(Clearwisdom.net)
"Angels' Trial" by Artist Wang Weixing |
Contents:
Preface
1. Has the Theory of "Atheism" Been Verified by Science?
2. "Science" and "Theism" are Complementary to Each Other
3. Can "Atheism" Deny "Theism?"
3.1 What has the "Popular Science" with CCP's characteristics tried to destroy?
3.2 Does the universe have a boundary?
3.3 Can we use the human mindset to think of the affairs of gods?
3.4 When the occurrence of something conforms to the principle of the human realm, does it mean it does not manifest the will of gods?
3.5 When something is "not capable of being confirmed to exist," does it mean that "it certainly does not exist?"
4. Atheism is an Exceptional Boundary Case in the Realm of Theism
5. The CCP has Turned "Atheism" into a Political Tool
5.1 Atheism is only a theory to begin with
5.2 Why does the CCP want to advocate atheism?
5.3 How does the CCP advocate atheism?
6. What has the CCP's "Atheism" Brought to Chinese People?
6.1 Has the CCP's atheism brought the advancement of science and technology to China?
6.2 Has the CCP's "Atheism" lifted the Chinese people's morality?
6.3 Has the CCP's "Atheism" brought peace and prosperity to the Chinese people?
Conclusion
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Preface
Many years ago, there was a Russian scholar who advocated atheism. One day, in a big convocation, he gave a speech to persuade the audience that there was definitely no god(s). During the speech, when it came to a point that his argument really began to convince the audience, he spoke loudly to the sky to challenge God: "God, if you do exist, please come down and kill me in front of this crowd. We'll believe that you do exist if you do so!" Then, he paused for a few minutes as if he were indeed waiting for something to happen. Of course, god(s) did not come down to kill him. He looked around and concluded, "Did you see that? God does not exist whatsoever!"
To his surprise, a woman wearing a scarf on her head stood up and replied, "Sir, your theories are profound and you are a knowledgeable scholar. In comparison, I am only a woman from the countryside. I am not in a position to rebut your theories. However, I would like to seek an answer from you for a question I have. I have been worshipping Jesus for many years. I feel joyful in my heart when I think of the grace of the lord who offers salvation to us. I enjoy reading the Bible. The more I read the Bible, the more joy I feel. The grace of Jesus fills my heart. Because I believe in Jesus, I have the greatest joy in my life. I'd like to ask you the following question. If, upon death, I find that God does not exist whatsoever, that Jesus is not the son of God, and that what is said in the Bible is not true, what loss do I suffer if I believed in Jesus for my whole life?" The scholar who advocated atheism thought about her question for quite a while. The whole audience kept quiet. They agreed with the woman's reasoning. Even the atheist scholar was amazed by the pure and simple logic in the woman's question. He replied in a low voice, "I don't think you'll suffer any loss."
The woman said, "Thank you for giving me such a good answer. I have another question. If, upon death, you find that God indeed exists, that what is written in Bible is the absolute truth, that Jesus is indeed the son of God, and that heaven and earth do exist, I would like to ask you, what loss will you suffer?" The scholar kept silent for a long time and didn't know how to reply to her second question.
Thousands of years have passed. The story of the Russian scholar and the country woman - the debate between theism and atheism, has been played repeatedly in human history.
In a normal society, whether one believes in god(s) or not is purely an individual's free choice. Such debate is simply a manifestation of different people's outlooks on the universe. However, tragically, in today's China, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) dictatorial regime has taken advantage of the theory of atheism. It turned a discrepancy originally only falling into the category of one's outlook into a political tool to carry out genocide against spiritual believers. Under the banner of "science," the CCP guzzled a huge percentage of China's financial resources to persecute those who believe in god(s). Considering the extreme extent of this catastrophic persecution, the CCP has no match in history.
Is the theory of "atheism" really more scientific than the theory of "theism?"
In this article, I will address this question from a broad perspective. I aim to shatter the ideological shackles that the CCP, by advocating the theory of "atheism" as an absolute truth, has brought to the Chinese people. In retrospect, let's look at how Jiang Zemin's regime and the CCP have been using the theory of "atheism" to defame and demonize Falun Gong for such a prolonged time, to the extent that their lies seem to have blanketed heaven and earth. I hope my article will serve to help those who don't believe in god(s) to view this issue with a tolerant and broad mind, and to uphold the freedom of belief for every Chinese person.
1. Has the Theory of "Atheism" Been Verified by Science?
It has become a well-known slogan for those who advocate atheism that, "As science takes one step further in its advancement, gods would take one step backward." As a matter of fact, each breakthrough in science, on the contrary, opens an even larger unknown realm to humankind. As a result, humankind further finds out how insignificant it is.
In 1928, Nobel Prize winner, physicist Max Born, based on Paul Dirac's discovery of the equation to describe the behavior of electrons, made the following comment: "Physics as we know it will be over in six months." However, later, the discovery of neutrons opened a new door for physics. The six months were over, but physics was not over. As of today, more than 70 years have passed and physics is not over yet.
In fact, advancement in science is by no means running in the opposite direction from the theory of theism.
In China, in the Eastern Han Dynasty, the well-known atheist Wang Chong did not believe in "telepathy between deities and man." He held that man was on the earth and deities were in heaven. Being separated by such a remote distance, how could man's words be heard by deities. He therefore tried to deny "telepathy between deities and man."
