Does Majesty & Wonder Have To Come From A Creator?

in-the-shadow-of-the-moonI was in the mood last night for space stuff so I popped In the Shadow of the Moon into the DVD player. The film is a wonderful documentary (directed by Ron Howard) of the US moon landings. It begins, appropriately enough, at the beginning with John F. Kennedy’s bold challenge, and ends with the landings made by Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and a few lesser known successors.

You can view the entire film in 10 minute segments on youtube but, before you do, I’d like to call your attention to the final segment where some of the astronauts share how their journeys changed them. The segment starts with Eugene Cernan and Charlie Duke describing their feelings of wonder, and how those feelings convinced them of God’s existence (Duke actually became a born-again Christian not long after).

Being a fairly recent (2 year) de-conversion to atheism, I can relate to these men. I’ve shared similar experiences of wonder and majesty – most notably while hiking in the mountains, or going for 10+ mile runs (runner’s high’ll get ya every time). And, yes, two years ago, I too would have given credit to god for those wonderful feelings.

However, since the de-conversion, the source of those feelings has changed, and I’ve become more and more fascinated with the seemingly universal tendency for us to attribute these emotions to a god or creator.

Why is this so?

Some think it’s connected to our affinity toward anthropomorphizing – attributing human qualities to things that are not. In this case, humans create things, so we assume that the universe must also have been created by something human-like, only much more powerful.

Scientists who study the brain may tell you that our willingness to invoke god is connected to our ability to identify patterns. In this case, the pattern is that most everything we observe has a cause, and we extend that pattern to the assumption that the universe must also have a cause.

But is this correct thinking? Just because we see cause and effect around us, does that mean the same rule applied to the formation of the universe? If a god can simply exist, then why can’t a universe? Also, could the Big Bang have been preceded by a Big Crunch, and that crunch have been preceded by a different Big Bang? Might this process be cycling on eon after eon after eon?

And, even if the universe did have an external cause, why would that cause need to be an intelligence or a god? Might it just as easily be another universe, as multi-universe theory proposes?

And then there’s the fact that most of us were raised by parents who told us that God created everything, and many of us grew up in churches where everyone agreed the universe was created by God. How many of those people really examine these claims from authority? After all, all those smart people couldn’t be wrong – could they?

I wonder, if parents stopped teaching this idea to their children, how would it take long before our sense of wonder aimed itself at the natural world instead of some unknown, undetectable entity?

There is a world of science awaiting those who would ask these questions. There is a world of wonder awaiting those willing to entertain the idea that maybe, God didn’t do it. And, in my opinion, the fact that our universe came to be without a deity makes it even more wondrous and majestic.

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November 16, 2009 · Filed Under Atheism, science, understanding, video

Comments

8 Responses to “Does Majesty & Wonder Have To Come From A Creator?”

  1. Sir Jackson Peaks on November 16th, 2009 at 2:22 am

    I found your post to be thought provoking, so I decided to drop some feedback here.  In examining history, we find that humans have always required a “reason” for everything they come across.  As a result, it can be assumed, that it must be human nature to want to give credit for events and subjects we witness–even if we don’t exactly know the genesis of the event, etc.  Just a few hundred years ago we humans were quick to say “it must be God!” every time the earth would rumble or a volcano erupt.  Obviously, we have come further along in our understanding of such events and now have a much more reasonable answer.  In fact, it is quite remarkable to see how far the human race has progressed in the capability of understanding “causes”–from thunder and Thor, to splitting adams and man.  That being said, it is frightening (to me at least) when looking at what we still give a god credit for in today’s world.  Yes space is remarkable, as is life and everything we find in it–but give credit to life, not some imaginary being.  As Douglas Adams once stated, “Isn’t it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?”

  2. 40 Year Old Atheist on November 16th, 2009 at 9:24 am

    @Sir Jackson: Thanks for this comment. Well said. Douglas always had a way of putting things so beautifully and concisely, didn’t he?

  3. Ben on November 16th, 2009 at 9:51 am

    I used to get in a fair bit of trouble in Sunday School as a child due to my incessant questioning of the whole “creation” story.  Guess it was a taste of things to come.
    I’m a big fan of your line of thinking, but approach it from a slightly different angle.  It doesn’t really bother me if someone wants to believe some diety created everything.  Great, fine.  I get ticked when their belief is forced on others.  Why can’t I think differently without being castigated?
    I also see it as a two way street – I’ve tried harder lately to simply accept that someone might believe in God and creation.  But the second they start trumpeting this I’ll still jump all up in their business.

  4. 40 Year Old Atheist on November 16th, 2009 at 9:55 am

    Ben, it’s nice to see you here! Of course, I agree with what you’re saying. I tend to leave people alone. That said, part of the reason I write here is to help those who might be doubting their faith to see a different side of things they might not see among the people closest to them.

  5. Paul on November 16th, 2009 at 12:56 pm

    “…splitting adams…”
    Heh, I got a chuckle out of that inadvertent typo.

  6. Renshia on November 17th, 2009 at 2:04 am

    Hey 40tr old, glad to see your still live.
    I think to begin with in our mental infancy this need to explain the unexplainable,  did force us to some kind of god perspective. I do not think this is the case anymore.
    I was doing some reading and came across something that rang true for me . It put into perspective how religion does this.  I can see in my own walk, when I was a thumper how this happened.

    I think they are able to block out any doubt in what they believe because they’ve internalized their indoctrination, no longer viewing it as specific ideas that have been drilled into them. They begin to experience the ideas they’ve been taught as feelings, which evolve into powerful emotional conviction.
    I think that is the trick to the process. They are convinced within there own minds that they are experiencing original thought rather than those discrete ideas that have been taught to them as they grew up.
    Faith is a device of self delusion,a slight of hand done with words and emotions founded on any irrational notion that can be dreamed up. Faith is the attempt to coerce truth to surrender to whim. In simple terms, it is trying to breathe life into a lie by trying to outshine reality with the beauty of wishes. Faith is the refuge of fools, the ignorant and the deluded, not of thinking rational men.

    In reality, contradictions cannot exist. To believe in them you must abandon the most important thing you possess; your rational mind. The wager for such a bargain is your life. In such an exchange, you always lose what you have at stake.

    And of all things I found it in a fantasy novel I am reading, best explanation of religion I ever found.

  7. 40 Year Old Atheist on November 17th, 2009 at 6:19 pm

    Renshia! Thanks, I’ve around – just busy and reading a lot. I love that quote above.

  8. SJP on November 17th, 2009 at 10:39 pm

    Paul… it was actually supposed to be tongue in cheek, I’m glad someone picked up on it! ha.

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