Classic Quotes: “The Cosmos is all that is, or ever was, or ever will be.”

10 Replies to “Classic Quotes: “The Cosmos is all that is, or ever was, or ever will be.””

1. 1
   bornagain77 says:

   July 6, 2013 at 5:21 pm

   Somewhat along this line Dr. Hunter, I noted yesterday that a strong argument for ascertaining whether humans have any true meaning and purpose in the universe can now be made from modern science. The basic, primary, contention from atheists through the years has been the Copernican principle, (mediocrity principle), which perhaps reached its zenith in Carl Sagan’s ‘Pale Blue Dot’, in which it is held the earth, and by default humans, have no special significance in the universe whatsoever. Sagan sums up the sentiment here:

   “Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.”
   – Carl Sagan
   http://www.goodreads.com/work/.....e-in-space

   And indeed when one looks out onto the vastness of space, without that sure knowledge of the presence of God abiding with them, one can be overcome with a feeling of insignificance and even despair. But that was yesterday, today advances in science have overcome this belief that we have no privileged place in the universe.

   The Privileged Planet – video
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnWyPIzTOTw

   The very conditions that make Earth hospitable to intelligent life also make it well suited to viewing and analyzing the universe as a whole.
   – Jay Richards

   Besides this ‘privileged planet’ evidence, in what I consider an absolutely fascinating discovery, Einstein’s General Relativity has shown that 4-dimensional (4D) space-time, along with all energy and matter, was created in the ‘Big Bang’ and continues to ‘expand equally in all places’ (expanding equally in all places to a precision of 1 in 1^120):

   There is no centre of the universe! According to the standard theories of cosmology, the universe started with a “Big Bang” about 14 thousand million years ago and has been expanding ever since. Yet there is no centre to the expansion; it is the same everywhere. The Big Bang should not be visualized as an ordinary explosion. The universe is not expanding out from a centre into space; rather, the whole universe is expanding and it is doing so equally at all places, as far as we can tell.

   I find the best way to get this “centrality of the Earth in the universe” point across is to visualize it first hand. Thus I reference the first few minutes of this following video to clearly get this ‘centrality’ point across:

   Centrality of The Earth Within The 4-Dimensional Space-Time of General Relativity – video
   http://www.metacafe.com/w/8421879

   Moreover, this ‘circle’ of the CMBR that is found by modern science to encompass the Earth, from the remnant of the creation event that brought the entire universe instantaneously into being, was actually predicted in the Bible centuries earlier:

   Proverbs 8:27 (King James Version)
   “When he prepared the heavens, I was there: when he drew a circle upon the face of the depth:”

   Proverbs 8:27 (New International Version)
   “I was there when he set the heavens in place, when he marked out the horizon on the face of the deep,”

   But as compelling as it is to use the privileged planet principle, in conjunction with the centrality observerd for the Earth in the 4-Dimensional (4D) space-time of General Relativity, to overturn the Copernican ‘mediocrity’ principle of the Earth in the universe, this method, while of establishing centrality for the earth, while certainly very powerful in its own right as to overturning the mediocrity principle, falls short of explaining what I term ‘true centrality’ in the universe and still does not fully explain to us exactly why the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation (CMBR) forms an ‘almost’ perfect sphere around the Earth. The primary reason for why the higher dimensional 4D space-time, governing the expansion of this 3-Dimensional universe, is insufficient to maintain 3D symmetry for every point of observation in the universe, all by itself, becomes clear if one tries to imagine radically different points of observation in the universe. Since the universe is shown to have only (approximately) 10^80 sub-atomic particles to work with, once a person tries to imagine keeping perfect 3D symmetry, from radically different points of observation within the CMBR sphere, then a person quickly finds that it is geometrically impossible to maintain such 3D symmetry of centrality within the CMBR sphere with finite 3D material particles to work with. As well, fairly exhaustive examination of the General Relativity equations themselves, at least from as far as I can follow the math, mathematically prove the insufficiency of General Relativity to account for the ‘completeness’ of 4D space-time within the sphere of the CMBR from differing points of observation in the universe[13 – The Cauchy Problem of General Relativity – Igor Rodnianski]. But if the 4D space-time of General Relativity is insufficient to explain ‘true 3D centrality’ of the Earth and every point of observation in the universe, what else can explain it since we certainly observe centrality for ourselves within the 4-D sphere of the CMBR? Quantum Mechanics gives us the reason why. ‘True centrality’ in the universe is achieved by ‘universal quantum wave collapse of photons’, to each point of ‘conscious observation’ in the universe, and is the only answer that has adequate sufficiency to explain ‘true 3D centrality’ that we witness for ourselves within the CMBR of the universe. Moreover because of advances in Quantum Mechanics, the argument for God from consciousness can now be framed like this:

   1. Consciousness either preceded all of material reality or is a ‘epi-phenomena’ of material reality.
   2. If consciousness is a ‘epi-phenomena’ of material reality then consciousness will be found to have no special position within material reality. Whereas conversely, if consciousness precedes material reality then consciousness will be found to have a special position within material reality.
   3. Consciousness is found to have a special, even central, position within material reality. [14]
   4. Therefore, consciousness is found to precede material reality.

   I find it extremely interesting, and strange, that quantum mechanics tells us that instantaneous quantum wave collapse to its ‘uncertain’ 3D state is centered on each individual conscious observer in the universe, whereas, 4D space-time cosmology (General Relativity) tells us each 3D point in the universe is central to the expansion of the universe. These findings of modern science are pretty much exactly what we would expect to see if this universe were indeed created, and sustained, from a higher dimension by a omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent, eternal Being who knows everything that is happening everywhere in the universe at the same time. These findings certainly seem to go to the very heart of the age old question asked of many parents by their children, “How can God hear everybody’s prayers at the same time?”,,, i.e. Why should the expansion of the universe, or the quantum wave collapse of the entire universe, even care that you or I, or anyone else, should exist? Only Theism, Christian Theism in particular, offers a rational explanation as to why you or I, or anyone else, should have such undeserved significance in such a vast universe. [15]
   https://docs.google.com/document/d/1BHAcvrc913SgnPcDohwkPnN4kMJ9EDX-JJSkjc4AXmA/edit

   Psalm 33:13-15
   The LORD looks from heaven; He sees all the sons of men. From the place of His dwelling He looks on all the inhabitants of the earth; He fashions their hearts individually; He considers all their works.

   Footnote:

   It is also interesting to note that ‘higher dimensional’ mathematics had to be developed before Einstein could elucidate General Relativity, or even before Quantum Mechanics could be elucidated;

   The Mathematics Of Higher Dimensionality – Gauss and Riemann – video
   http://www.metacafe.com/watch/6199520/

   3D to 4D shift – Carl Sagan – video with notes
   Excerpt from Notes: The state-space of quantum mechanics is an infinite-dimensional function space. Some physical theories are also by nature high-dimensional, such as the 4-dimensional general relativity.
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VS1mwEV9wA

   The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences – Eugene Wigner – 1960
   Excerpt: We now have, in physics, two theories of great power and interest: the theory of quantum phenomena and the theory of relativity.,,, The two theories operate with different mathematical concepts: the four dimensional Riemann space and the infinite dimensional Hilbert space,
   http://www.dartmouth.edu/~matc.....igner.html

   Also of note:

   Of interest to this undermining of General Relativity as the complete description of reality, Einstein was asked (by a philosopher):

   “Can physics demonstrate the existence of ‘the now’ in order to make the notion of ‘now’ into a scientifically valid term?”

   Einstein’s answer was categorical, he said:

   “The experience of ‘the now’ cannot be turned into an object of physical measurement, it can never be a part of physics.”

