This article is absolute hogwash. If the details of something are exact enough you can absolutely disprove it. For example, if I said that there was a bright green, 9,000 foot tall, 800x800 square foot based sky scrapper building next to the courthouse in city XYZ of state ABC, all you have to do is go there to prove that it doesn’t actually exist.

Same is true for the very well defined “Christian” god of The Holy Bible. The bible defines him very exactly and he is easy to disprove. However, if you let Christians play games with his definition, allowing them to constantly change his definition so that he cannot be defined, they of course he couldn’t be disproved.

So in summary, you can’t disprove all of the possible fuzzy definitions that any possible “God” could take but because of the exact definition of the Christian God, he can be disproved.

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This article is indeed crap. Why do so-called “strident” atheists keep bringing up the “god” argument? It’s because theists keep shoving god down our throats. Why is this point lost? Is it so easily forgotten?

I drive down the street and see church signs that tell me I’ll be punished forever because I disagree. My daughter is exposed to Christian nonsense in public school because her teachers think it’s within their purview to preach their nonsense. Every idiot commentator on every news article mentions praying for this and that, or otherwise overtly references their phony, invisible, insane friend in the sky. Political leaders are obliged by an idiotic populace to mention their fake friend in every speech, during inaugural addresses, and pretty much whenever they have camera time. The list goes on and on.

In short, they drew first blood, NOT FUCKING ME.

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I don’t think most secular humanists think that the existence of every possible creator-God can be “disproven” by science. I’ve certainly never heard Prof. Dawkins say so. In fact, the absence of any Richard Dawkins quotes is about the most notable thing about this tedious harangue at the link.

Deepak’s straw man here is (sadly, predictably) cheap, carelessly constructed, and entirely of his own making. Get this: “Science doesn’t deal in purpose and meaning; it deals in data and measurement. Dawkins makes the fatal mistake of believing that data and measurement are superior to everyday experience. His brand of skepticism doesn’t work to bring light; more often, it revels in making people feel insecure and doubtful.”

Rearranging terms, he could just as easily have said “Dawkins’s scientific skepticism is a drag, and you’re perfectly entitled to disagree with his arguments (which sometimes involve *data*, of all things) if they merely make you feel bad.”

Sorry Deepak, but I think that there is a real world, and a lot of objective truths out there, and it’s pretty darn beautiful even on the “stark” terms that both we and it are mortal. Shame on you for encouraging people to confuse numinous experience and supernatural events or causes (h/t Hitchens). And have an extra-large helping of shame for knocking the real wonders of science (‘What a drag! You are permitted by me as an authority figure to ignore science if it dares to interfere with your spirituality.”).

It’s upon this confusion, and that appeal to ignorance and vanity, that Chopra has built his whole fantasy-enabling career.

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Chopra is certainly fighting a growing force of people that see right through his nonsense. He can’t rationalize the beliefs of the major religions so he attributes the word “God” to something that “is the same as pure intelligence, creativity and consciousness.” Does this mean that god is the Platonic embodiment of these things? Does that really mean ANYTHING AT ALL?
Utter trash.
He also states that “The point of spirituality is to transcend the ordinary world and reveal something invisible, unknown and yet part of ourselves.” There is certainly much we do not know about ourselves and the universe. However, there is no reason to jump to any conclusions about the unknown. Is there any reason to think that spiritual experiences are anything but activity in the temporal lobe?

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Scientific theists like Deepak Chopra use every tactic they can find to make it seem that science can prove God. But in simplest terms, you can prove that something doesn’t exist.

There. Fixed it for him.

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Somewhere out on YouTube, in one of Dawkin’s many lectures, he actually says that he is not 100% certain that there is no god. The man is aware that it is scientifically impossible to disprove the existence of any sort of god. I’m also pretty sure Dawkins isn’t “ignoring” all of the spiritual experiences that people have had throughout history. He just recognizes that science has many more plausible explanations. Dehydration, extreme stress/emotion, and narcotic substances are all perfectly capable of inducing people to have “spiritual” experiences.

I enjoyed this article though, I thought it was a good oppurtunity to exercise one’s logic to see through a poor argument.

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Haven’t we proved that a triangle with more than one obtuse angle doesn’t exist? If we define our terms specifically enough, then we can show that something is out of the purview of the physical world. Victor Stenger says this about god. A marriage certificate signed by myself and gisele bunchun also does not exist.

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I think he hit the nail on the head with this gem:

“It’s in the very nature of spirituality not to conform to everyday reason and logic.”

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Dawkins has repeatedly said in interviews, lectures, debates and even in “The God Delusion” that he doesnt know for certain there is no god, and doesn’t know how one would prove its non-existance. But it seems very improbable to him that a god would exist.

The same goes for fairies, unicorns, leprechauns, and the Flying Spaghetti Monster (sauce be upon Him).

