Friday, July 13, 2012

Can we refute religion without science?

I wondered if I had lived thousands of years ago when science was very primitive, would I have been able to refute religion logically? Obviously, I would not have heard about evolution, the Big Bang, perhaps I would have thought that the Earth is flat, after the tradition of the time, I would not know what causes lightning and other natural phenomena. Obviously science fights religion, because religion arises from ignorance and knowledge fights ignorance, but was it possible to do that without science?

I think I could have been an atheist in antiquity, if I had used logic. Epicurus, who lived 2300 years ago, showed very clearly and easily that the god of the bible contradicts itself, with the phrase "if God is omnipotent and benevolent, then why is there evil". Buddha, using observation and logic, understood that all things are impermanent, that everything is ephemeral. The idea of ​​eternity is absurd and self-contradictory, it's just an avoidance of answers, nothing is eternal.

If I were asked "who created everything?" I suppose I would have said that something must exist without a cause, the universe exists, therefore the universe does not have a cause, why would I postulate something else without evidence? Of course, I would not know about the Big Bang.


If I were asked "how can complex beings exist without a creator?" I would not have known the answer, but I would have known that a creator does not solve the problem at all, it complicates it even more, because the creator is itself a complex being, and if all complex beings need a creator, then the creator needs another creator which leads to infinite regression. Speaking of infinite regression, eternity is similar to it.

If I were asked "what causes natural phenomena?" I would also not have had an answer, but I think I would have realized that to attribute them to supernatural forces is superstition. For example, why isn't there lightning in winter? What stops the lightning gods from doing their work in cold weather? Or the rainbow, why is it always in the direction opposite to the Sun? Why is the Sun predictable? You can predict the seasons, day and night, etc. A god would be more unpredictable, so there isn't a Sun god. 

Of course, it's difficult to know if I would have been an atheist at that time, but I think it was possible, the only requirement would be to use my brain and think logically.

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