I am a materialist, and believe that the "big bang" cosmological narrative along with evolution is correct.
The question of origins (i.e. what caused the big bang?...what was there before it?...OR...what created God?) is a whole different question, and I have no opinion on it because there is not enough information for me to base that on, and I believe it's unlikely that there ever will be.
I can also understand the narrative and opinion that, say, evolution is the work of God (though I don't accept that it is evidence of God).
To wit...this answer would apply to the origin prior to the big bang.
(02-13-2015 12:19 PM)HeartOfDixie Wrote: This is one of those issues I have no interest in. It's the kind of stuff where science and philosophy meet and battle for the high ground a continent away from the war. It's pointless.
(02-13-2015 01:18 PM)LSU04_08 Wrote: For the rest of us that came from a man and not a monkey:
<<images deleted for brevity>>
(02-13-2015 12:22 PM)UCF08 Wrote: And I find something insanely narcissistic about ever claiming that we'll 'never know something', as if you're so intelligent, that you know more than the entirety of human civilization will from this point on. It's absurd, and every breakthrough or invention we make shows how absurd it is.
You will see above my assertion that we will likely or may never know the cause of the big bang. I don't think that's absurd or narcissistic, but simple a statement that there may be very good reason that we will be unable to identify or measure forces or particles that are involved. In some circumstances, we can theorize and observe the creation of virtual particles that arise out of nothing, and can surmise that the universe may have arisen out of nothing in a similar manner. But, nothing we have observed can explain anything close to the amount of energy that would be required to create a universe. It may be that if we could observe such things that the explanation of origin of the universe would be relatively simple. We have theories like multiverses and string theory without any way - even theoretical - to verify their existence or plausibility.
I may never know for sure why my son comes home and can't focus on two tasks without playing with the dog or kicking a ball against the wall until he's pissed off every other human being in the household. But, it's absurd to claim that I couldn't know the reason. That is a far cry for saying that there may be very good reason that we will never know the cause of a singularity like the cause of the big bang or the origin of God...