A science professor begins his school year with a lecture to the students, “Let me explain the problem science has with religion.” The atheist professor of philosophy pauses before his class and then asks one of his new students to stand.
“You’re a Christian, aren’t you, son?”
“Yes sir,” the student says.
“So you believe in God?”
“Absolutely.”
“Is God good?”
“Sure! God’s good.”
“Is God all-powerful? Can God do anything?”
“Yes.”
“Are you good or evil?”
“The Bible says I’m evil.”
The professor grins knowingly. “Aha! The Bible!” He considers for a moment. “Here’s one for you. Let’s say there’s a sick person over here and you can cure him. You can do it. Would you help him? Would you try?”
“Yes sir, I would.”
“So you’re good…!”
“I wouldn’t say that.”
“But why not say that? You’d help a sick and maimed person if you could. Most of us would if we could. But God doesn’t.”
The student does not answer, so the professor continues. “He doesn’t, does he? My brother was a Christian who died of cancer, even though he prayed to Jesus to heal him. How is this Jesus good? Hmmm? Can you answer that one?”
The student remains silent.
“No, you can’t, can you?” the professor says. He takes a sip of water from a glass on his desk to give the student time to relax.
“Let’s start again, young fella. Is God good?”
“Er…yes,” the student says.
“Is Satan good?”
The student doesn’t hesitate on this one. “No.”
“Then where does Satan come from?”
The student falters. “From God”
“That’s right. God made Satan, didn’t he? Tell me, son. Is there evil in this world?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Evil’s everywhere, isn’t it? And God did make everything, correct?”
“Yes.”
“So who created evil?” The professor continued, “If God created everything, then God created evil, since evil exists, and according to the principle that our works define who we are, then God is evil.”
Again, the student has no answer. “Is there sickness? Immorality? Hatred? Ugliness? All these terrible things, do they exist in this world?”
The student squirms on his feet. “Yes.”
“So who created them?”
The student does not answer again, so the professor repeats his question. “Who created them?” There is still no answer. Suddenly the lecturer breaks away to pace in front of the classroom. The class is mesmerized. “Tell me,” he continues onto another student. “Do you believe in Jesus Christ, son?”
The student’s voice betrays him and cracks. “Yes, professor, I do.”
The old man stops pacing. “Science says you have five senses you use to identify and observe the world around you. Have you ever seen Jesus?”
“No sir. I’ve never seen Him.”
“Then tell us if you’ve ever heard your Jesus?”
“No, sir, I have not.”
“Have you ever felt your Jesus, tasted your Jesus or smelt your Jesus? Have you ever had any sensory perception of Jesus Christ, or God for that matter?”
“No, sir, I’m afraid I haven’t.”
“Yet you still believe in him?”
“Yes.”
“According to the rules of empirical, testable, demonstrable protocol, science says your God doesn’t exist. What do you say to that, son?”
“Nothing,” the student replies. “I only have my faith.”
“Yes, faith,” the professor repeats. “And that is the problem science has with God. There is no evidence, only faith.”
The student stands quietly for a moment, before asking a question of His own. “Professor, is there such thing as heat?”
“Yes,” the professor replies. “There’s heat.”
“And is there such a thing as cold?”
“Yes, son, there’s cold too.”
“No sir, there isn’t.”
The professor turns to face the student, obviously interested. The room suddenly becomes very quiet. The student begins to explain. “You can have lots of heat, even more heat, super-heat, mega-heat, unlimited heat, white heat, a little heat or no heat, but we don’t have anything called ‘cold’. We can hit up to 458 degrees below zero, which is no heat, but we can’t go any further after that. There is no such thing as cold; otherwise we would be able to go colder than the lowest -458 degrees.”
“Every body or object is susceptible to study when it has or transmits energy, and heat is what makes a body or matter have or transmit energy. Absolute zero (-458 F) is the total absence of heat. You see, sir, cold is only a word we use to describe the absence of heat. We cannot measure cold. Heat we can measure in thermal units because heat is energy. Cold is not the opposite of heat, sir, just the absence of it.”
Silence across the room. A pen drops somewhere in the classroom, sounding like a hammer.
“What about darkness, professor. Is there such a thing as darkness?”
“Yes,” the professor replies without hesitation. “What is night if it isn’t darkness?”
