Comments on MSS: Book Review - The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins

For an excellent review of the psychology of relig...

2009-01-05T04:42:00.000+11:00

For an excellent review of the psychology of religion you should read "In Gods We Trust" by Scott Atran

Hi Jeff - I think some of this philosophy may take...

2007-08-14T00:02:00.000+10:00

Hi Jeff - I think some of this philosophy may take me outside of what I know!

I think you're entirely correct - our equations etc are essentially our interpretation of the Universe. Perhaps there is no intention behind the universe, perhaps it just "is" and maybe there is no "why", but I guess we can only ask the questions we can ask.

What I can't get my head around is that there may be fundamental things about the Universe that just are. Perhaps the Universe is something that we will continue to observe and attempt to explain until we blow ourselves up or make our own Universes.

In response to Marc's reply, I have to argue that ...

2007-08-10T15:32:00.000+10:00

In response to Marc's reply, I have to argue that nothing "made" the equations about the universe. Any equation we make about the universe is merely an observation of its behaviour, and another species may have an entirely different interpretation depending on their own value system. The universe appears to be reducible purely because that is the only way humans have of understanding it - to break its behaviour down into neat little statements of numbers and relationships. These equations do not define the universe however - the "gravity" effect would occur even if we did not exist, but our definition and interpretation of it would not. The universe did not evolve into an environment that could support life - life evolved to suit the universe.

There is no "why" - that is merely another human construct. To ask why implies that there is reason behind it, which further implies intention, and the existence of a "deity". And there is no evidence of that.

I posted an article on Dawkins at Digital Journal ...

2007-07-27T04:30:00.000+10:00

I posted an article on Dawkins at Digital Journal that you might be interested in. The article can be found at:

http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/210063/The_Dawkins_Defeat

If you haven't heard of Digital Journal... I was accepted as a writer there a few days ago and if your writing is good, you can get paid for submitting articles.

Thanks for the nice comments!

What I wonder...

2007-07-26T22:07:00.000+10:00

Thanks for the nice comments!

What I wonder about the laws of nature is, not whether they are true or not as they are testable as you say, but why are they true. I guess that's the question - why is the Universe reducible to a set of equations? What "made" the equations? It may not be a God, it may be that they are fundamental to the Universe - but that in itself is amazing!

Possibly every alternative explanation is beyond us at the moment and we should be open-minded and keep looking. Maybe we are in a simulation...

This is a very good book review. Instead of taking...

2007-07-26T15:18:00.000+10:00

This is a very good book review. Instead of taking one side or another it leaves readers with a fairly cool and distanced look at The God Delusion.

I think that you should leave out personal opinion though. For example, I don't agree with you when you say that the laws of nature bugger, oops, beg the question. They are tested and can be re-rested and verified. There is no assumption that the laws of nature are true when that is the issue to be discussed. The laws of nature are true. They would exist even if we did not. Gravity would still hold and so would E=mc^2.

But on the whole a very competent and nice book review. Well done.