   Quote was taken from the last few minutes of this following video:
   Stanley L. Jaki: “The Mind and Its Now”
   https://vimeo.com/10588094

   The preceding statement was an interesting statement for Einstein to make since ‘the now of the mind’ has, from many recent experiments in quantum mechanics, undermined Einstein’s General Relativity as to being the absolute frame of reference for reality. i.e. ‘the now of the mind’, contrary to what Einstein thought possible for experimental physics, according to advances in quantum mechanics, takes precedence over past events in time. Moreover, due to advances in quantum mechanics, it would now be much more appropriate to phrase Einstein’s answer to the philosopher in this way:

   “It is impossible for the experience of ‘the now of the mind’ to be divorced from physical measurement, it will always be a part of physics.”

   The following site is also very interesting as to this line of thought;

   The Scale of The Universe – Part 2 – interactive graph (recently updated in 2012 with cool features)
   http://htwins.net/scale2/scale.....olor=white

   The preceding interactive graph points out that the smallest scale visible to the human eye (as well as a human egg) is at 10^-4 meters, which ‘just so happens’ to be directly in the exponential center of all possible sizes of our physical reality (not just ‘nearly’ in the exponential center!). i.e. 10^-4 is, exponentially, right in the middle of 10^-35 meters, which is the smallest possible unit of length, which is Planck length, and 10^27 meters, which is the largest possible unit of ‘observable’ length since space-time was created in the Big Bang, which is the diameter of the universe. This is very interesting for, as far as I can tell, the limits to human vision (as well as the size of the human egg) could have, theoretically, been at very different positions than directly in the exponential middle;
2. 2
   bornagain77 says:

   July 6, 2013 at 5:27 pm

   Related notes:

   “Dr. Michael Denton on Evidence of Fine-Tuning in the Universe” (Remarkable balance of various key elements for life) – podcast
   http://intelligentdesign.podom.....3_59-07_00

   The Place of Life and Man in Nature: Defending the Anthropocentric Thesis – Michael J. Denton – February 25, 2013
   Summary (page 11)
   Many of the properties of the key members of Henderson’s vital ensemble —water, oxygen, CO2, HCO3 —are in several instances fit specifically for warm-blooded, air-breathing organisms such as ourselves. These include the thermal properties of water, its low viscosity, the gaseous nature of oxygen and CO2 at ambient temperatures, the inertness of oxygen at ambient temperatures, and the bicarbonate buffer, with its anomalous pKa value and the elegant means of acid-base regulation it provides for air-breathing organisms. Some of their properties are irrelevant to other classes of organisms or even maladaptive.
   It is very hard to believe there could be a similar suite of fitness for advanced carbon-based life forms. If carbon-based life is all there is, as seems likely, then the design of any active complex terrestrial being would have to closely resemble our own. Indeed the suite of properties of water, oxygen, and CO2 together impose such severe constraints on the design and functioning of the respiratory and cardiovascular systems that their design, even down to the details of capillary and alveolar structure can be inferred from first principles. For complex beings of high metabolic rate, the designs actualized in complex Terran forms are all that can be. There are no alternative physiological designs in the domain of carbon-based life that can achieve the high metabolic activity manifest in man and other higher organisms.
   http://bio-complexity.org/ojs/.....O-C.2013.1

   Verse, quote, and music:

   Isaiah 45:18-19
   For thus says the Lord, who created the heavens, who is God, who formed the earth and made it, who established it, who did not create it in vain, who formed it to be inhabited: “I am the Lord, and there is no other. I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth; I did not say to the seed of Jacob, ‘seek me in vain’; I, the Lord speak righteousness, I declare things that are right.”

