THE THEOLOGICAL ENGINEER
Much Ado About "Nothing"
By Jeff Laird
Continued from: Page One
Krauss also tries to argue, in essence, that at some point the universe just stops making sense, so we shouldn't expect to understand it. But that's just an indirect admission that his position is absurd. We can't use causality and reason to build the science of physics, then suddenly claim neither apply after some convenient point. At most, Krauss' suggestion would draw a line beyond which human understanding is impossible; but we could never make any meaningful claims about what's beyond that barrier. Once we reject basic cause-effect relationships, there is no longer any "science". It's becomes too convenient, and inevitable, for people to theorize any silly idea, and justify it with the argument that "reality just doesn't make sense at this point".
If these sound like glaring, catastrophic errors in Krauss' philosophical approach, it's because they are. Krauss is an example of an atheist so convinced of his own intellectual superiority that he purposefully ignores other disciplines. During a debate series with William Lane Craig (in which Krauss was so soundly beaten he actually resorted to sneaking a buzzer on stage so he could interrupt Craig), Krauss said this:
I was at the Vatican, invited to the Pontifical Academy, and I said to them something that sounded facetious but it wasn't. I was amongst theologians and philosophers and I said, "Look you have to listen to me, but I don't have to listen to you." I wasn't being pompous, although it sounds like it.Krauss went on to claim that only science produces knowledge, so philosophers have to listen to him, but he doesn't have to listen to philosophers. Too bad, since conferring with a first-year philosophy student might have helped him avoid the fairly obvious errors in his reasoning. Krauss' disdain aside, philosophy is the science of logic and language, and both are important in our understanding of the universe. His dismissal of philosophy (theology is a form of philosophy) is as silly as dismissing mathematics on the grounds that it "doesn't involve real things".
Krauss all but admits the weakness of his arguments near the end of the book, albeit in a very few sentences and right at the end. He's done the same in interviews. These flaws have been widely noted by fellow atheists, neutral reviewers, and philosophers alike. But they continue to pop up, and dogmatist atheists like Dawkins continue to fawn all over them. It's not hard to see these and similar arguments are fuelled more by prejudice against religion than affinity for real reason.
Before you brush that off as presumptuous, consider what Krauss said in an interview with Sam Harris:
I cannot hide my own intellectual bias here. As I state in the first sentence of the book, I have never been sympathetic to the notion that creation requires a creator. And like our late friend, Christopher Hitchens, I find the possibility of living in a universe that was not created for my existence, in which my actions and thoughts need not bend to the whims of a creator, far more enriching and meaningful than the other alternative. In that sense, I view myself as an anti-theist rather than an atheist.That's just one more in a long line of quotes by atheists admitting that a distaste for God is at the core of their philosophical approach. Or their "we-don't-need-no-stinkin'-philosophy" approach, as it were. It was literally the first thing he said in the book. Like so many others, Krauss doesn't want there to be a God, so he'll do whatever it takes to get away from Him. Purposeful denial is much more in play than detached reasoning.
Sadly, the Bible does have a few things to say about people like Krauss, Dawkins, Harris, and Hitchens. Their real intent is finding some way — any way — to remove God from the universe (Ephesians 4:18). So they go to great lengths, including irrational and illogical arguments (Romans 1:18-22), in order to justify that rejection in their own minds. When a person is determined to fight against God, no matter what, bad thinking is just the beginning of their problems (Galatians 6:7).
Image Credit: Charles Crosbie; Creative Commons
Tags: Biblical-Truth | Current-Issues | Science-Creation
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Published 4-4-2014
