I received the following excellent comment that I was so thrilled to answer. It was on the topic of trying to prove a deity and the justification for religion without using religion as a reference.
First, lets watch this fun little video. It even has an interesting musical selection to accompany it. Size of planets and stars to scale:
1. The universe exists.
2. Everything that happens happens because a prior event caused it to happen.If we put these together, we conclude that the universe could not exist unless something caused it to exist. Therefore, there must be something outside of, greater than, or prior to the universe that was capable of causing it to come into existence. This is the logic which makes God a plausible concept.
Even in this proof formula, there exists a ‘leap of faith’. I give you point 1. That is irrefutable. Point 2 is also a scientific known of how the universe works. However, after points 1 and 2, the proof formula breaks down by jumping to a conclusion that because we 1, exist and 2, know that what caused us to exist happened through a series of prior events there must be intelligent design that purposefully set everything in motion to create humans. I can make a similar flawed proof:
1. The universe exists.
2. Everything that happens happens because a prior event caused it to happen.
Therefore an unseen, all powerful alien must have created our universe in his spare time to see what would happen…
This is just as probable and just as provable as jumping to the conclusion that intelligent design exists and cares about the human race.
Through statements 1 and 2, we can only say for certain that we have no idea what caused the universe to be set in motion. Humans know so little about the universe and the more we find out about it, the less and less significant the earth and its inhabitants seem. Through this observation alone it is more probable that there is no intelligent designer that has an interest in human affairs.
It is more accurate to recognize points 1 and 2 and then to simply say “we do not know how the universe began but we are still searching for answers”. Jumping from those 2 points to a conclusion that a deity exists is the ‘leap of faith’ without reason or scientific observation to back it up. Atheists like myself call for this recognition that we simply do not know. It is more humble to say we do not know than to jump to a conclusion of a deity and then push one’s speculations and stories into the lives of others. The “something” that caused the universe to exist could be intelligent design, but just as likely, things just happened. For all we know, the universe could be a perpetual motion machine that expands and contracts and our existence on a tiny little plant in one of the trillions of solar systems is just a fart in the big scheme of things. We do not know and should act as such, and not act as though we have all the answers by following this or that organized religion.
“The Universe” Series
Find more “The Universe” shows on youtube here: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=4EEF5255D3EEF425
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