_____. monuAi, iTinrv^n uv, m l/aili nLDivADAAn m raul o
To believe, or not to believe
Big-bang theory, evolutionary quirks
suggest existence of a supreme being
MALCOLM KASS is a senior
chemical engineering major
and a Daily Nebraskan colum
nist
I’m surviving on one hour of sleep. I
have a test tomorrow. My car just died. And
to top it all off, I am justifying the existence
of a supreme deity - in short, GOD - in a
22-inch column for a university newspaper.
Oh yeah, I’m wearing sunglasses. Hit it
I intend to validate for the believers of
the world that we are not absolute masters of
our domain, but guided organisms created
by an all-powerful being. I assure my audi
ence that I will probably not be able to per
suade even one of you. However, since
Klaus suckered me into writing this column,
I’ll give it my damndest... I mean, my dam
dest.
There are many weapons of choice used
to crush the hopes of the masses and destroy
a belief in God.
They point to evolution, and science in
general, as the cornerstone for their logic
and to undermine religious thought.
However, with information presented to us
about evolution and our universe from mod
em science, weaknesses in the atheist argu
ment arise, stemming the belief that science
is the answer for everything. First... the big
bang.
The big-bang theory claims that approxi
mately 10,000 million years ago, all the mat
ter in the universe was crunched to a point of
infinite density and no size.
Then the universe went “kaboom” in a
ferocious explosion and the universe started
to expand, and it is still expanding today.
This expansion occurs because the force of
explosion was much greater than the force of
gravity to pull the universe back together.
Gravity is slowing this process, however.
Thus, questions arise. Will the force of
gravity, which slows the expansion, eventu
ally slow the universe to a stop and reverse
the process? Will the universe collapse in
upon itself? Since the universe contains only
about 10 percent of the matter necessary to
generate enough gravitational force to recol
lapse, the universe apparently is expanding
forever, to the ends of time.
Because our universe apparently has a
beginning and no cyclic process of expan
sion and contraction, no scientific explana
tion is applicable. This is a great weakness
in the atheist argument.
The instant our universe was bom neces
sitated a God, beyond science and reason. It
is as if God, with a snap of her “fingers,”
decided to create everything.
Why? I have no idea and I am not about
to fathom the mind of God. However, the
big bang is just a commonly accepted theory,
just as evolution is just a theory; but to ratio
nalize a question of this magnitude, we must
use what is known, and God lies as the
mother of our universe.
The second explanation for God’s exis
tence delves into the realm of human evolu
tion.
Humans are unique, and, because of
dominant human behavior, we have come to
dominate our planet.
In comparing evolutionary marvels to the
other species of life that have dominated our
planet, such as the dinosaurs, human evolu
tion is flying by at “Speed Racer” velocities.
Dinosaurs arrived on the scene about
230 million years ago and existed for 165
million years. However, within those 165
million years, dinosaurs didn’t exactly
evolve like bonkers. Actually, they evolved
very little.
Humanity’s ancestors have existed for
approximately 5 million years and went
from being chimp-like creatures to creators
of thinking computers. Also, the great ani
mals of the Earth have generally been either
very large, like the dinosaurs, or small but
large-numbered, like the insects. But
humans discovered that the big brain is the
zenith of evolution.
As mentioned earlier, the dinosaurs lived
for 165 million years, and insects, obviously,
are still in existence. Why did it take only 5
million years for humans to unlock this evo
lutionary key?
The answer lies with the greatest feat in
the existence of life on our planet. Humans
have evolved beyond evolution. We cut the
strings and became independent of our evo
lutionary ties.
When we want to fly, do we wait for evo
lution to slowly form wings on our backs?
No, we build an airplane. If we want to move
faster, do we just wait for evolution to form
larger leg muscles? Nope, we invent cars.
We have even
escaped the con
fines of this planet
Because of the
power of intellect,
the simple fact that
we control and
change our environ
ment to satisfy our
wants and needs
secures earth and
this universe as our
own. This is why
we are human, and
not animals.
In order to eat
fruit high in a tree,
does the human
throw rocks or use
sticks to reach the
fruit like other pri
mates? No, the
human in a forest
sees beyond what is
directly present in
the environment
beyond the sticks
and rocks. The
human makes a lad
der to reach the
fruit or makes an ax
to cut the tree
down.
This develop
ment is not a quirk
in the history of
life. Rather, this is
what is commonly
referred to as divine
intervention. God
maHo tKio t^onnan
and guess what -
she kicked ass.
Something
extraordinary hap
pened when God
decided that sci
ence needed a little
nudge, and our
ancestors went
from being ape-like
to being Homo
sapiens in a rela
tively brief span of
time.
If the process
had been purely
natural, evolution
would inevitably
have destroyed
itself.
I compare this
to standing on a hill
and rolling a ball
1,000 times, watch
ing it move down
uic luu iu aic vaney vassmfmm, i x
because of the force ^mT
of gravity.
However, on the 1,001st instance, after it
reaches the valley, the ball rolls back to the
top of the hill. No one can reasonably claim
that gravity was responsible for this occur
rence. *
Evolution did not “roll the up the
hill.” Humanity has a maker.
I hope I wasn’t too confusing, but I don’t
think the mysteries of the universe are as
easy as pie. Besides, the surest sign that God
does indeed exist is that atheist-boy Klaus
says the opposite.
