God or no God

The Truth, through reason, speaks for itself. But we are social animals and subject to the influence that individuals we respect bring to an argument—often to the exclusion of reason. I see no indication that we are moving away from such cults of celebrity, but, when in Rome…. The following are some examples of well known atheists and skeptics who do more than pay lip service to reason. The argument that God is a possible explanation for the universe is often dismissed if its presenter is an unknown without credentials. So, in keeping with the goal of promoting Truth through reason, I submit the comments from a few who possess such credentials and respect, and therefore credence.

One thing that becomes obvious is that many of those who are called atheists, even some who call themselves atheists, are often just anti-religion and those religions’ gods. Man’s invention of our many gods, argues only against their invention or “revelation”. It doesn’t carry over as evidence against the possible existence of God, or that a deist God was/is arrived at due to similar self-serving motivations. If God exists, It is not our salvation (only we can be that), rather, It would be our explanation.


Richard Dawkins (atheist) debate with John Lennox www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0UIbd0eLxw begin @ 4:30
"We could take a deist god, sort of god of the physicists. A god of somebody like Paul Davies who devised the laws of physics, god the mathematician, god who put together the cosmos in the first place and then sat back and watched everything happen and that would be…the deist god would be one…I think one would be…one could make a reasonable respectable case for that. Not a case that I would accept, but I think it’s a serious discussion that we could have."
@ 37:45
"You could possibly persuade me that there was some kind of creative force in the universe, there was some kind of physical mathematical genius who created everything…the expanding universe, devised quantum theory, relativity, and all that. You can possibly persuade me of that."

Lawrence Krauss (scientific skeptic) debate with William L. Craig youtube.com/watch?v=Fs_pgaSrxP8 begin @ 3:15…Uploaded 03/30/11
“I actually think deism, the possible existence of a divine intelligence is not an implausible postulate. And I won’t argue against it. It could be, I mean the Universe is an amazing place."....
...."So I think the possible existence of a divine intelligence is perfectly plausible and addresses some of the perplexing issues associated with the beginning of the Universe."

Victor Stenger (atheist) in Huffpost Blog. 06/30/11
“In short, the world looks just like it should look if there is no God with these attributes. True that this does not rule out other gods, such a deist god that does not act in the universe. But we can rule out the Judeo-Christian-Islamic God to a high degree of probability.”

Stephen Hawking (atheist?-skeptic) A Brief History of Time (1988)pp. 8-9
“An expanding universe does not preclude a creator, but it does place limits on when he might have carried out his job!". (note: an expanding universe was initially considered a blow to atheism since it indicated a beginning as opposed to the Steady State model. But that, ultimately, is unable to sidestep the issue of a beginning anyway.)

Carl Sagan (scientific skeptic) God and Carl Sagan: Is the Cosmos Big Enough for Both of Them? Edward Wakin (May 1981)
“To be certain of the existence of God and to be certain of the nonexistence of God seem to me to be the confident extremes in a subject so riddled with doubt and uncertainty as to inspire very little confidence indeed.”

Albert Einstein (agnostic) Einstein: The Life and Times. Clark, Ronald W. (1971) p.425
“I have repeatedly said that in my opinion the idea of a personal God is a childlike one. You may call me an agnostic, but I do not share the crusading spirit of the professional atheist whose fervor is mostly due to a painful act of liberation from the fetters of religious indoctrination received in youth. I prefer an attitude of humility corresponding to the weakness of our intellectual understanding of nature and of our own being."….
…."In view of such harmony in the cosmos which I, with my limited human mind, am able to recognize, there are yet people who say there is no God. But what makes me really angry is that they quote me for support of such views."

Isaac Asimov (atheist) interviewed by Paul Kurtz on “Science and the Bible”, in Free Inquiry, Spring 1982
“I believe there's enough evidence for us to think that a big bang took place. But there is no evidence whatsoever to suppose that a superhuman being said, "Let it be." However, neither is there any evidence against it.”

Charles Darwin (supposed atheist) Letter to John Fordyce, 7 May 1879
"I have never been an atheist in the sense of denying the existence of a God. – I think that generally ... an agnostic would be the most correct description of my state of mind."