Pluto: A Scientist Explains / A Christian Apologist Explains (A Blog Short)

 

NASA's New Horizons space probe has finally reached its destination - Pluto! We are now seeing stunning images from the dwarf planet's surface. I was reading a new report from NASA.gov today and one portion of the report gave me chills. Science is always changing with new evidence and reworking it's theories and completely scrapping some. In this report it talks about how due to the active geologic surface and lack of craters on Pluto (showing a very young surface compared to most icy moons in our solar system) scientists are forced to rethink ideas of geology on icy worlds. There must be a form of energy to be making this happen on Pluto, but all the standard ideas of how this happens are not sufficient in explaining how Pluto's geology is active enough to create mountain ranges. 

Many religious people do not understand science and how it works. They take science's best attribute: it changes with new evidence! - and speak out against it as if this is a bad thing. They of course are assuming all things work as religion does - dogmatic over evidence based. I pictured how differently a Christian apologist would tackle this situation on Pluto. Christian apologists know the answer of course is in the Bible or through a Christian worldview - we just must retro-fit reality and history to this answer. We can bend things to fit what we need because we know the answer FIRST then we attach reality to this answer. Not in science. Science is bottom up and evolves with new evidence to form the overarching theories. This is why science when compared to religion is far superior. I know I know. They are two different things and some scientists are Christians but I am talking about religion and science as a whole not specifically those practicing each.

Side note - I have heard often from some New Christians that something "to consider" (never quite using the phrase "evidence for") is that the overwhelming majority of humans throughout all of human history have believed in a god. These New Christians are aware of argumentum ad populum fallacy so they try not to say this proves theism outright, but of course it's something "to consider" for the atheist. I often respond with breaking this down... If we are to flirt with logical fallacies here- could we not then delve deeper into the human population and gain statistics (especially since the rise of modern science and philosophy when we mostly stopped using magic as science)? What percentage of those in academia are atheists compared to theists? Why is it most scientists and most philosophers are atheists? Could we then not make the argument (if it's sorta-kinda OK to flirt with the logical fallacy) that at the cream of the crop of human population (those with the highest IQs) the majority are nonbelievers. Does this say anything? The majority of the people in America think all climate scientists are evil liberal hoaxsters working for communist take over or at the least think they or their favorite news pundit knows more than all of climate science as a whole. The majority of people in this country believe in supernatural beings like angels and that praying works since God reaches down into the natural world to affect things by asking him too (sometimes). The average population of this country at least and many others are embarrassingly stupid, naive, and uneducated.

I'm being facetious, of course in this blog. I don't envision William Lane Craig trying to give a Biblical/God-centered answer for Pluto's geology any time soon, but why not have a fun go at it? A Christian apologist would look at these unanswered questions about the geology on Pluto and say, "see! Evidence of a higher power! God of the Gaps indeed! They could say science can't explain these mountains or where this energy is coming from to affect this dwarf planet's geography! - therefore - God himself MUST have molded them into existence only to have Neil deGrasse Tyson demote his newly formed planet! Further evidence that Neil deGrasse Tyson is working for Satan! Keep in mind too that God apparently invented black holes. Um, why?? If we take the religious teleological view that everything in this cosmos has a purpose, a plan, a design - please explain to me the destructive power of a black hole ripping apart his own creation. Jesus, this way of thinking is so primitive!

In all seriousness, shed all beliefs that are based on zero evidence... keep your eye on the ball and live skeptical of claims made - even those made by scientists and atheists. Research and fact check. Remember, we all fall subject to confirmation bias and presuppositions in arguments. The most accurate way we can live is to live scientifically and to do good philosophy - question things and seek out evidence that could debunk your truth claim and see how it holds up. If a position is unfalsifiable (god), or ill-defined (god) and you are accepting this "theory" of reality maybe rethink your reasons for doing so in the face of the lack of evidence. It's akin to having a zero in the denominator. It's undefined. You're view of the universe, if you are a theist, is "undefined". It's a burden of proof issue, theists are positing something - God and the claim that he exists and so on... As atheists we are taking the humble position of looking at each of these claims and finding no valid reason to accept them - thus adding up to our position as a non-theist or an atheist. So stay focused, get back to school maybe, get in the books, do the hard science and read good philosophers and embrace reason and skepticism to believe as many true things as possible before you die and try to leave the world a better place than how you found it. These are things we should all strive for!

Sites:

From Mountains to Moons: Multiple Discoveries from NASA's New Horizon's Pluto Mission:

http://www.nasa.gov/press-release/from-mountains-to-moons-multiple-discoveries-from-nasa-s-new-horizons-pluto-mission