The Templeton Conversation

At Templeton.org/belief the foundation is hosting a conversation on whether science makes a belief in God obsolete. It's been dominated in the last few days by two people sparring for position in the Creationism / Evolution debate, mostly around rather peripheral sub-issues. But there's lot of good stuff there. I'm putting my two cents, posted there, up here also.

This great question must be broken down. Why must the Creator be less stunningly beautiful than the creation? Is it only ego that wants God to be an entity, a mirroring personality? Can't we imagine that an order and an energy inherent in the laws of physics spawned DNA and the potential of a living intelligence, and that THAT generative force is more powerful, fascinating, and sacred than our puny idea of The Father?

Does death rob life of purpose and meaning? The most fearful mystery demands an elaborate explanation. If we ever realize that purpose and meaning are inherent in the living of life, it's probably too late to live by the understanding. It is death, more than any other factor, that gives life its meaning; but fear prevents us from seeing it. In the distinct possibility there is NO afterlife, the great irony in a belief that promises one is that those who lived their lives in this belief will not know their error. Not even an "oops" at the end.

Why must meaning be defined from without? All the "words of God," were written, edited, and translated by men, each with their own political agenda, in ages of ignorance and fear. To shrink from searching for personal meaning is a sign of intellectual, if not moral cowardice. How is it that God is the only ethical authority? Again, this belief masks a deeper truth: nature and consciousness demand in parallel the rigorous use of logic and the acceptance of paradox, and a simple nod to human interdependence.

Do we have immortal souls? Do we live on only as an anonymous form of energy without a personality? Or do we simply end? I think it is the paradox of consciousness that forces a belief in a soul. Simply because we cannot imagine ourselves not existing in recognizable form, we have to construct a belief that trivializes life on this plane, and belies again our lack of imagination.

Wild Speculation

I wouldn't boast about the few predictions I've made that have come true. I've made too many that didn't. But I'd like to lay this down with a date and see what happens. I'll lay a bet (at say 10 to 1, amount to be determined) that McCain WILL NOT be the Republican nominee for president, by the end of the convention. Either he will drop out voluntarily, have a major health issue, possibly a mental breakdown, or the back room Republicans, in a desperate last ditch effort to avoid an Obama landslide, will "negotiate" a more viable candidate into the spot.