Quit Your Whying

I’ve been listening to comedian Pete Holmes’ podcast You Made It Weird recently. A point of interest relevant to this blog is that Pete ends each episode with an exploration of his guest’s religious or atheistic beliefs. Most often his guest is a fellow comedian, a trade that fosters atheism almost as readily as scientific fields. Speaking of which, he’s had on scientists like Brian Green and Bill Nye as well as less scientifically literate types such as Deepak Chopra (that was a hard episode for me to get through even though it was about half the usual two hour length.) Pete himself is a lapsed fundamental Christian who still holds various spiritual beliefs while being sympathetic to the secular. I tell you all this to both encourage you to check out his show and to introduce a concept Pete often brings up--that science answers the “what”s and “how”s of the universe but offers little in terms of “why.”

The big “why”s were the last related questions I found of value as I left theism--most notably “why is there something rather than nothing?” Atheists don’t have a definitive answer to this and perhaps never will. Theists can answer it, but only with their go-to guess. They essentially answer “because God.” They then immediately stop asking questions, considering “because God” becomes more absurd when the question is “why is there God rather than no God?”

The only thing more frustrating than an empirical God of the Gaps argument is a philosophical God of the Gaps argument, which is what we have here. Pete is filling a gap with an assumption, as he has been conditioned to by his upbringing. While we should try to discover answers to every “why,” the problem with the question is that it eventually creates an unknown in any body of knowledge. When a “why” question is answered, a new “why” question applies. The result? A gap that keeps on giving. The better question may be this: with what degree of reductionism are you comfortable?

To illustrate this, here is another favorite comedian of mine, Louis CK, talking about kids.

Geeks Without God

I started listening to a newish podcast that is right up my ally called Geeks Without God. It is exactly what the name implies. I already listen to a couple atheist shows and a couple pop culture/comics shows--but this consolidates my interests! They do a "five questions" thing that I figure I could answer while pimping their program.

1)  What is the best movie you’ve seen in the last thirty days?

Looper. This wasn't my first viewing of the flick, but even without the surprises it beats out the other crap I've seen lately. It's original, it has time travel, and it has a catchy score--three things I look for in movies (I obviously don't fill this criteria very often.)

2)  Who is your favorite atheist character?

I'm a fan of the DC comics character Mister Terrific, even though he has no right to be an atheist. Not only does he work alongside demigods like Superman and Captain Marvel Shazam, but his universe also has Greek gods chatting with Wonder Woman, Biblical angels, and the personified wrath of Jehovah called The Spectre!

3)  What is your geekiest hobby?

I just read a lot of comics. Currently Saga, Chew, Superior Spiderman, Batman, Wolverine and the X-Men, Uncanny X-Men, All-New X-Men, Green Lantern, The Invincible Iron Man, and most recently The Private Eye.

4)  What is your favorite sandwich?

A tuna sub with a little mustard, onion and Lenny's hot pepper relish.

5)  What is the stupidest thing anyone has said to you about your atheism/agnosticism?

That I can't have morality without a higher power. I'm not sure how a social creature could not have morality, but apparently every theist who argues with me is just one missed church service from sociopathy.