   “When I was young, I said to God, ‘God, tell me the mystery of the universe.’ But God answered, ‘That knowledge is for me alone.’ So I said, ‘God, tell me the mystery of the peanut.’ Then God said, ‘Well George, that’s more nearly your size.’ And he told me.”
   George Washington Carver

   Carrie Underwood with Vince Gill How Great thou Art – Standing Ovation!
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLLMzr3PFgk
3. 3
   Barb says:

   July 6, 2013 at 5:53 pm

   The part “the cosmos is all that is” is understandable at least. But the part “the cosmos is all that ever will be” is not. Could Sagan see into the future? How did he know for sure that the cosmos is all that ever will be?
4. 4
   bornagain77 says:

   July 6, 2013 at 9:40 pm

   Barb as to

   “The part “the cosmos is all that is” is understandable at least. But the part “the cosmos is all that ever will be” is not.”

   Carl Sagan’s view of, “The Cosmos is all that is, or ever was, or ever will be.”, is, as I’m sure you are well aware, false. Besides the universe now known to be brought into being instantaneously at the Big Bang, there is also very good reason to believe that the universe will expire in the future in a ‘heat death’:

   Refutation Of Oscillating Universe – Michael Strauss PhD. – video:
   http://www.metacafe.com/watch/4323673

   Evidence For Flat Universe – Boomerang Project
   http://www.lbl.gov/Science-Art.....-flat.html

   Did the Universe Hyperinflate? – Hugh Ross – April 2010
   Excerpt: Perfect geometric flatness is where the space-time surface of the universe exhibits zero curvature (see figure 3). Two meaningful measurements of the universe’s curvature parameter, ½k, exist. Analysis of the 5-year database from WMAP establishes that -0.0170 < ½k < 0.0068.4 Weak gravitational lensing of distant quasars by intervening galaxies places -0.031 < ½k < 0.009.5 Both measurements confirm the universe indeed manifests zero or very close to zero geometric curvature,,,
   http://www.reasons.org/did-universe-hyperinflate

   A ‘flat universe’, which is actually another very surprising finely-tuned ‘coincidence’ of the universe, means this universe, left to its own present course of accelerating expansion due to Dark Energy, will continue to expand forever, thus fulfilling the thermodynamic equilibrium of the second law to its fullest extent (entropic ‘Heat Death’ of the universe).

   The Future of the Universe
   Excerpt: After all the black holes have evaporated, (and after all the ordinary matter made of protons has disintegrated, if protons are unstable), the universe will be nearly empty. Photons, neutrinos, electrons and positrons will fly from place to place, hardly ever encountering each other. It will be cold, and dark, and there is no known process which will ever change things. — Not a happy ending.
   http://spiff.rit.edu/classes/p.....uture.html

   Thus, for the materialist, there is no future ‘all that will ever be’. Yet unbeknownst to most materialists, the ‘cosmos’ is far more grand and glorious (and even far more frightening) in its mysteries than Carl Sagan envisioned. For we now have, as I’m sure you have seen before, fairly good evidence for a everlasting heavenly dimension above this temporal realm, (and we even now have fairly good evidence for a everlasting hellish dimension below this temporal realm)

   Time, as we understand it temporally, would come to a complete stop at the speed of light. To grasp the whole ‘time coming to a complete stop at the speed of light’ concept a little more easily, imagine moving away from the face of a clock at the speed of light. Would not the hands on the clock stay stationary as you moved away from the face of the clock at the speed of light? Moving away from the face of a clock at the speed of light happens to be the same ‘thought experiment’ that gave Einstein his breakthrough insight into e=mc2.

   Albert Einstein – Special Relativity – Insight Into Eternity – ‘thought experiment’ video
   http://www.metacafe.com/w/6545941/

   “The laws of relativity have changed timeless existence from a theological claim to a physical reality. Light, you see, is outside of time, a fact of nature proven in thousands of experiments at hundreds of universities. I don’t pretend to know how tomorrow can exist simultaneously with today and yesterday. But at the speed of light they actually and rigorously do. Time does not pass.”
   Richard Swenson – More Than Meets The Eye, Chpt. 12

