Opening Rant

Lets start at the BEGINNING ~ Creationism and young earth creation "theory" using theory in the least accurate way possible, these hardcore adherents to literal biblical interpretation profess the universe and and everything in it popped into existence a few thousand years ago at the will of an Omnipotent Extra-dimensional Super Entity or (OESE) in its current form, and that this explanation is worthy of merit despite the massive overwhelming evidence against it, there are so many branches of science that can refute this claim with credible evidence that it would be a challenge to list them. One could conceivably argue that without the religious angle the concept of intelligent design has a philosophical point did an OESE make the universe ? the anthropic principle could be invoked and better minds than mine can choke the the black boards of some university with statistical extrapolation as to the nature and likelihood of life as we know it, but this isn't an argument about chances, flipped coins budding universe theory etc etc this is a battle for the minds of impressionable averagely educated people who see science as complex and faith as valuable in their day to day life. In a nutshell is an OESE responsible for existence as we know it? such a question is and will probably remain impossible to answer due to limitations in our understanding of the fundamental aspects of reality as a whole. to create a universe would require something/someone to be very high up the kardashev scale which is a scale used to measure the capabilities of a civilization by the raw energy it has at its disposal, assuming a capacity to harness the energy output of a universe or more, the entity responsible for our universe would be effectively a deity or GOD and more than likely is unrestrained by the 4 dimensionality of our hilariously short lifespans. The problem with creationism and intelligent design is that in the midst of a philosophical point it allocates the responsibility of the universe to one deity of the Christian theology a god who didn't really hit the scene till several thousand years of human history had already be written lived, worked, cried,laughed and died, then tries very hard with a loud voice to sway the hearts of those more than likely uneducated in science of any field to swallow their argument it then attacks aspects of science that are too busy doing actual work to realise they have to fight back which leads to disclaimer stickers on biology books and bizarre outbursts from the religious right at state sponsored debates related to bananas and monkeys. quite frankly if you think the universe popped into existence roughly 6000bc with all the known laws of physics violated and vast chunks of contemporary science ignored to keep the divine plan on track i could say the universe popped into existence 6000 seconds ago and theirs no way for you to disprove me as all memories and physical evidence was put in place by gods power to keep the divine plan on track and conflicting evidence is the work of the devil..at least for the 25% of the worlds population who follow Jesus teachings in someway, belief in the existence of a (OESE) isn't necessarily incorrect however belief that this (OESE) manufactured the entire observable universe with its fair share of billions of galaxies for your benefit is arrogant, belief that it was done (again for your sole benefit) in a manner contrary to the observable workings of reality is laughable and should be held at arms length.

Is their a GOD ~ As a carbon based multicellular life-form on a wet rock orbiting an average star in a large but otherwise unremarkable galaxy it is impossible to definitively say their is no god, but you must be careful with the term God, as in a western environment the term god almost always points to the Christian god of the bible, not a god or deity of ancient history or unknown deity never revealed to humanity, i would hazard a guess that if their is a god or suitably powerful extra-dimensional entity that exists above our reality it is unlikely to be anything like what we imagine or can envisage, simply due to the orders of magnitude of difference in relative power and capability. comparing a human to a deity is perhaps similar to an amoeba Vs the human race and likewise speculating on its motivations is similarly pointless, yet people continually try and try throughout history gods of every colour creed and allegiance have been born into human experience and forgotten as civilizations crumble or evolve, you would be hard pressed to find any devout followers of Zeus or RA these days yet in their heyday the theocracies they sponsored were some of the most powerful civilisations of all time, the sheer variety of gods throughout history speaks volumes about the human condition and does damage to the case of the existence of any god like a child imagining monsters in the darkness, but i would propose that their may be higher powers in the universe but should one or more exist so far they have had no detectable interaction with our reality, don't appear to have any direct interest in humanity and certainly don't interfere with reality to favor one person over another because he or she clenches their hands together hoping for divine intervention because they were drunk and didn't use a condom.

Your ETERNAL SOUL ~ The subject of intense debate since the inception of philosophy, is their something else to being human some divine spark, a ghost in the biomechanical machine, a spirit, until the advent of modern neuroscience all signs pointed to a solid maby. the capacity for rational thought, emotion, love, nobility, self sacrifice, art, insight, maths and logic go far beyond the capacity of even the smartest trained animals its isn't unreasonable for man to believe that their is a divine aspect to our self, the emerging reality is i'm afraid far less the subject of Sunday school and more like neuroscience 101, the human mind at its peak is really quite marvelous each of us has inside his or hers salty melon an item thought to be the most complex thing in the known universe the brain it somehow generates the "self" and for the most part is pretty clever excluding those who post regularly on You-Tube comments, the problem with the concept of a SOUL is the aspect to its actual connection to your wet head meat. humans in the womb develop a nerve system fairly early in pregnancy at what point is an embryo a human when does the parachute deep strike insertion of the soul actually occur is it at conception? does daddy's trouser taddie have a soul redemption card or is each unfertilised egg happily lurking with its sisters in the ovaries the lucky recipient of preloaded embryonic soul or perhaps souls are disseminated at the last moment an egg can split successfully into twins or more, god forbid we split a soul or go without leading to the inevitable Evil Twin syndrome. To be honest it would be very nice to have an aspect of me that continues on socialising in nirvana with family and friends for eternity but i just cant swallow it, mainly because the soul as is it is put forward is "you" your conscious self the self aware spark that is destined for an eternity of fire and poking or cloudy nirvana. Consciousness is so easily subverted "you" are easily put to sleep, you can be made hyper aware with amphetamines, drugged into a stupor with alcohol or elated unnaturally with MDMA, complex behaviors can be modified with anti psychotics, you can have the many filters that moderate perception dropped with hallucinogens, "you" your mind is extremley malleable and constantly updating and changing for better or worse, it takes years of observation and mental training for a child to get a grip on basic self identity let alone an adult degree of sentience thats if things are going well. It is however when things go wrong with the brain that the holes in the SOUL concept show, your memory is a critical aspect of the human mind if it fails occasionally no big deal, if it fails chronically it damages your quality of life if it fails totally you lose a huge aspect of "self" family friends history everything is lost, Alzheimer's a nasty disease can rob people of everything leaving a barley functional shell that remembers and is capable of little, where is the soul now? everything you are is a function of the slimy electro chemical wonder between your ears if it is damaged due to disease, abuse, accident the "you" that was there is now a lesser being, once it shuts its doors for business the story is over after a few minutes of oxygen deprivation, cells self destruct whatever braincells are still working try to comprehend their doom and eventually you return to the same state as before you were conceived ~ simple oblivion, scary prospect yes and a driving factor behind most religions, but all is not lost because people like to think of themselves as individuals rather than a species they view their personal demise understandably very personally forgetting that they have a group biological legacy if you managed live long enough to find a willing mate, which so far seems to be the point to life breed and if pressured evolve to a higher being. which brings me to my final point our universe so far anthropic principle aside seems to be good at making "smart" creatures it has been hypothesised that if we were to continue getting smarter we would eventually reach a theoretical threshold known as omega point where some entity/race far far in the future has hit maximum smartness and it can use this capability to effectively do anything, they could conceivably resurrect every entity that has ever existed, so with that said you could have too much to drink tonight stumble to your six cylinder sports car only to drive poorly wrapping yourself around a lamppost, die on the operating table experience the tunnel of light and be reborn at the end of time by a hyper advanced descendant of humanity to watch the big crunch, unlikely sure but so is playing a round of doubles with Mother teresa, Ghandi and St Peter in fluffy cloudy heaven after OD'ing on cocaine snorted off a barley legal Thai prostitute.