Subject: Re: Music, religion, etc.
From: Robbie (shok@netcom.com)
Date: Tue Jan 11 2000 - 02:27:35 EST
<< If you're going to talk about "complexity," in terms of Occam's
Razor, I still don't think you're using it right. If we want nothing
more than to account for the existence of the universe, nothing is
simpler than God put it there (especially against the background of
quantum physics, etc.). This tells us nothing about the nature of this
God, what that means for us personally, etc., but it is a simple
solution to account for the existence of the universe. >>
And if we want to account for how this email arrives in front of you,
nothing is simpler than Magic did it.
Sorry, but I have a real problem pulling the complexity that the mere
existence of an all-powerful deity introduces out of the situation. If
the Universe brought itself into existence in accordance with its own
laws, the process getting from there to here may have many steps, but
it's not very complex; certainly no more complex than those laws (which
we are still not entirely sure of, but if Einstein and other major
theoretical physicists are/were right, these "laws" might be a single
"law," incredibly elegant and simple.)
But if the Universe was brought into existence by an already-existing
deity, then that deity must be explained in order to satisy me (the same
way magic must be explained to satisfy me in the email scenario). And
that adds an unbelievable amount of complexity. Heavy emphasis on
"unbelievable."
robbie
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