   ‘In the ‘spirit world,,, instantly, there was no sense of time. See, everything on earth is related to time. You got up this morning, you are going to go to bed tonight. Something is new, it will get old. Something is born, it’s going to die. Everything on the physical plane is relative to time, but everything in the spiritual plane is relative to eternity. Instantly I was in total consciousness and awareness of eternity, and you and I as we live in this earth cannot even comprehend it, because everything that we have here is filled within the veil of the temporal life. In the spirit life that is more real than anything else and it is awesome. Eternity as a concept is awesome. There is no such thing as time. I knew that whatever happened was going to go on and on.’
   Mickey Robinson – Near Death Experience testimony – video
   http://www.metacafe.com/watch/4045544

   It is also very interesting to point out that the ‘light at the end of the tunnel’, reported in many Near Death Experiences(NDEs), is also corroborated by Special Relativity when considering the optical effects for traveling at the speed of light. Please compare the similarity of the optical effect, noted at the 3:22 minute mark of the following video, when the 3-Dimensional world ‘folds and collapses’ into a tunnel shape around the direction of travel as a ‘hypothetical’ observer moves towards the ‘higher dimension’ of the speed of light, with the ‘light at the end of the tunnel’ reported in very many Near Death Experiences: (Of note: This following video was made by two Australian University Physics Professors with a supercomputer.)

   Approaching The Speed Of Light – Optical Effects – video
   http://www.metacafe.com/watch/5733303/

   The NDE and the Tunnel – Kevin Williams’ research conclusions
   Excerpt: I started to move toward the light. The way I moved, the physics, was completely different than it is here on Earth. It was something I had never felt before and never felt since. It was a whole different sensation of motion. I obviously wasn’t walking or skipping or crawling. I was not floating. I was flowing. I was flowing toward the light. I was accelerating and I knew I was accelerating, but then again, I didn’t really feel the acceleration. I just knew I was accelerating toward the light. Again, the physics was different – the physics of motion of time, space, travel. It was completely different in that tunnel, than it is here on Earth. I came out into the light and when I came out into the light, I realized that I was in heaven.
   Barbara Springer

   Dr. Quantum in Flatland – 3D in a 2D world – video
   http://www.disclose.tv/action/....._2D_world/

   As well, as with the scientifically verified tunnel for special relativity, we also have scientific confirmation of extreme ‘tunnel curvature’, within space-time, to a eternal ‘event horizon’ at black holes;

   Space-Time of a Black hole
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0VOn9r4dq8
5. 5
   bornagain77 says:

   July 6, 2013 at 9:41 pm

   And Blackholes are found to be extremely ‘chaotic’,

   Thermodynamics – 3.1 Entropy
   Excerpt: Entropy – A measure of the amount of randomness
   or disorder in a system.

   Entropy of the Universe – Hugh Ross – May 2010
   Excerpt: Egan and Lineweaver found that supermassive black holes are the largest contributor to the observable universe’s entropy. They showed that these supermassive black holes contribute about 30 times more entropy than what the previous research teams estimated.
   http://www.reasons.org/entropy-universe

   Roger Penrose – How Special Was The Big Bang?
   “But why was the big bang so precisely organized, whereas the big crunch (or the singularities in black holes) would be expected to be totally chaotic? It would appear that this question can be phrased in terms of the behaviour of the WEYL part of the space-time curvature at space-time singularities. What we appear to find is that there is a constraint WEYL = 0 (or something very like this) at initial space-time singularities-but not at final singularities-and this seems to be what confines the Creator’s choice to this very tiny region of phase space.”

