Do you believe in gravity?

The other night I had a discussion with my friend Plato. I don't know if it has anything to do with his name, but he sure likes to ask difficult questions. Our discussion went something like this.

Plato: If you don't believe in God, then how did this world come about?

Democritus (me): I don't know.

P: Doesn't it indicate that there must be a Supreme Being, God, who created it all? That is the only logical explanation.

D: So tell me more about that supreme being. What is it like, what created it, where does it exist?

P: We are incapable of knowing that.

D: In other words, you don't know either. So bringing up God doesn't explain anything. Might as well leave God out of it then.

P: OK smart aleck, let me ask you another question then. What caused the apple to fall on Newton's head?

D: Gravity of course. Newton realized that there is an attractive force between masses that causes things to fall down on earth, the Moon to orbit the Earth, the Earth to orbit the Sun, etc. It explained a lot of things that earlier were thought to be of divine origin. No need any longer to think that angels pushed the planets in their paths around the sky.

P: OK, so what is that gravity. What is it like, what caused it, how does it work?

D: That has been a difficult question, but Einstein finally figured it out. Gravity is caused by local curvature of the 4-dimensional universe around a mass.

P: Huh? You're speaking in tongues like a Pentecostal. What kind of mumbo-jumbo is that?

D: Well, you see, Einstein figured out that the universe has 4 dimensions, the usual 3 dimensions of location, like length, width, and height, and a 4th dimension: time. The curvature around an object is like a depression that causes another object to fall towards it. That is what causes gravitational attraction.

P (sarcastic): Can you draw me a picture of that? And how can 4-dimensional space be curved as well? What does that mean? The man is talking more nonsense than a hell-and-brimstone preacher. And you believe all that? How do you know it is true? Aren't you saying that you believe in gravity but you don't know what that is? Just like I said that God created everything but I don't know what God is?

D: Maybe so, but there is one crucial difference. God "moves in mysterious ways" as the preachers tell us. We can all pray for rain, or for the rain to stop, but that doesn't necessarily make it so. The assumption that there is a God doesn't predict anything.
Einstein's description of the 4-dimensional universe explains exactly why the planets move around the sun as they do. It allows us to send a spaceship to Mars and have it land exactly where and when we want it. It allows us to pinpoint exactly where we are with our GPS receivers, using data received from orbiting satellites, corrected by taking into account Einstein's formulas

P: But if it is so useful and real, how come you can't give me a better description than what you just said?

D: I could, if you and I knew how to speak the most difficult language of mankind: mathematics. Thanks to mathematics we can be aware of many strange and wonderful things that our senses are unable to perceive. Maybe some day mathematicians will be able to describe something like God in the language of mathematics.
Physicists have been working for over 100 years trying to define the ultimate nature of matter. They have found dozens of elementary particles that together constitute matter and energy as we know it. Most have been observed indirectly in large, complicated equipment. The particles are best described in the language of mathematics.
In particular, mathematics predicts that there must be another, as yet undetected particle, that would explain why some particles have mass and others don't. That particle, known as the Higgs boson after the physicist who suggested it, is sometimes referred to as the "God particle." Whatever that means, it certainly doesn't refer to a God who created the universe and personally worries about our well being.

P: So how about Dark Matter and Dark Energy. Do you believe in those too?

D: Let's call it a day. Enough is enough.

What we don't know

Sometime ago, on a nice summer afternoon, I was walking my little dog along the river when I ran into a group of four young people. They asked permission to pet the dog, a cute, black-and-white cocker spaniel and a proven chick magnet. She loves everyone and rewards attention with sloppy nose licks, given the chance.

They told me they were members of a religious youth group in Texas, in town to help with volunteer work. Clearly their goal was to preach the gospel and make converts where possible, so not surprisingly I was almost immediately questioned about my church affiliation.

I tried to end the discussion with a non-committal answer, that I wasn't much of a churchgoer and did not belong to any congregations. That did not put them off and next they wanted to know what religion I believed in.

