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The “power” of prayer

Published

Pedro Timóteo

on August 31, 2005

in mysticism, reality and religion

. 14 Comments

The Christian Bible says that “faith can move mountains”.

Me, I believe all the faith in the world can’t move a grain of sand one millimeter.

But, of course, don’t take my word for it. Here’s something to do, if you’re a Christian (but it can work as well if you subscribe to some other creed which says faith has power over the material world):

Pick a perfectly normal coin.
Pray to God, fervently, with all your heart, for it to come up as “heads” when you throw it into the air.
Throw it into the air.
Write down the result in a piece of paper.
Repeat 2-4 a large number of times (at least 100, preferably more).
Calculate the average for “heads” (number or “heads” results divided by number of total throws).
The average is a number between 0 and 1, so multiply it by 100 to get a nice percentage.

So, tell me… did it go the way you expected? And did you go the way you prayed it to go? Were they the same, by the way?

I’d bet (assuming a perfectly normal coin, well thrown, a large number of times) that the average is close to 50% - about half heads, half tails. If so, that means it was random - that prayer didn’t change a thing. (If it was 90% “heads” or more, though, and you can reproduce it whenever you want, even using other coins, or having someone else do the throw while you pray, then, why, you’re a million dollars richer…)

What happened (assuming the normal 45%-55% result)? Did God refuse to be tested by our “heathen” “secular” “worldly” science?

    ”I refuse to prove that I exist,” says God, “for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing.”
    ”But,” say Man, “the Babel fish is a dead giveaway, isn’t it? It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, you don’t. QED.”
    ”Oh dear,” says God, “I hadn’t though of that” and promply vanishes in a puff of logic.

— Douglas Adams

Conversations with “mystics”

Published

Pedro Timóteo

on August 30, 2005

in honesty, reality, reason, religion and thinking

. 12 Comments

Let me know if this is familiar to you. (Though maybe you’ve been on the opposite side…)

You meet someone, maybe through a friend or co-worker, who has a strong belief in the supernatural. Maybe he/she (”she” from now on - blame my laziness) loves astrology, and believes in it with all their heart - up to the point that she says “it’s not a superstition, it’s a science”. Or maybe she’s a devout Christian, who believes that there is a God, that Jesus Christ died for mankind’s sins, and she is sure that she will be “saved” through Jesus. Maybe she is a “new age guru”. Or believes in alien abductions (probably including cattle mutilations and anal probes as well :)), or believes she has “alien experiences” or “out of body experiences”. Or is a wiccan, or a druid, or…

In short, she is a mystic.

Let’s say that this is one of the open minded ones, and that she has above average intelligence - she’s a “challenge”, in a way, and you both want to discuss the nature of reality with each other. So, you talk. And talk. You refute many of her points, one by one - extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof, and there is no proof of any kind, only “I saw it” claims. Occam’s razor says that if two explanations explain something, then the most likely one is the one with the smallest number of entities - in other words, if something could have happened without a god or aliens, then there were probably no gods or aliens involved. Many animals die every year, and insects tend to eat the “softer parts” first, like eyes or testicles, so they appear “mutilated”. There are many contradictions in the Bible, and in the beliefs or most religions; and many people have several conflicting beliefs, like Christianity and astrology (which Christianity absolutely condemns), yet they are OK with it. Many claims of “supernatural” events were later explained as perfectly natural occurrences, and every “medium” has either been proven to be a hoax, or has refused to be tested scientifically… which amounts to pretty much the same thing. James Randi’s Million Dollar Challenge is still unclaimed, though anyone who could demonstrate supernatural powers - and, again, be tested scientifically, by a man who knows every trick of stage magicians, because he’s been one himself - could claim it. And so on, and so on. She will lose every argument she dares argue about rationally.

Eventually, the conversation will end in always the same way.

“But I want to believe in these things!”, she cries. “You lead a cold, empty, materialistic life, while mine is spiritual, it is fulfilled!”, she says. “Who cares about whether it’s real or not? It gives my life meaning, it makes me happy, and that’s what matters!”

Who can argue with that? I certainly can’t, because, at that point, that person has thrown reality, has thrown truth out of the window. She is, in a way, admitting that it doesn’t matter whether God / the spirits / the aliens are real or not, that she chooses to believe in them, therefore her life is more fulfilled this way. Nothing - including the original founder of her belief appearing and saying “sorry, it was all a joke, can’t believe you people took it so seriously!” - would change her mind, because the object(s) of her belief have been replaced by the belief itself.

