2. misc-audio
  3. 185812-141132

Learning about crossovers helped convert me from atheist to a believer in God

Let’s see if this one survives.    

I have been an atheist for 50 years.  Recently I became a believer.  One factor that helped tip the scales is the “fine tuned universe” argument - the idea that the physics constants, e.g. the mass of an electron, are so finely “selected” that if they weren’t very close to what they are, life wouldn’t exist.  This is an argument for a creator.  The best counter argument seems to be that there are an infinite number of universes and we got lucky.  

When I got into audio, and started learning about crossovers, I was ASTOUNDED at how well the pieces fit together.  Octaves are exact doubles of frequency.  3dB describes so many seemingly unrelated phenomena.  But the one that really got me was the magic of capacitors and inductors.  They share no parts, other than wires sticking out at each end (usually), one acts due to voltage, one acts due to electromagnetism, one resists AC, one resists DC.  And yet, somehow, they are mirror images of each other, using almost exactly the same equations, behaving perfectly orthogonal to each other, even to the extent of how powerfully they perform their function (3dB again).  How is this possible?  Could this have happened due to random chance?  I smell a creator.  

alanhuth

Showing 2 responses by mahler123

mahler123
3,502 posts
 

In the end, I just can’t get past the unrequited evil thing.  If there is a Creator, then why did he make it possible to create gas ovens to murder millions of people?  Or give an innocent small child a disease like spinal meningitis and suffer a horribly painful demise?  I could go on ad infinitum here.  Supposedly this is all part of a grand plan, and every awful bit is a necessary part of the Creator’s Grand Jigsaw Puzzle.  Sorry, this into a puzzle that I wish to play.

  Your capacitor works well?  Great.  Your stereo is sounding good?  Enjoy.  There is no need to postulate a divinity as being the cause of any of these things 

   

mahler123
3,502 posts
 

I also don’t get the “Free Will” argument. I’ve been an Atheist ever since I could think about theWorld at large, largely because of the unrequited evil argument. The counter to this, as I (perhaps mis)understand this, is:

1) The Creator gave Man Free Will.

2) Man uses this free will to do awful things to mankind

3) therefore the existence of evil proves that there is a Creator. We have to accept

the evil that Man does because it reflects the Greatness of God in allowing us to make these choices.

Sorry, don’t buy it. What kind of “Free Will” do Ukrainian Villagers have when they are are tortured and mudered? Or a housewife in Hiroshima trying to buy groceries when her skin gets flayed off?

 

I prefer to accept the Homo Sapiens are an accidental, and probably temporary, phenomenon in this Universe. Sure, we can make good capacitors, all kinds of technological wonders, including the bomb and gas chambers. I prefer to believe that none of this is by intelligent design

More to discover