However, as we now know, with a simple antenna as a receiving device, we are able to communicate with the satellites in the sky. Isn't the GPS system (global positioning system) installed in cars based on the same principle? Human beings are far more complicated and advanced "devices" than antennas. Even GPS can communicate with satellites, can't human beings, as better "devices," communicate with the deities in the heaven? If Wang Chong lived in this day, the advancement in science would not help him confirm the theory of atheism; it would well serve the opposite purpose. Some say that the theory of theism originated from human ignorance back in the days when science was not advanced enough. On the contrary, by the same reasoning, human ignorance could be used to explain why some people come up with and believe in the theory of atheism.
As a matter of fact, mankind has been committing itself to exploring extraterrestrial life. Many people like to talk or read on the topic of UFOs. According to the most recent observation of astronomy and cosmography, only 40f the matter in the universe conforms to the standard model in physics, wherein a substance is composed of microscopic particles (the particles that are known to mankind), while 960f matter is composed of dark matter and dark energy unknown to mankind. Does the dark matter have intelligence and life? Exploration by scientists cannot, by itself, exclude the existence of higher lives. If scientists are able to find higher lives who are at a high enough level to be capable of creating human beings, doesn't that mean gods have been found?
Therefore, science should not be monopolized by atheists. The CCP, which never truly follows scientific law, loves to use the name of "science." Actually, it abuses the name of "science" and turns it into a club to strike at people. In the persecution of Falun Gong, the CCP and Jiang's followers go all out to beat the drum for "advocating science," and name the theory of atheism "scientific atheism," as if atheism is an objective physical law verified by science. In reality, a true scientific subject does not have to be branded with the word "scientific" to boost its reputation. Has anyone heard about the term "scientific physics" or "scientific chemistry?" No. In fact, it's the CCP's favorite non-scientific fabrications that the CCP likes to call "scientific." This is done to embellish the Party, and in turn, to swindle the people. For example, the so-called "scientific socialism" and "scientific communism" are typical CCP terms. Is there anyone in China who truly believes in communism any more? Can communism be considered as a science? Did the prosperous capitalist countries ever proclaim themselves to follow "scientific capitalism?"
If the theory of theism is considered a hypothesis within the category of an individual's outlook of the universe, the theory of atheism, at the most, can only be considered as a different hypothesis. There is no so-called "scientific conclusion" possible with regard to the debate between theism and atheism. Even the classic atheism theory worshipped by atheists, the theory of evolution, was only a hypothesis Darwin proposed based on his observations. Yet, the theory of evolution was propagated as a kind of "belief." There is no strict experimental verification or scientific argumentation to confirm the theory of evolution. If you ask the present day experts on modern evolutionism what they have been doing, they will tell you they are still working hard to search for evidence that supports the theory of evolution, as well as trying very hard to find an explanation for the mass of evidence that has been found to contradict the theory of evolution.
2. "Science" and "Theism" are Complementary to Each Other
The success of a scientist is not necessarily related to whether he believes in god(s). Many very famous scientists, such as Kepler, Boyle, Newton, Faraday, Morse, Joule, Maxwell, Mendel, and Fleming, etc., all were theists. They believed in the existence of God. On the other hand, there are also many successful scientists who are atheists.
As a matter of fact, Western science has completely changed people's way of living. It has penetrated every aspect of today's way of living. People are dependent on science, and this makes many people worship science, not god(s).
It was reported that a survey of scientists in the United States about their personal beliefs showed that fewer scientists believed in gods at the end of the twentieth century than at the beginning. Atheists are quite proud of this. However, people noticed an interesting and ironic trend. Though more people became scientists, scientific development is slower these days. Many physicists lost faith in their work and have changed their careers to computer software or finance.
We are not saying that the more people become atheists, the slower science develops. However, today's science does need a breakthrough. Many scientists have started to study fields that they did not want or dared not to research before.
In recent years, many Western scientists have started working with theologians. They have learned from religious groups' experiences while researching modern science.
The questions that science seeks to answer are related to "how." How do cells work in our bodies? How should we design supersonic airplanes? The questions religions try to answer are related to "why." Why was humanity created? Why do I have to tell the truth? Why does the universe exist? Why is the universe in its current state?
Science analyzes things, and the behaviors of people and animals. It does not determine whether such behaviors are good or bad. However, religion questions the good or the bad. Therefore, it was said that science only researches the "hows" and "whats," and religion researches the "whys." Though science also explains "why" to a certain degree, it cannot explain the very original "why" question, the so-called "first cause" - the "why" about the big issues that is at the very root of things.
Some successful scientists with religious backgrounds have a common wish, which is to find the common ground between science and theology. They have tried to use theology to answer some key questions that science could not explain. These scientists raise such an issue: if everything evolved from a lower to higher level, how was the direction of evolution determined? The theory of evolution could not answer this. Things could only evolve after the direction was determined. Does this mean it was god(s) who determined the direction?
The CCP has an often-used term: "Objective rules not movable by human's will." Then whose will it is that is not movable by human's will? Can the word "Nature" simply explain everything?
Religions are not obligated to help scientific development, as it is purely up to the scientists' individual research whether religion can help science make breakthroughs. However, if atheists could have a more "scientific" view to allow for the existence of belief in god(s), and respect the religious freedom of others, the world would be more harmonious.
(To be continued)
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Category: Perspectives
