What do you call a Bible-thumper when he's not got a Bible?
I just read Cenk Uygur's piece over at The Huffington Post, in which he reaffirms the sheer improbability of our existence, confirms the non-existence of God, insists that this means that we are awash in "meaninglessness", and that despite this meaninglessness we are all supposed to be nice to each other.
Has anyone ever noticed the similarities between the writing styles of Biblical literalists and fundamentalists on the one hand, and writings like Uygur's piece on the other? Both are based on simplistic notions of the role and function of Scripture, as both seem to assume that there is a "plain meaning" of Scripture, and that the literal reading is the only one applicable. Both claim to present a universal Truth that is (internally-)logically solid, irrefutable, and compelling. Both seem to use condescending descriptions of the people they are pretending to convert.
I shall try to avoid kinds for Lent.
Comments
I've never understood why people like Mr. Uygur harp on the meaninglessness of everything. He doesn't, as far as I can tell, argue that we are improbable.
Meaning is a hard thing to nail down. I'm fairly convinced that what we, as humans, feel when we think something is meaningful is not widespread in the universe.
That being said, my explorations in biology have convinced me that there are communicative and informational systems everywhere, at all scales; from this perspective we're awash in meaning.
We are literally built from billions of meaningful processes, in a biosphere teeming with meaning, within a galaxy ripe with billions of years of accumulated meaning, which itself is just a small fraction of the meaning that pervades existence.
While I do tend to think that humans have an absurdly high opinion of themselves, and thus have some sympathy for the "we're not the center of it all" argument, so far we have no evidence that the universe has any shape.
This implies that yes, we are in fact at the center of it all, but that everything else is as well.
Posted by: Ethan Fremen | March 19, 2006 9:25 AM