Physicist Alan Lightman demonstrates the existence of Zeus in his review of Why Science Does Not Disprove God by Amir D. Aczel
For those who prefer not to have a Divine Engineer tuning the dials, the alternatives are unpalatable. The most natural are multiverse theories, according to which all possible universes exist simultaneously and we simply find ourselves in the one that makes our existence possible. This is not out of the question, but there is no actual evidence for it. It is just an “atheism of the gaps,” calling imaginary entities from the vasty deep to plug a theoretical hole. The postulation probably involves gods, too—maybe not the omnipotent creator of the Abrahamic religions, but surely some unlikely combination of quantum fluctuations could produce Zeus and his colorful activities? Zeus is just a very big superman (physically, of course, not morally) up on Olympus and thus something that physics could manage to account for. The other possibility is to hope that there is some unknown mathematical reason why the constants are locked in as they are—again, a possibility, but one for which there is currently no other evidence.
I imagine another universe where Jehovah is just a “superman” who claims to be omnipotent. It’s a universe indistinguishable from our universe.
And there in lies the rub. If there ARE multiverses, then the atheist has no more standing to deny that our particular universe possesses an omniopotent power. So, for all their smugness, they may end up discovering that the Flying Spaghetti Monster is waiting for them upon their death. They are just as likely to end up as some deity’s appetizer as there to be no god.
Incredibly clever argument, which once again shows the absurdity of atheists.
BTW, I may be mistaken, and apologize if I am, but I think the source is James Franklin, not Alan Lightman. Lightman’s review is worth reading as well though.
http://tinyurl.com/ojrq45p
This is unfortunate.
Mathematics describes various properties of our existence, but there is (similarly) no evidence whatsoever that it prescribes them.
In other words, the idea that mathematics is the “reason” – or cause – of various physical properties is almost as disturbing as the idea that Zeus is flying around as a swan and sleeping with your sister.
It is reasonably clear that the author did not intend to ascribe causative agency to an abstract discipline of human thought, but he did.
I sincerely wish he had not done so.
From last year:
http://www.uncommondescent.com.....ent-463740
I guess there’s no evidence for inflation either. What’s up with these non-cosmologist really?
And while Zeus may be logically possible, does that make him physically possible? No