   Scientists gear up to take a picture of a black hole – January 2012
   Excerpt: “Swirling around the black hole like water circling the drain in a bathtub, the matter compresses and the resulting friction turns it into plasma heated to a billion degrees or more, causing it to ‘glow’ – and radiate energy that we can detect here on Earth.”
   http://www.physorg.com/news/20.....-hole.html

   As well, as with the tunnel being present in heavenly NDE’s, we also have mention of tunnels in hellish NDE testimonies;

   A man, near the beginning of this video, gives testimony of falling down a ‘tunnel’ in the transition stage from this world to hell:

   Hell – A Warning! – video
   http://www.metacafe.com/watch/4131476/

   The man, in this following video, also speaks of ‘tumbling down’ a tunnel in his transition stage to hell:

   Bill Wiese on Sid Roth – video
   http://vimeo.com/21230371

   It is also interesting to note, from a scientific and theological perspective, that special relativity is found to ‘merge’ with quantum mechanics whereas general relativity is notorious for its inability to ‘merge’ with quantum mechanics:

   Theories of the Universe: Quantum Mechanics vs. General Relativity
   Excerpt: The first attempt at unifying relativity and quantum mechanics took place when special relativity was merged with electromagnetism. This created the theory of quantum electrodynamics, or QED. It is an example of what has come to be known as relativistic quantum field theory, or just quantum field theory. QED is considered by most physicists to be the most precise theory of natural phenomena ever developed.
   In the 1960s and ’70s, the success of QED prompted other physicists to try an analogous approach to unifying the weak, the strong, and the gravitational forces. Out of these discoveries came another set of theories that merged the strong and weak forces called quantum chromodynamics, or QCD, and quantum electroweak theory, or simply the electroweak theory, which you’ve already been introduced to.
   If you examine the forces and particles that have been combined in the theories we just covered, you’ll notice that the obvious force missing is that of gravity.
   http://www.infoplease.com/cig/.....ivity.html

   Precise measurements test quantum electrodynamics, constrain possible fifth fundamental force – June 04, 2013
   Excerpt: Quantum electrodynamics (QED) – the relativistic quantum field theory of electrodynamics – describes how light and matter interact – achieves full agreement between quantum mechanics and special relativity.,, QED solves the problem of infinities associated with charged pointlike particles and, perhaps more importantly, includes the effects of spontaneous particle-antiparticle generation from the vacuum.,,, Recently, scientists,, tested QED to extreme precision..,,, can be interpreted in terms of constraints on possible fifth-force interactions beyond the Standard Model of physics,,
   http://phys.org/news/2013-06-p.....ental.html

   Myself, seeing that Near Death testimonies have far more credible evidence going for them than Darwinism does,,,

   Near-Death Experiences: Putting a Darwinist’s Evidentiary Standards to the Test – Dr. Michael Egnor – October 15, 2012
   Excerpt: Indeed, about 20 percent of NDE’s are corroborated, which means that there are independent ways of checking about the veracity of the experience. The patients knew of things that they could not have known except by extraordinary perception — such as describing details of surgery that they watched while their heart was stopped, etc. Additionally, many NDE’s have a vividness and a sense of intense reality that one does not generally encounter in dreams or hallucinations.,,,
   The most “parsimonious” explanation — the simplest scientific explanation — is that the (Near Death) experience was real. Tens of millions of people have had such experiences. That is tens of millions of more times than we have observed the origin of species (or origin of life, or origin of a protein), which is never.,,,
   The materialist reaction, in short, is unscientific and close-minded. NDE’s show fellows like Coyne at their sneering unscientific irrational worst. Somebody finds a crushed fragment of a fossil and it’s earth-shaking evidence. Tens of million of people have life-changing spiritual experiences and it’s all a big yawn.
   Note: Dr. Egnor is professor and vice-chairman of neurosurgery at the State University of New York at Stony Brook.

   “A recent analysis of several hundred cases showed that 48% of near-death experiencers reported seeing their physical bodies from a different visual perspective. Many of them also reported witnessing events going on in the vicinity of their body, such as the attempts of medical personnel to resuscitate them (Kelly et al., 2007).”
   Kelly, E. W., Greyson, B., & Kelly, E. F. (2007). Unusual experiences near death and related phenomena. In E. F. Kelly, E. W. Kelly, A. Crabtree, A. Gauld, M. Grosso, & B. Greyson, Irreducible mind (pp. 367-421). Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.