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Deepak is a total fraud.  This wasn’t even a good emotional pitch for the value of believing in the numinous.  Religious panderers who try to resort to logic, reason and science to argue in favor of the existence of god always wind up with an argumentation turd fiesta in thier rhetorical shorts.  Ugh, this bozo tried to leverage the uniqueness of a rhino to reverse a probability argument into supporting the existence god.  False analogy much?  Let’s start with the fact that a rhino demonstrably is real.  You don’t even have to get into the more arcane analysis of the various categories that do exist that a rhino belongs to (i.e., animal, mammal, pachyderm, four-legged, horned, bla, bla, bla).  Point to a diety that definitely exists from which you could make a probability argument that another kind might exist.  Ooops, crapped your argumentation pants again there too.  This dope should have his computer taken away from him, and should go back to proudly wafting magic smoke over himself.

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*round of hearty applause*

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I have been away from this site for quite a while but I am not suprised to find that the counters to this article are for the most part very shallow. That is usually the case.  Few of your comments really address the points made in the article.

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The article has no real point, nor does it make any logical sense.

Yes, there are forces and powers in the cosmos that we do not yet understand.  We have no evidence whatsoever that those powers have any desire to be eaten in the form of a cracker, nor do we have any evidence that those powers object to the equal legal treatment of a same sex couple.

Maybe we can’t disprove the existence of a greater power… but we sure can (and do!) disprove any and all value of organized religion.

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WaveRider, back like a bad rash I see. First, the article has no point; it has the usual Chopra nonsense.  What a fake. And it’s is a sad world if there is a war against the dissipation of ignorance. Should be wiped out like the small pox with the vaccine of education and rationality.

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Wave rider, hunh?  Let me throw out a wild-ass guess about the person who identifies as a surfer.  You believe in something spiritual.  It’s unavoidable when you’re trying to “get pitted,” right, you just know there’s something more that is totally awesome and, like, beyond our senses.

What is the deep point that Deepak makes that you think was not adequately appreciated?  If you’re going to throw down the gauntlet, be ready to get into the details.

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The real question about Deepak is more sinister: is he consciously pandering to the pseudo-science quasi-mystic new age crowd to pad his enormous wallet - or is he actually as deluded as his debates, books, and articles reveal him to be? He’s made a fortune on conflating quantum physics with mysticism and is always sent into emotional outbursts when debating Dawkins or Harris. Harris outright called him a “charlatan” - he forgot to add “a wealthy…” to that description of a well-played con that’s finally falling apart.

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I missed you too Scorpionrat. 

You are very perceptive Mike.  I am spiritual.  It is very hard to not believe in God when one understands the complex mechanisms that give rise to the raw power and beauty of a wave. 

I will throw a scripture out.  Psalm 14:1 “The fool has said in his hear, “There is no God.”

I don’t give any evidence to this statement.  But we will all find out if this statement is true when we pass on.

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Wave rider.  So you came up with nothing but a quote of the old book.  Can’t say I’m surprised.  I also don’t have to give in to a willfully blind sense of wonder about how waves work.  I learned about this when I was a child in science class.  Let’s agree to meet on the “other side” to compare notes about the truth.  Oh wait, no we’ll both just be dead.  Only one of us, however, will have been deluded. 

You’re cutting into your taco time by being on here.  Certainly, your time is better spent masticating corn.

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Mike,

We will meet on the other side.  You have gambled that we won’t - but unfortunately for you - we will.  I am truely sorry that you will be so disappointed.

I am also sorry you can’t enjoy the wonder of a wave.  But the fact that you have nothing to believe in - that really matters - I am not surprised that is the case.  You are really missing out on something fantastic!!!

Wave Rider.

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Yes.  I have gambled the same way that a person who does not elect to jump off the roof hoping god will catch them gambles. 

I’m quite sure my capacity for wonder is fully intact.  You see, I get to wonder “what” and “why.”  You religious folks are too busy wonder “whom”—“to whom must I prostrate myself in prayer?”  For you, the answers to all of the questions stand in the same stiltified, ignorant place they did more than 2000 years ago, when comparatively people knew next to nothing.  That kind of wonderment qua ignorance is useless.  You can have it.

The last little bit of your post is probably the most revealing.  You believe in god because, without it, you are hopeless and lacking anything to believe in—not even yourself. 

For that, I pity you, because you could be missing out on something fantastic.

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Wave Rider

The Mike’s of the world have a greater sense of wonder than you because we wonder. You don’t. You attribute it all to a black hole called God. The god folder is empty.

Tell you what. You go pray, and chant or whatever so that one one day - pick one - god will ensure that no one dies.  Tell us that day. I guarantee that it will not happen.

The Chopra victims of the world (i.e. you) believe in flim flam nonsense and anecdotal evidence. Your god cannot undermine the laws of large numbers and statistics.

Go on, make my day.

See you later dude, I will resume surfing the world of wonder.

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Deepak? More like Deepshit.

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