And, as I said, I can’t argue with that. Because, to me, reality is what matters. It’s the only thing that matters.

Is my life “emptier” because I don’t fool myself? I don’t think so.

How I’ve become an atheist

Published

Pedro Timóteo

on August 26, 2005

in atheism, honesty, reality, reason, religion and truth

. 27 Comments

Douglas Adams (more info) has been one of my favorite writers for years, but, until I read “The Salmon of Doubt”, a collection of essays and articles collected after his death, I only had had contact with his fiction work. But a particular entry in “Salmon” changed my life.

That entry is here, it was an interview Adams did for the American Atheist magazine.

I had a Christian education (Catholic, in fact), and, until I was about 26 or so, I really believed in it. Why? I tended to be rational in most of my life, but there was a part of it about which I apparently refused to think. It’s as if it was something so fragile, that I didn’t let anything near it - like reason or logic - , because I was afraid it would collapse, that I would “lose” it. If faith couldn’t withstand logic, then I wouldn’t let logic come anywhere near it. Why did I want to keep it? In part, I guess, because I loved the person (now deceased) who was responsible for my belief, and I wanted to respect her memory. And maybe I also felt alone - the existence of an all-powerful, all-loving God was something that would keep me company. And there was, too, the promise of “eternal justice” - that the injustices we suffered on Earth were only temporary, that eventually there would be justice, and the good would be rewarded, and the evil would be punished. I wanted it to be true, so much… therefore, I believed it.

Until I read that interview. It certainly got me thinking. And, in a way, Adams had gone through similar experiences, so I could relate. He put into words what I had only felt - that faith and religion, in me, only “survived” because I had a defense mechanism - I refused to think about it, like I thought about anything in the “real world”. But if faith and religion can’t survive a “closer look”… why is that, and, most importantly, what does that tell us about them?

That they are a lie.

Afterwards, I thought a lot about it - what I should have done during all the years before. Is there a God? I don’t think so; reality and the universe can be perfectly explained without one (Occam’s razor), and a God creating the universe in 6 days is no more believable than an Invisible Pink Unicorn or a Flying Spaghetti Monster. But assuming that there is a God… then where is he? Why is there so much suffering? Why do people pray, if it doesn’t work (any scientific test shows it, and there have been some)? Why would a god create a world, then hide all traces of doing it, then stay completely invisible except for some ridiculously minor appearances to a person or two, every couple of centuries? Why would God hide, then damn to eternal suffering everyone who didn’t believe in him?

And the existance of a god is certainly something extraordinary. That, to a scientist, requires extraordinary proof. Where is it? And no, ancient books are not proof. Many people believing in him are not proof either.

I realized that I had been guilty, through most of my life, of two of the worst forms of irrationality: wishful thinking, and refusing to think about something. I had been dishonest with myself. I had put something “above” reality, about the truth. And that is wrong.

But it’s better to open one’s eyes later than never to do it at all.

One of the greatest phrases… and also one of the rarest

Published

Pedro Timóteo

on August 24, 2005

in honesty, reality, thinking and truth

. 2 Comments

There is a phrase that many people spend their entire lives without saying, hearing, or both. And it’s a pity, because it’s something that says a lot of good about whoever says it.

It says that he or she (”he” from now on, because I’m lazy, but the gender doesn’t really matter here) is honest, most importantly with himself. That he is not “old and tired”, but still has a young, inquisiting mind, like that of a child. That he is capable of learning - and willing. That he doesn’t confuse beliefs with principles, to be defended even if reality shows them to be wrong.

It shows that he isn’t arrogant, that he doesn’t believe he knows “enough” and doesn’t need to learn anything more. It shows courage - the courage to review one’s opinions, beliefs, way of thinking, even though not doing it would be a lot easier. It shows a healthy respect for reality, instead of replacing it with beliefs - as if believing something would make it true.

Most of all, it shows that his eyes are open.

The phrase? “I’ve been wrong all these years…”

Rationalism and feelings

Published

Pedro Timóteo

on August 22, 2005

in feelings, reality and reason

. 2 Comments

Person: “This, and this, and this happened to me… and then he did this to me, but I still loved him afterwards… and then he hurt me again, but I still love him…”
Me: “You know, maybe you should try to be more rational in the future…”
Person: “Oh, no! I could never become cold and unfeeling like that!”

The above is a conversation I’ve had more than ten times in my life, each time with a different “Person”.

Continue reading ‘Rationalism and feelings’