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A new Facebook friend got religious on me and here is what I said (correct me where I am wrong).
The Universe and everything within and outside of it was created by a life force, in my opinion, more like mother nature than that man in the sky you think of as Father God. There is science now that explains how matter is formed. We don't live in the Dark Ages when superstition, magic, and religion explained everything e.g., "good people go to heaven and bad people burn in hell for eternity Not for me. This is how normal educated people understand how mass is formed: This is how dust, gas, metal and everything that you can see and feel are formed from the newly discovered Higgs Boson/field " The mechanism adds a quantum field (the Higgs field) that permeates all space, the field causes spontaneous symmetry breaking during interactions. The breaking of symmetry triggers the Higgs mechanism, causing the bosons it interacts with to have mass."

yuvid1 5 May 9
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6 comments

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I think if you said this without him/her requesting your input, then you wasted your time and created a rift without getting anything of value in return.

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Okay, if it works for you. Someone just posted a quote that said "I respect all religious people without respecting their religion." or words to that effect.

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There is no evidence of intent or purpose in the discoveries of science, we are just slowly over generations discovering how our reality works. You could argue for a Spinozan god, who essentially set the rules in motion and does not interfere with these rules or with the denizens of the universe set in motion by his laws. But taking on Sagan’s invisible dragon, what is the difference between a god that does not interfere, does not let himself be seen, does not alter his laws, and does not show any interest in humanity, and no god at all?

I like that, about Spinozan's god. It is something new for me to learn. Thanks for commenting.

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There is nothing outside of the universe. If something is outside the light cone of the big bang then it is totally irrelevant and cannot be observed. IOW, it does not exist.

That has not been disproven. Native Americans used to think that they were the only people, that all people in the land lived simple tribal lives. Then the Europeans arrived... Open your mind up to new possibilities. The many universe theory is a possibility there is nothing in nature that is only one, it is just as possible that there are billions of Universes out there, like blood cells in a body. Each one is separate but they all work together. They can't be seen but they are there and they serve a purpose. Science is making remarkable strides in observing and measuring. The background microwave radiation from the big bang is allowing scientists to understand a lot about the universe. The recent Higgs particle/field has shown us how mass is created. Not by a mysterious God but by natural phenomena. Just because something has not been proven does not mean it doesn't exist. It is important to pursue hypothesis and disprove them if they have no merit.

@yuvid1 Other than mathematics, science does not deal in proof. It observes, then explains. Science deals in theories and falsification. If something is unobserved, science does not factor it into the explanation. This includes alternate universes and Magical Pixie Dust. Until/Unless something is observed, it does not exist.

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How is your opinion that the universe is created -- much less by a mother-nature-like "life force" -- any different than your friend's opinion that it was created by her deity of choice?

How is either opinion scientific?

Yeah, I was thinking about that as well when I wrote it. I am more of a Mother Nature type of guy. I should have made that clear. Everything has a scientific explanation, in my opinion. We don't have all of the answers yet but we are getting more, and often. We have recently confirmed that the Higgs particle/field is how mass (matter) is formed. Not by some magic man that lives up in the sky. We haven't yet discovered gravitons, the particles that are in the field of gravity but the standard model must have them and science is getting closer to discovering them.

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Basically true, although there are still many unanswered questions. Also, I don't see this a being convincing to a religious person. But then, what is?

Every little seed we can plant may grow. I was a believer once myself. My mother is Catholic and my father Mormon. It was the history of religion that freed me from the chains of religious belief. Science has confirmed it for me. What was the key for you? Were you ever a believer?

@yuvid1 Yes, sort of. My mother was a believer but not a very regular church-goer. I went with my parents to church, which I quite liked, and was sent to Sunday school, which I hated, and quit when I discovered that it wasn't compulsory. Doubts already starting to surface. Nothing sudden. My father never spoke about religion — I have come to think he might have been a closet atheist who had promised not to try to influence me against the church.

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