“You’re wrong again, sir. Darkness is not something; it is the absence of something. You can have low light, normal light, bright light, flashing light, but if you have no light constantly you have nothing and it’s called darkness, isn’t it? That’s the meaning we use to define the word.”
“In reality, darkness isn’t. If it were, you would be able to make darkness darker, wouldn’t you?”
The professor begins to smile at the student in front of him. This will be a good semester. “So what point are you making, young man?”
“Yes, professor. My point is, your philosophical premise is flawed to start with, and so your conclusion must also be flawed.”
The professor’s face cannot hide his surprise this time. “Flawed? Can you explain how?”
“You are working on the premise of duality,” the student explains. “You argue that there is life and then there’s death; a good God and a bad God. You are viewing the concept of God as something finite, something we can measure. Sir, science can’t even explain a thought.”
“It uses electricity and magnetism, but has never seen, much less fully understood either one. To view death as the opposite of life is to be ignorant of the fact that death cannot exist as a substantive thing. Death is not the opposite of life, just the absence of it.”
“Now tell me, professor. Do you teach your students that they evolved from a monkey?”
“If you are referring to the natural evolutionary process, young man, yes, of course I do.”
“Have you ever observed evolution with your own eyes, sir?”
The professor begins to shake his head, still smiling, as he realizes where the argument is going. A very good semester, indeed.
“Since no one has ever observed the process of evolution at work and cannot even prove that this process is an on-going endeavor, are you not teaching your opinion, sir? Are you now not a scientist, but a preacher?”
The class is in uproar. The student remains silent until the commotion has subsided.
“To continue the point you were making earlier to the other student, let me give you an example of what I mean.”
The student looks around the room. “Is there anyone in the class who has ever seen the professor’s brain?” The class breaks out into laughter.
“Is there anyone here who has ever heard the professor’s brain, felt the professor’s brain, touched or smelt the professor’s brain? No one appears to have done so. So, according to the established rules of empirical, stable, demonstrable protocol, science says that you have no brain, with all due respect, sir.”
“So if science says you have no brain, how can we trust your lectures, sir?”
Now the room is silent. The professor just stares at the student, his face unreadable.
Finally, after what seems an eternity, the old man answers. “I guess you’ll have to take them on faith.”
“Now, you accept that there is faith, and, in fact, faith exists with life,” the student continues. “Now, sir, is there such a thing as evil?”
Now uncertain, the professor responds, “Of course, there is. We see it everyday. It is in the daily example of man’s inhumanity to man. It is in the multitude of crime and violence everywhere in the world. These manifestations are nothing else but evil.”
To this the student replied, “Evil does not exist sir, or at least it does not exist unto itself. Evil is simply the absence of God. It is just like darkness and cold, a word that man has created to describe the absence of God. God did not create evil. Evil is the result of what happens when man does not have God’s love present in his heart. It’s like the cold that comes when there is no heat or the darkness that comes when there is no light.”
The professor sat down.
Okay, I have a penis, and that means that vaginas don’t exist because they’re merely the absence of a penis.
Second last paragraph pretty much murders any hope of there being a plausible argument.
love it!
Half-way through, I was going to comment with the whole “evil is the lack of goodness” argument, then realized you had posted the same story I was thinking of. That was all I remembered from it, and I’ve remembered that for a really long time ^_^
[...] busy, that’s all. Here’s a little something for everyone who likes brain food. (from http://sweetsong.wordpress.com/) A science professor begins his school year with a lecture to the students, “Let me explain [...]
This is simply ridiculous –
I think it is fairly apparent that this story was made up.
Can someone explain to me why it is necessary for an “all-loving/all-accepting” Christian to try to argue their point of view? As an atheist, I accept those with a religious viewpoint and will not try to convince others of my point of view. Believe in what you want to believe, but don’t try to convince me that I am wrong. Why don’t Christians accept atheist?
Why is it necessary for those devoted to a religion to tell me what I believe is wrong?
Stories such as these that try to portray atheists as wrong have no place in our society.
