any sort of natural phenomena. Also, and most importantly, god dictates what
is going to happen to you when you die. And if you have been Good, you will go to
heaven - If you have been bad, you will burn eternally in Hell. Or perhaps you believe in a version where
you might live your next life as a big mighty lion in the savannah or perhaps as a rat in
the sewer - dependent on how good you have been.
and you’ve come to acquire this information, either through
Scripture. God is not only the founder of everything,
god is also a well respected writer. Or perhaps God told someone about what he
was thinking, and that someone then wrote it down. or you’ve learned it through your family,
it’s in the culture you live in and so forth. I am sure that there are some other ‘Gods’
out there that have other abilities, or shall i say ‘superpowers’, but these seem to
be the most frequent ones. Okay, now that we have defined what this ‘god’
character is capable of, we can further examine how probable any such character is. I will do this by applying logic when examining
these abilities or superpowers individually. I will start off with the notion that god
IS / or has the ability to control certain natural phenomena. God’s like these would be Thor the Norse
mythology god of thunder, Ra - the ancient Egyptian god of the sun, Mariamman - the Hindu
god of rain and so on and so forth. What is noticeable about these gods is that
most of these gods are ancient and bygone- and this is because all of these natural phenomena
have been explained, without the aid of superstition. They have been observed and studied by scientists
who have, based on empirical evidence, concluded and made theories about the natural world. It is therefore not a coincidence that these
gods tend to flourish in areas and amongst people, who have limited access to these facts. There is absolutely no good reason why one
should add superstitious beliefs onto a natural occurrence that can be easily and logically
explained without these superstitious beliefs. Because by doing so, it results in infinite
explanations - which are not even explanations at all. For example, the chair you are sitting in
right now, is not just any chair. It is the god of all chairs. And if you are sitting comfortably right now,
it is because the god of all chairs has decided that you should - and if you are sitting uncomfortably,
it is because you have displeased the god of all chairs. I suppose this sounds silly to you? And hopefully it does - and equally so should
a guy swinging a hammer - making thunder and a dude with a bird head controlling the sun. The same logic and way of thinking is just
as relevant when discussing the notion of miracles. If you witness or hear from somebody else,
that some type of remarkable event has happened, ask yourself, what is more likely? That some type of devine agency has bent the
natural and scientific laws as we know them, in order to perform some type of extraordinary
act. Or, there is a perfectly logical and natural
explanation for the event. And if you still do believe in miracles, what
makes you think that it is your god or divine agency that is responsible for the event? The reason why I ask this, is because no matter
what belief system you are embedded in, there are people on each side claiming to have experienced
or witnessed miracles from their gods. And this is not just one religion against
another - these are endless miracles from countless religions opposing one another. This should be a clear indication of what
these so-called ‘miracles’ really are. Which is, well, not miracles at all. Once again, I will imply that we use the same
way of thinking, about the notion of prayers and scripture. Isn’t it weird that there are billions of
people who are praying and who are in dialogue with their god or gods, that are contrary
to one another? I mean, they can’t all be in dialogue with
god, because they are not referring to the same god - This is something even theists
can agree upon. And at best, only one of them can be true,
right. So what is really going on here? Are some of them just lucky enough to have
been born into the right family at the right place and at the right time, so that they’ve
prayed or even spoken to the right god. And all those other people are just misled
and deluded. Not only did God create the entire cosmos,
with billions upon billions of galaxies, and within each galaxy, billions upon billions
of stars and planets - but that same god is also extremely invested in what each and every
one of us human beings on planet earth is thinking. Or is it perhaps more likely, that all prayer
and so called dialogue with the divine is a symptom of delusion. I ask that you think critically and logically
about this. And the same goes for scripture. It is really unfortunate that god authored
more than one holy book - each of which is contrary to one another. This should likewise be a clear indication
that these religious texts aren’t messages from the divine - but rather, man made texts
made millenia ago by peasants who didn’t even know that planet earth was round. Let's say that there is an all-powerful god
who intends to write a book - i’m pretty sure that book would be a little more interesting,
than what we’ve got so far. Because there is absolutely no new information
in any ‘holy book’, neither are there anything that resembles a powerful/all knowing
mind. All there is, is myths and statements that
can be scientifically and logically disproven. Earlier I mentioned that some gods, namely
the ones that control certain aspects of nature are ancient and bygone. Because of the progression of science, we
now have a much broader understanding about the world we live in - so we don’t need
these gods, because they add nothing. Thus, there are still some questions about
the world that science haven’t yet been able to answer. This is questions such as; how did it all
begin? How did life come about? and what happens
when we die? These are questions that have not yet been
answered, and so, these are the areas in which the ‘god-of-the-gaps’ still has wriggle
room. As science has progressed, God's so-called
room for maneuver has shrunken - what people used to believe God was responsible for, have
now shrunken into these last few questions. The god-of-the-gaps is the result of all the
things science has answered, and what is yet to be answered. Still, we can think logically about this devine
‘god-of-the-gaps’ being. If you invoke a supernatural being to explain
how everything started, then you have still answered absolutely nothing, because you are
left without an explanation for that supernatural being itself. We can all agree that the world we live in
is rather complex and so are we, us biological creatures. If something were to create us and the world
we live in, then that creator must be just as, or even more complex than what it is creating. So when theists try to provide answers for
the last few questions science has yet to answer, with the use of a God, they are not
just doing so with the lack of evidence, but the answers they provide are also illogical
and give rise to even more questions which are totally irrelevant. Questions such as, who or what created god? Who or what created the thing that created
god? Who or what created the thing that created
the other thing that created god? And we can ask these questions endlessly. So why not start off with what we know - and
try not to fulfill these gaps with answers that have zero empirical evidence, and that
can be logically invalidated, when given just a brief moment of thought. Throughout human history, over ten thousand
gods have been made up by people, who were trying to find answers for things they couldn’t
answer themselves. Religious people are all atheist, when concerning
all the other gods their religion does not subscribe to - i will just imply that you
go one god further. And so, with this in mind, we can reject the
god hypothesis and all the horrible elements that religion entails - such as the idea of
an eternal hell with endless torment. This is ofcourse a whole other subject about
the amorality of religious doctrine - well, perhaps another video. For now I will just thank you for watching
this video, I hope you liked it! Feel free to give it a thumbs up and subscribe
if you would like to watch more! All there is left to say is, have a wonderful
day!
