the big bang theory is *just* a theory

[Tortington]

it was said on another thread that there is 'evidence'

I don't believe that god said 'let there be light' and all that malarky either.

but p[eople seem to spout that everything was created becuase of a big bang.

and i can't see ...if there was an exploson of this magnitude how there would be evidence to prove that it happened.

so, big bang theorists. without typing a thesis - or telling me to read a 'dawkins' book or some such - can you in lay mans terms explain where the evidence is for this theory.

i shall bump at lunch time when i have chance

Message withdrawn

I don't see why people have to choose one or the other. it is possibly to not believe either theory.

I'm not that partial to the whole theory of evolution but that doesn't mean I think there is a god either.

Some people don't need this kind of crutch or 'reason' for being here. Some people are just happy to get on with stuff without needing some kind of explanation!

that's me that is!

LOL Pruni

Good post pruners

if you want to read a book about these things, try 'Straw Dogs' by John Gray.

clicky

beanie - As I've said before, Big Bang is totally compatible with the theory of a Creator God.

Big Bang might very well be how God created the universe - out of nothing, in a split second. There is nothing in our current knowledge of the origins of the universe that says it can't have been created by the conscious effort of a deity.

yes, but Cote... it's perfectly reasonable for me to bot believe either. I wasn't raised with any religious influence at all, I consider myself lucky to be blissfully unaware of this idea of a god until it was drip fed to me in school.

I don't know what you call a person like me. I have not rejected god as he was never there for me to reject. Similarly I am not rejecting the big bang theory I am just not choosing it as an alternative to some kind of god figure.

I am sure there are people out there who believe in both 'theories' I just happen to be a person who believes in neither.

Although I'm an atheist, I much prefer the idea of a Creator god who just created Physics and let the rest happen - way cooler than the ID God, who thinks "ooh - they'll need to see. Let's make eyes. Hmm. well, they'll need nipples. Well, men won't. Hmm. I could make them all girls to start off with, and then I wouldn't need to get rid of the male nipple gene. Oh. I've made a Dodo. Was that a bad idea?"

Habbibu, I'm with you on this one.
In my world there's a 'force' that set everything off and is not an 'all seeing, all knowing, benign' 'looking out for us' God. Because lets face it, if he was then he doesn't really do a good job of it does he?

Also with you on the "Fact! Google it"

Btw, does the 'Force' thingy make me a Star Trekky?

Lol Habbibu.

No, it makes you a Jedi. Mixing your SciFi. Tsk.

beanie - I'm just like you, actually. I had no religious influence as a child and when I started school, I was actually quite surprised to see that most people seemed to believe in God. I was quite vocal about my disbelief in any of it. Fortunately, I was born in one of the few Muslim countries where you don't meet a nasty end for saying things like that

I was only pointing out that Big Bang isn't an alternative to Creator God, because there is nothing in either stories that contradict each other.

Habbibu - re "the idea of a Creator god who just created Physics and let the rest happen|

That idea is called "Watchmaker God". Fact. Google it

If I were inclined to believe in anything without proof, I could conceivably believe in a Watchmaker God - i.e. one who set things in motion and never interfered after that point.

In fact, who can say that the Watchmaker is not an advanced civilization, possibly even human, and we are not living in a simulation?

It's that being in the middle of an atom in a giant's thumbnail thing, isn't it? I love thinking like this.

I am set on using Fact! Google it as much as possible. I do think it needs the !.

Oh yes, I remember the 'simulation' one. We're all part of an experiment conducted by aliens. Like the Egg credit card ad.

Shit. It's the Matrix!

Oh interesting Cote, I hardly meet anyone who was raised with no religious influence, all the atheists I know were brought up with some kind of religious belief and have just changed their minds.

Simulation Argument is actually quite interesting. This was a paper published in Philosophical Quarterly. Quite convincing, and certainly more plausible than an omniscient, omnipotent, & benevolent deity waiting for us to die off one by one so he can stick us in Heaven or Hell - both pretty dire places, it seems.

That's true for me too, beanie, and it makes me wonder about what we're going to say to dd - my family are religious, and her wee cousins say prayers. At some point they're going to discuss it!

I talk about religion and atheism to my ds, who is 7. I try to be impartial, and let him draw his own conclusions. I'm atheist but my highly religious aunt talks about god to him regularly. He seems to favour the god hypothesis at the moment. I wonder, is it too early to introduce Darwinism into the discussions?

I was brought up on Southern Ireland and so was kind of excluded by the fact that I didn't go to church. I really can't remember anything about god until I was at school about 6.

I think it was explained to me as 'some people believe in a god and some people don't'. Funny thing is I was kept out of religious assemblies for a while but ended up sitting with the jehovahs

I got lots of indoctrination at a CofE primary school and in Brownies. I also went to a Quaker Sunday school but no-one ever said anything about God, we just spent our time drawing rainbows and cutting out paper doves.