To Sams, I respect your let people believe what they want philosophy but as a christian I think it’s not so much that we argue so we can be right, it’s more like we can’t imagine a life without God’s love. Too many christians, outspoken ones primarily, argue to be right, pretty much fighting anyone who doesn’t believe. However, I think the majority of christians are mostly empathetic towards unbelievers. It’s an overpoweringly depressive thought to believe that there is no God, that all good and bad are just by chance, that there is no help. There is so much evidence for a God, and that his son Jesus came to die for our sins, that there is hope. If you’re not in awe of the amazing miracles that occur, or how beautiful, colorful, and fascinating our world is or how spectacularly complex our universe was created, isn’t the fact that a life with hope, that a world with hope, is much better than a life, a world, without it enough to make a believer out of you?
Wow, this is the most asinine thing I have read in my life. The entire argument is based on the purported opinions of an obviously fabricated professor. You see, every point put forth by the professor would NEVER actually be posited. The first thing you learn in thermodynamics is that there is no such thing as cold–cold, as is stated, is only the absence of heat. It is nothing but a human invention, a word, to describe such an absence. All scientists know this, and have this in mind when they use the word. The same can be said for darkness. It is the general population–particularly those who prefer to undermine science–who make these sort of mistakes. Science simply does not argue that these things “exist”, as he puts forward, and certainly does NOT take them on faith.
In the discussions of evolution, and the professor’s brain, the main error is a total misconception of what science is and how it works. Firstly, we have all seen evolution happening, even if you are too much of a dullard to recognize it. There are so many examples of micro-evolution that I could site, but I know the first argument will be toward macro evolution–specifically that of humans. However, in both the case of the professor’s brain, and that of hominid evolution, there is overwhelming EVIDENCE for the existence of both. When I say evidence, I am referring to tangible, recordable, easily analyzed data. We are NOT taking the existence of things such as evolution, or the fact that a human has a brain on FAITH. We are acknowledging the overwhelming physical evidence that speaks to their existence. However–and this is important–every theory put forth in science has one special requirement: it must be capable of being proved wrong. If it isn’t, it is not scientific. This gets at the heart of science, and indeed, the difference between science and religion. Religion, and the concept of a god, by it’s very nature, cannot be proved wrong. Think about it, how could you prove that there is no such thing as God? Even in the midst of overwhelming and indisputable evidence, the religious only has to say, “God put all that evidence there to trick us”. Such argument is not logical nor is it reasonable, and it has NO PLACE in science. Science and faith are the exact opposites of each other, and can never merge. I find it disgusting that someone would attempt to skew the reality of the two with a piece like this. It is dishonest and despicable.
And to Matt:
I find your empathy insulting. I was raised a Christian, and attended Christian school through high school. I, along with a large number of my friends found CHRISTIANITY to be overwhelmingly depressive. A constant struggle against this “sinful nature”, a system full of complicated contradictions with total disregard to logic, and no recourse but the exhortation that we “aren’t meant” to understand some things. When I was finally FREED from this oppression, it was truly one of the most joyful moments of my life. It felt, ironically, what we were always taught it should feel like when one was “saved”. As a physicist, I find the complexity, and yet simplicity of our universe, and the beauty within it infinitely MORE inspiring knowing that it all started with the explosion of a star, and that it continues to develop from this single event. By the way, we are currently able to witness the generation of the very same molecules that first sparked life in current supernovas. Moreover, I find the fact that we are all truly one, all made up of the same matter, incredibly unifying.
Matt -
While Christians cannot see how an atheist can live without God’s love, atheists cannot understand how Christians are so blinded. While Christians cannot understand how an atheist live without God’s love, atheists cannot understand how Christians can live with “God’s” (emphasis on the quotes) love. I’m glad that you and Christians have something to live for and feel that there is hope whatever situation you are in. I simply see the world differently (as, my guess would be, for all atheists).
To quote you, “It’s an overpoweringly depressive thought to believe that there is no God, that all good and bad are just by chance, that there is no help”. This sentence is exactly why I personally believe all cultures throughout time have created religion. I see religion as an explanation for what people cannot explain (to combat a fear of the unknown) and to provide hope for individuals. I see more and more people who “find” God when they are living a very depressing life…almost as a way to justify living their life for something greater.
I have great respect for those who believe differently than I do. Religion can bring people together. However it is wrong for anyone to object to what I believe in. Words cannot explain what I felt being in situation about a year ago when I was rejected because I was not a Christian. This is what is so upsetting about our society today.