I could have told them it was none of their business and left it at that. But they were really nice and sincere, not pushy at all, and it was a nice afternoon with nothing better to do. So I told them I was an atheist.

That got their attention, especially of the three younger ones, a teen-aged boy and two girls. The third girl seemed slightly older and must have been a councilor or such. After the shock had settled, the obvious next question was, how did I explain the existence of everything in the universe?

My answer was that I didn't know and that I was certainly incapable of knowing. I added that no human will ever be able to know and understand the universe, no matter how much more we may learn in years to come, simply because our brains are not equipped for that knowledge. And to claim the existence of a God who creates everything but who otherwise can not be understood is just rephrasing our ignorance. Believing that such a super being is interested in us at all is ridiculous, let alone expecting that prayer can influence who will win a basketball game.

I pointed at Bonnie, the dog, and explained that she had a brain and that there were lots of things she knew, such as cats are evil and squirrels must be chased. She and I also communicate on a simple level.  But in most other respects I'll never be able to teach or explain to her what I know of the world because her brain just isn't capable of understanding.

The human brain has undergone a unique evolution in the animal kingdom  to make it superior to the brains of all the other animals we know of. This allows us to create abstract thoughts, imagine invisible things such as electric fields or black holes, imaginary numbers and, yes, religions. It has made it possible for us to become aware of many aspects of the universe that have surprised us, such as quantum mechanics, the Big Bang, black holes, evolution-driven genetics, the wave nature of matter, the 4-dimensional universe, and so on. The list keeps growing as we learn what dark matter and dark energy are all about, generate a Higg's Boson - the "God Particle," and more. But with all that increased awareness we still haven't come close to understanding how the Universe came about, and I doubt that we ever will.

Are there advanced creatures somewhere in the Universe who can help us understand? They'll face the same problem we have in trying to explain electricity to the dog - it can't be done. Maybe some day in the far future a brain will evolve that operates in a totally different fashion from ours, in ways we can't even imagine. Those brains may be able to understand aspects of existence that we can't - who knows.

We ended the conversation where it started, without either one of us converting the other. In parting, the councilor called me a nice man and promised to pray for me. I appreciated the thought, and in return maybe I managed to plant a seed of doubt in some of those nice youngsters' minds.

Advice to Atheists

A large majority of people on this earth believe in one or more deities that created the universe and influence what happens on earth in general and to individuals in particular. Other than this general belief, the thousands of religions vary in many respects and individuals argue endlessly, and sometimes violently, about which of the religions is the "true" one.

Nevertheless, believers in vastly different religions, say Christians and Buddhists, basically respect each others' beliefs although they may try to make converts. Christians in particular seem intent on converting others to the "right" religion.

Atheists, the small minority that doesn't believe in a deity, are generally despised by the believers and sometimes attacked and even killed for their disbelief. Even under the best circumstances they are often accused of immorality, communism, being devil's helpers and worse. In particular, they are seldom respected for their lack of belief, as others are for merely having the wrong belief. So what are they to do?

Basically, most atheists keep their mouths shut. That's the safest thing to do, but with homosexuals gradually getting the courage to come out of the closet, some atheists are also getting bolder.

Unfortunately, some of the outed atheists make it clear that they think everyone believing in a deity is stupid. Atheist Websites are sprinkled with cartoons carrying that message. It is wrong and it makes further discussion impossible. It may make you feel better about your own (presumed) superiority but it doesn't achieve anything. DON'T DO IT!!!

It is OK, although seldom successful, to discuss and explain your lack of belief with others, but don't expect them to change their minds. Acquiesce in the realization that people are mostly what they are.

In the opinion of prominent but more moderate atheists, religionism is a hard-wired delusion that is part of the human make-up. Some Darwinists think that religion "genes" helped mankind to become the most-developed kind of lfe on earth because it promoted group adhesion and submission to strong leadership. Whatever. The facts are what they are.

Maybe atheism is part of the Darwinian progression to a superhuman. If so, go forth and multiply!