Famous atheist Sam Harris argues that God is neither great nor dead. See his book: “Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion” and “The End Of Faith: Religion, Terror and the Future of Reason.” One point Sam and others miss is the sub-conscious attribute of the personality of an individual, an attribute religious people often refer to a “soul”. Does a “Soul” exist?


Believers have elaborate explanations for the phenomenon of the spirit of an individual. You know people who are outgoing and others who are rather quiet in a social situation. That’s the manifestation of their spirit, their soul but that’s not the spiritual soul favored by the religionists. they believe God installs a soul into everyone but the exact point it’s done is rather mysterious. Some believe it happens at “conception” but conception isn’t instantaneous. It takes a bit of time for the sperm to get inside the egg. The egg is fertilized when the head of the sperm is completely inside but the tail isn’t yet in. Ensoulment then has a timing problem.

The position of some church people is the soul is sent or however it’s beginning is assigned, zoomed into the zygote. Without evidence of course which is very normal for religions and the issue of the soul isn’t the only issue for a fetus. There’s the issue of viability. Even that’s fraught with problems because the fetus cannot live outside the womb without massive medical machinery. For one thing the heart beats but doesn’t work. the lungs can’t work either. Emiotic fluid in them and surrounding them.

So the issue of abortion gets involved with religion and because of that involvement it cannot be solved in any scientific or legal sense. It can be commanded but a command isn’t a solution.

Then there’s the issue of place. Gods need to be somewhere to exist. No place, no existence. Where is it? In terms of direction and distance, where is God? No place, no existence. No existence; neither good nor great.

 

All goes to living or dead. Existence implies life. No existence, no life. No life, not living.

 

So religion comes down to Faith. Science doesn’t support religion. It causes problems for religions. So Having Faith means Being Religious. Sam Harris is therefore treading on the sacred ground of religion. Is he right or wrong? Read his book. You’re on your own. Me? I’m a trained scientist. Science is hard. Lawyers can’t read engineering books but for the religion issue? This isn’t hard stuff.

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