(no subject)
Apparently, I can't help but believe in God whether I admit it or not. The Bible says so.
Romans 1:18-20 (NIV) The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities-his eternal power and divine nature-have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
I think the article hit the nail on the head. Not in the way that they think, but about why they think that I must know deep down that God is real. "When he first dictated those words, he was not referring to Jews, steeped in special revelation. He was referring to cynical, unbelieving pagans." People that are "steeped in special revelation" are the people that see God in everything. They are the ones that see the Virgin Mary on a grilled cheese or Jesus in a tree. It only makes sense that the big universe with all of this stuff must be on purpose.
If I mentally squint a little (like I do when looking at stains on an underpass wall), I can sort of accept the Deist proposition, that is, that a divine being whipped up the Universe and then just stood back to watch. That would explain why the rules seem to be so perfect, yet also explain why everything is so complex (the Christian god with his magic miracles shouldn't need all of the apparent complexity).
When I open my eyes again, though, I realize that Deism is just philosophical daydreaming. If a deity started everything but doesn't magically miraculously poke at it every now and then, then we can't tell the difference between a created universe and one that just happened to have the right rules leading to us. In either case, the best we can do is discover the rules behind how the Universe works.
I can't reconcile any of this with the Christian god, however. Want to feel a little bit of the difference? Read Genesis 1, then let yourself bask in the thought that God poofed everything into existence just for us and try to quantify the amount of awe that you feel.
Then watch this.
I don't know how it is for you, but this makes the idea of a big man out there poking at the dirt and making dandelions seem a little unworthy. "You know too much", indeed.