flip

After quite a few pinches, drench shirt, mob drunken crowd our Grand Prix outing was short and uncomfortable.
There were no places to sit on the terrasses, unless you've been there since the morning in the unexpected amount of tourists and locals who decided to bask in the heat, humid 30C temperature.
It sure was a blast for those who went out to go wild and party and drunk 'til there was no tomorrow.

The wild drunken crowd with heavy metal blaring and strippers on the live concert on the street may have been heaven for the tourists and the younger crowd or it's me mellowing down and preferring a slow calm sit and enjoy a cig and espresso and watch less skirts pass by.

Oh well....

-slowhand-

I recently participated in a small debate on a controversial blog which attracted 217 comments to date on the time old question if there is God! Below is the intense discussion on two opposing opinions, an atheist point of view (SeasideMan) and a God believing opinion, me (davij):

davij davij pro
2008-06-01 @ 00:22

.. back to the endless debate of evolution or the big bang!
In my opinion, the universe proves there was a Creator, God if you wish to call it.
Same argument of course will arise from Darwinists to say it is a big explosion that causes the universe.
Same question I pose then, who caused the explosion?
Just to make it clear, although I am Catholic, I believe there is someone here or there that created all these, not necessarily as Vatican say so.

SeasideMan SeasideMan pro
2008-06-01 @ 00:31

It's virtually certain that the universe started with the Big Bang and that evolution has continued since then.
Whether that Big Bang was started by "god" or some other means, no-one can yet say. Perhaps we'll find out for sure some time but until we do I'm happy not knowing for sure either way. I have no beliefs: I would call myself an "agnostic soft atheist".
If pushed, I would say that the matter in the universe has probably always existed. This is the least problematic explanation and is the one that is most in accordance with Occam's Razor.

Cheers, Tom.

davij davij pro
2008-06-01 @ 00:45

I could believe in the Big Bang rather than the garden of Eden but the mere fact that it may have been started by "some other means" still goes back to somebody or something caused it to happen.
Is it gas, molecules, nuclear? Who, what created such "things"?
My opinion is that the "it", the "something" or "somebody" is a superior being or it or something which I believe is God or whatever name others will call it.

SeasideMan SeasideMan pro
2008-06-01 @ 01:06

Not knowing leaves the field completely open.
The oscillating universe theory is gaining credulity now. This says that there has been a cycle of Big Bangs forever. That doesn't seem unreasonable to me.
But the basic point remains: this universe almost certainly started with a Big Bang, but we know nothing of what happened before that,
I dislike the concept of belief. I don't see how belief is any different to wishful thinking. At the moment, the most we can be reasonably sure of is that there was a Big Bang but we don't know how it started. If you choose to "believe" that is god, that's your wishful thinking right there.

Tom.

davij davij pro
2008-06-01 @ 08:33

..believe may not be the proper word, now we're probably playing with semantics, which does not differ much from you"accepting", "believing", "concluding", "whatever" that you do not know how it started at the same time stating there has been a cycle of big bang forever is a contradiction by itself. Changing your claim as reason and twisting mine to wishful thinking does not prove anything.
I can easily say your reasoning without proof is likewise wishful thinking.
An object will not move without a force to cause it.
An explosion cannot happen from nothing.

SeasideMan SeasideMan pro
2008-06-01 @ 10:21

Why do you see a cycle of big bangs as being a contradiction"? What exactly is being contradicted?
I haven't changed a "claim", I've just given you some of the modern scientific thought on the subject. Nor have I "twisted" anything you have said, I have merely proffered an opinion.

Tom.

davij davij pro
2008-06-01 @ 17:05

..they say in the end, everybody has a minute before he closes his eyes forever and in that longest 60 seconds of his life, he will utter the word God.
This is not a scientific statement just a personal thing and I prefer it that way, and for me it seems more gratifying than the thought that I am simply an offshoot of an explosive mutation. I 'believe' that man is a superior being of limitless capability to think both scientifically and abstraction created by that Unknown called God.
I'm happier this way!

Where do you stand?