Friday, June 04, 2010

Some experiments ...

I have tried these thought experiments on two smart people and I am glad with the results.
Of late, I have become a lot more sceptical about God and miracles and so on. When people try to bring any kind of logical semblance to the notion of God, Karma and things like that, I challenge them to a few very simple thought experiments.
Let's start with the assumptions first.
A coin toss is a chance event. Something beyond our control. Purely a chance event means that it is not pre-decided by some divine force, and it is beyond everyone's control, including God.
Suppose I am able to put a gun to your head and toss a coin. If it comes heads, I will shoot you. If it turns out to be tails, I will let you go. Now, who decides whether you get to live or not ? I am a slave of the coin and will do whatever it says. If the outcome is a function of your Karma, then the result of the toss is pre-decided, ain't it? That contradicts the assumption we started with. If it is not a function of Karma, then the single most important turning point in your life is not affected by your Karma. What use is Karma anyway?

If I were to attach no significance to the outcome of the coin toss, you would have no issues saying the coin toss is a random chance event. But as soon as we attach something of life changing consequence to its outcome, that clarity fades away. But the coin toss is still the same process!

My take on the whole subject is this:
I think what we experience in life is a function of chance. And by chance, I mean, the most critical things are beyond our control - also anyone else's, including God. We only work with probabilities, but we can never be sure we can achieve something with 1.infinite zeroes probability.
God exists because our cognition created it and it soothes a lot of people's minds to believe in Him. It gives them an anchor in times of distress. There is absolutely no role of logic in faith.
In fact I suspect there may be a role for evolution to play in this God business. Suppose there were two tribes, one with the notion of God and the other without it. The former would have a lot of beliefs built around God, prohibiting things the elders thought were not good for the community, and forcing the belief that a bad act will result in eventual after effects. The latter would not have this kind of a faith system. The former group is more likely to flourish and survive than the latter. The belief in God system seems to bode well for the community but we should know where logic ends and blind faith begins!
On a similar tone, on the subject of Homoeopathy : this link and this.