Topic: Atheism
God as the "null solution" A commentary on how invoking supernatural causes for any natural event tells us nothing about the event, and is akin to a "trivial solution" in mathematics.by Eschol Sellers
(Libertarian)
Monday, April 14, 2008
In mathematics, a "trivial solution" to an equation is one which is so simple and obvious that, although it is valid, doesn't help inform you about the problem you are studying. A special case of a trivial solution is the "null solution", which is where a zero is invoked to solve a problem, with the result that all relevant information that might be extracted is in the process nullified. For instance, someone might pose the mathematic / sociological question, "How many schools 'Y' are needed to support 'X' number of students?" The null solution to this problem would be, "Zero schools are required to support zero students." True, but not useful.
Throughout human history, people have often tried to answer difficult and perplexing questions about the natural world by invoking the God hypothesis. In ancient times, gods were attributed with causing rain, lightning, flooding, eclipses, and other non-understood phenomena. In the modern day, it has come into fashion to describe God as the unknown cause behind, say, the big-bang, or as the spark which provided the seed of life that could later be worked on by natural selection.
In it's intellectually honest form, the God hypothesis doesn't make any claims as to the nature of the Deity being invoked. It doesn't assert what kind of god caused the big bang, or what his views on eating pork are, but rather says that something must have caused the big bang, and lets call that God (attempts to link this "fundamental cause" to a specific personal Deity are so transparently dishonest that I won't address them here). In it's honest form, the God hypothesis is not necessarily wrong; yes, something did cause the big bang, and I suppose you could call that "God". However, this line of reasoning is unhelpful to the point of being obnoxious. It is in essence the null solution to the existence of the universe. Yes, it does "answer" the question of how the big bang happened, but in a way that tells us absolutely nothing we didn't already know.
Any time that God or the supernatural is invoked in explaining some kind of perplexing physical phenomenon, the most that can be hoped for is a null solution (or, if we attempt to explain a phenomena by appeal to a personal God, we can "hope" to be wrong). This fact is all too obvious in retrospect. How much more satisfying is the modern scientific theory of lightning, with cumulonimbus clouds and electrostatic discharges, than that of Zeus and his mighty right arm! How much more useful is the scientifically derived lightning-rod at diverting those deadly thunderbolts than the countless sacrifices employed by our ancestors! All through history the supernatural has been used to explain things humans didn't understand, and all through history science has marched along and slowly but surely found non-trivial solutions to these questions. This march continues at an accelerated pace in the 21st century, yet we are still compelled to explain things as the urges of some supernatural impulse. I think it's time we dropped the God hypothesis altogether, and pursued coherent, scientific, and natural answers to the difficult questions of the day, without the baggage of this null solution.
Did you like this article? If you did, Thumb It! 11 thumbs so far
2008 Eschol Sellers, all rights reserved.
Published: Monday, April 14, 2008
Last modified: Monday, April 14, 2008
The views expressed in this
article are those of Eschol Sellers only and do not represent
the views of Nolan Chart, LLC or its affiliates. Eschol Sellers is
solely responsible for the contents of this article and is not an
employee or otherwise affiliated with Nolan Chart, LLC in his/her role as a columnist.
Thanks, but you would have gotten more thumbs up had your article somehow mentioned Ron Paul and how "God" has endorsed him. You also might have gone over everyone's head here. This is the same crowd that believes in Free trade as long as mestizos are not a part of it, that the North America Union might destroy America, and that the reason Ron Paul is doing so bad is due to lack of exposure. So thumbs up to you, but nobody but you, me, and Scott from Oregon is going to like this article. Because only a "fool" denies that there is a god.
Want to comment on this
article? Leave your comment here. Your email address is
required to track your comment. However, we will neither
publish your email address nor distribute it to other
organizations or persons. The only reason we might use
it would be if we needed to contact you regarding your
comment. All comments are subject to our
terms of use policy.
2008 Eschol Sellers, all rights reserved.