Anyway, if you remember anything from
this column, remember this: As humans, we
rock, but God gave us the Les Paul.
Injustices throughout human history
contradict presence of a divine power
KLAUS MARRE is a senior
broadcasting major and a
Daily Nebraskan columnist
When I was a young German (just pic
ture me running through the Black Forest
in my
Lederhosen), I
went to church just
because it was
what everybody
did.
Back then I
made a list of
questions I wanted
to ask God if he
ever appeared to
me, as he did to all
those prophets you
can read about in
the Bible.
They were
really innocent
questions... the
kind my relatives
would find “cute”
when they saw the
list in my room
kind of like, “Did
you cry when
Jesus died?”
As I grew'
oiuer, suu rroiiCK
ing in the Black
Forest, 1 got a little
tougher on God.
“Why did you
make mean dogs?
They bite.”
Things didn’t
make sense, and I
questioned God’s
authority. I wanted
to know why God
let 80 million peo
ple die in World
War II, and why he
lets children starve
to death every day.
It didn’t make
sense to me, and it
was just a matter
of time before I
went from a curi
ous child to an
atheist, at about
age 10.
I had all these
questions, and
God had no
answers for me.
Actually, I don’t
blame God
because he does
not exist. By the
way, I use the term
“he” loosely. For
writing purposes I
had to assign a
~„„a— —a t :_*
gVUUVl UIIU A JUtH
went with the
' common impres
! sion of God being
male.
It doesn’t take
a rocket scientist
to figure out there is no God ... not even a
rocket scientist’s assistant or any other per
son for that matter. I understand people
believe because it provides them with
something to look forward to and maybe
even a purpose in life, however irrational it
maybe.
That’s why it is called faith, I guess, but
there was a time in our lives when we
believed in Santa Claus. We had faith that
some chubby, old man brought us presents
for Christmas. It is just as irrational as the
existence of God, and most of us don’t
believe in Santa Claus anymore. -
We know now it is impossible for the
old man to visit millions of homes in one
"\ • .." ;
night. With the kind of weight the guy is
carrying around, he would have a heart
attack on the second roof. Being presented
with all the evidence, we lost faith, espe
cially after we figured out that our parents
would get us presents whether or not we -
believed in Santa.
To me, it is the same with God. I have
no reason to believe in him. I’m not even
going to support my argument with the
help of the Bible. A brain-dead person
could show by the flaws in Scripture that it
just does not make sense.
For example, if Adam and Eve were the
only people created by God, where did all
the others come from? Last time I checked,
most major religions were not big on
incest.
Tf xxrrvulrl Ko tan aaoi r fn nor
sages in the Bible to show it is all just a
sham, that belief in God in most major reli
gions is just a kind of “afterlife insurance.”
“Believe now, give money and help our
cause, and we promise you eternal life
later.” Pretty clever, too, with all of us
being afraid of death and with no proof that
religion keeps up its part of the bargain.
It goes well with assigning guilt trips
about having committed sins and then
hearing God gave his only son so we could
move on to a better place. It makes people
like me, who do not believe, look like
ungrateful asses.
Instead, I will make you think for your
self. It goes with the theme of the questions
I mentioned earlier. If you have answers,
please send them to the Daily Nebraskan.
Let’s say there was a God who created
the universe. This already does not make
sense. If we are in fact the chosen few, and
he created all this for us, why are there
planets and stars billions of light-years
away? What good are they goir% to dd ds?
We’ll never get there. Did God think it was
fim to make planets and just kept going?
Put yourself in his shoes. If you were to
create something really neat, like an earth
with all these creatures running around.
Wouldn’t you take care of it? Personally, I
wouldn’t let all the bad things happen to
humanity, and I don’t see why God, who is
supposed to be all good and a great and
righteous being, would let it happen either.
Sure, all you Bible buffs out there will
point me to Genesis 1:28 where it says the
earth is man’s dominion. Still, just because
you put someone in charge of something
does not mean they can do whatever they
want. To illustrate my point, let me reduce
the scale of my example a little bit.
Let’s pretend I have bought 1,000 mice
and made them a really neat cage. I let
them run around and have a good time.
Then, one day, this one mouse talks to a
few others and tells them they are a group
of supermice and they should go out and
whack all the others. So these Nazi-mice
start killing off a bunch of their peers. Now,
I, as their supreme being, who purchased
them from a pet shop and built the cage,
would just not stand for that. There is no
way I would sit there and let my mice kill
each other.
Or maybe one comer of the cage gets
all the food and 20 mice get fat, while on
the other side of the cage, hundreds of the
others starve to death. Personally, as a
supreme being with the power to put food
wherever I want to, I would try to distribute
it more evenly to prevent starvation. I guess
if there were a God, he would disagree
because never in the history of mankind
have we had an equal distribution of /
resources.
So why would this great being let all
these bad things happen to his own cre
ations? I don’t know. I would be somewhat
upset to watch from above and see humani
ty destroy my precious creation.
What would really piss me off, though,
would be when all these bad things happen
in my name. All the religious wars, perse
cution of innocent people or the attempt to
hinder mankind’s progression (such as the
medieval scientists who were burned at the
stake) in God’s name. I would never toler
ate anybody using my name to justify
injustice.
And if God existed, I am sure he would
not, either.