   Michaela’s Amazing NEAR death experience – video
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....age#t=629s

   , and seeing, as we have now reviewed, that there are two very different eternities accessible from this temporal dimension that very well may be entered into by our souls upon death, I take the warnings about hell very seriously:

   Why Hell is so Horrible – Bill Wiese – video
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hd_so3wPw8

   Verse and Music:

   Mark 9:47
   And if your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell,

   Evanescence – The Other Side (Lyric Video)
   http://www.vevo.com/watch/evan.....tantsearch
6. 6
   bornagain77 says:

   July 6, 2013 at 10:44 pm

   One of the COOLEST Performances of How Great Thou Art using DRUMS! – Inspirational Videos
   http://www.godtube.com/watch/?v=00BMMJNU
7. 7
   wallstreeter43 says:

   July 8, 2013 at 4:12 am

   Atheists cry foul when a believer injects faith in science, but when someone like Sagan interjects this absolutely rediculous and unscientific saying we don’t even hear a peep from the national Academy of Sciences .

   These folks live in their own little bubble and believe that they are Gods.
   What a rude awakening when they find themselves standing before the allmighty.
8. 8
   wallstreeter43 says:

   July 8, 2013 at 4:17 am

   Correct Bornagain, the Nde’s your talking about are called veridical Nde’s precisely because they could be verified by witnesses outside of the nde experiencer. It is veridical Nde’s that truly expose atheism as an emotional worldview, but for the life of me I could never understand why someone would want to defend a worldview with no uptime meaning, truth or purpose.
   Atheism is like a brain on LSD .
9. 9
   bornagain77 says:

   July 8, 2013 at 4:38 am

   WS43: “Atheism is like a brain on LSD”

   And the result is going to be a ‘bad trip’ the likes of which the most horrendous nightmare can not even begin to touch. The unimaginable consequences and inconceivable rewards, for either rejecting or accepting God, balanced against each other, even made legendary mathematician John von Neuman consider Pascal’s wager on his death bed and convert from his agnosticism:

   While at Walter Reed, he invited a Roman Catholic priest, Father Anselm Strittmatter, O.S.B., to visit him for consultation. Von Neumann reportedly said in explanation that Pascal had a point, referring to Pascal’s wager. Father Strittmatter administered the last sacraments to him.,,,
   per wiki

   Pascal’s Wager – The Unavoidable Bet Everyone Makes In Life – video
   http://www.metacafe.com/watch/4224424/

   The Argument from Pascal’s Wager
   Excerpt: Most philosophers think Pascal’s Wager is the weakest of all arguments for believing in the existence of God. Pascal thought it was the strongest. After finishing the argument in his Pensées, he wrote, “This is conclusive, and if men are capable of any truth, this is it.” That is the only time Pascal ever wrote a sentence like that, for he was one of the most skeptical philosophers who ever wrote.
   Suppose someone terribly precious to you lay dying, and the doctor offered to try a new “miracle drug” that he could not guarantee but that seemed to have a 50-50 chance of saving your beloved friend’s life. Would it be reasonable to try it, even if it cost a little money? And suppose it were free—wouldn’t it be utterly reasonable to try it and unreasonable not to?
   http://www.peterkreeft.com/top.....-wager.htm
10. 10
    bb says:

    July 8, 2013 at 12:45 pm

    bornagain77 @9

    This thought hit me today about Pascal’s wager. I agree with his point but think it only applies to a tolerant society where there is no physical cost to following Christ. I think Pascal’s wager falls flat in many countries where Christianity is a crime. You stand to lose much more than naught (life, home, family, job) by choosing to follow Christ if it proves there is no God.

    John 15

    18 “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. 20 Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.

    Jesus didn’t say “…count the cost…” because there is none. I am a Christian but am hesitant to argue Pascal’s Wager for that reason. The west is changing fast and there will one day be a great cost for one who claims to follow Christ.