PSI Blog 20171108 Proof of God’s Nonexistence
Obviously, the existence of evil is proof of god’s
nonexistence. Nonetheless, many believers have written books like this one, a
“theodicy,” which is an attempt to resolve the unresolvable contradiction
between the idea that god is good and that “he” invented evil along with
everything else in the universe (all 2 trillion galaxies included). The
contradiction is, of course, especially troubling from the Jewish perspective.
Six million cruel deaths ought to be enough proof for anyone. Any god that would
countenance that would have to be evil incarnate himself. Apparently that is not
enough proof for David Birnbaum, lauded author of numerous theological books.
Occasionally, I am asked to review a religious book (from
the atheistic perspective, I presume). I sometimes oblige just to see what the
other half is doing. This tome, “God and Evil,” is Summa 1 in Birnbaum’s 3-part
“Metaphysica” series.[1] It is sure
to give metaphysics a bad name. You see, metaphysics converts unconscious
presuppositions into explicit assumptions to be used in further analysis. In an
Infinite Universe we have no other choice. I followed Collingwood’s criteria in
asserting that fundamental assumptions always have opposites in which one is false
if the other is true and neither can be completely proven.[2] That is
what I did by formulating “The Ten Assumptions of Science.”[3] A
particularly important assumption was the one that dismisses freewill: The Second Assumption of Science, causality (All effects have an
infinite number of material causes). Religion is based on freewill—that is what
the “Garden of Eden and the Salvation Myths” are all about. The book finally
achieves its basic function of giving god a free pass with these deepities from
the perspective of “sophisticated theology”:
“Yet if we postulate a
God of Israel wholly directed towards opening the gates to man’s infinite
potential by granting him ascending levels of freedom as he ascends
intellectually, and if we grant a God of Israel contracting His real-time
consciousness to grant man this crucial freedom, then our outlook is clearer. A
Deity exercising contraction of real-time consciousness for the greater good,
man’s freedom and potential, clearly—not inscrutably— commits no crimes of
breach of covenant or complicity of silence. He is guilty only of the crime of
increasing man’s freedom—an option exercised by man at Eden” (p. 168)
Of course in the title of this Blog I
was being facetious. In an infinite universe, there is no way to provide a complete proof that something does
not exist. You can never prove that unicorns do not exist either, but I am
not going to waste time trying to find one. I also am not going to make up
stories defending the undefendable.
[1]
Birnbaum, David, 2012,
God and evil : a unified theodicy/theology/philosophy: Manhattan, Harvard
Matrix, 256 p.
[2]
Collingwood, R.G.,
1940, An essay on metaphysics: Oxford, Clarendon Press, 354 p.
[3] Borchardt, Glenn, 2004, The
ten assumptions of science: Toward a new scientific worldview: Lincoln, NE,
iUniverse, 125 p. [Free download a http://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.13320.21761].