“Comment is free but facts are sacred” is a quote attributed to C P Snow, once Editor of the Manchester Guardian. Not is seems for some people who appear to think that their beliefs are sacrosanct. Now the trouble with beliefs is, often, that is all they are. Little or no evidence is required in support of them. After all, many people on this planet appear to believe in invisible, omnipotent, supernatural beings. Having, for the most part, reduced this compendium of gods to one, they seem remarkably resistant to discarding that final one. Now the main problem with the suspension of belief, that religion requires, is that it then allows you to believe anything and act in any way that your particular interpretation of those beliefs allows. Without any evidence whatsoever that any particular supernatural being actually exists. Personally, I stopped having imaginary friends when I was 9.
By a strange coincidence, on the morning of the murders in France, The Guardian featured a new photograph of the “Pillars of Creation”, an accretion of gas and dust situated in the Eagle Nebula some 6,500 light years away. This area appears to be a nursery for the formation of new stars and, indeed, the photo shows some of these. Why do I relate these two subjects? Well, because I prefer evidence on which to make the important decisions in my life and science, I find, is, at least, capable of helping to provide these. After all, the Higgs Boson was proposed 50 years ago as a solution to the problem of mass. And, thanks to the Large Hadron Collider, it has now been discovered, proving the proposition. Oh and by the way, if anyone should think that I’m fixated on science, I would recommend “Christian Beginnings” or any other book on early Christianity and Judaism by Geza Vermes and “Heaven On Earth” by Sadakat Kadri.
I end with two questions. Can anyone please explain how a supernatural being who, supposedly, created a universe that is nearly 14 billion years old along with all the wonders in it, is really so petty minded as to be bothered with the minutiae of any individual’s sex life? Also, if you find it difficult to comprehend a “big bang” as the basis of the creation of this universe and need something(presumably god)that must have been around to do that, then who created that god? The question is relevant to both propositions. Science, I find, does, at least, address the questions.