Originally posted by jlm:
[b]Continued....
Another student raises his hand.
"Professor, may I address the class?"
The professor turns and smiles. "Ah, another Christian in the
vanguard! Come, come, young man. Speak some proper wisdom to the
gathering."
The Christian looks around the room. "Some interesting points you
are making, sir. Now I've got a question for you. Is there such
thing as heat?"
"Yes," the professor replies, "there's heat."
"Is there such a thing as cold?"
"Yes, son, there's cold too."
"No, sir, there isn't."
The professor's grin freezes. The room suddenly goes very
quiet.
The second Christian continues. "You can have lots of heat, even
more heat, super-heat, mega-heat, white heat, a little heat, or no
heat, but we don't have anything called 'cold'. We can hit 458
degrees below zero, which is no heat, but we can't go any further
than that. There is no such thing as cold, otherwise we would be
able to go colder than negative 458--you see, sir, cold is only a
word we use to describe the absence of heat. We cannot measure
cold. Heat we can measure in thermal units because heat is energy.
Cold is not the opposite of heat, sir, it's just the absence of
it."
Silence. A pin drops somewhere in the classroom.
"Is there such a thing as darkness, professor?"
"That's a dumb question, son. What is night if it isn't darkness?
What are you getting at?"
"So you 'believe' in darkness?"
"Yes."
"I'm sorry, but science says you're wrong again, sir. Darkness is
not something, it is the absence of something. You can have low
light, normal light, bright light, flashing light, but if you have
no light constantly, you have nothing, and it's called darkness,
isn't it? That's the meaning we use to define the word. In reality,
darkness isn't. If it were, you would be able to make darkness
darker and give it to me in a jar. But you can't give me a jar of
darker darkness, can you Professor?"
Despite himself, the professor smiles at the young effrontery
before him. This would indeed be a good semester. "Would you mind
telling us what your point is, young man?"
"Yes,! professor. My point is, your philosophical premise is flawed
to start with, and so your conclusion must be in error..."
The professor goes toxic. "Flawed...? How dare you...!"
"Sir, may I explain what I mean?"
The class is all ears.
"Explain...oh, explain." The professor makes an admirable effort to
regain control. Suddenly he is affability itself. He waves his hand
to silence the class, for the student to continue.
"You are working on the premise of duality," the Christian
explains, "that, for example, there is life and then there's death;
a good God and a bad God. You are viewing God as a concept, as
something finite, something we can measure.
Sir, science cannot even explain a thought. It uses electricity and
magnetism, but has never seen, much less fully understood them. To
view death as the opposite of life is to be ignorant of the fact
that death cannot exist as a substantive thing. Death is not the
opposite of life, merely the absence of it."
The young man holds up a newspaper he takes from the desk of a
neighbor, who has been reading it. "Here is one of the most
disgusting tabloids this country hosts, Professor. Is there such a
thing as immorality?"
"Of course, there is, now look..."
"Again, I'm sorry sir, but you are wrong. You see, immorality is
merely the absence of morality. Is there such a thing as injustice?
No, injustice is the absence of justice. Is there such a thing as
evil?"
The Christian pauses. "Isn't evil the absence of good?"
The professor's face has turned an alarming shade of red. He is so
angry, he is temporarily speechless.
The Christian continues. "If there is evil in the world, Professor,
and we all agree there is, then God, if He exists, must be
accomplishing a work through the agency of evil. What is that work
God is accomplishing? The Bible tells us that it is to see if each
one of us will, of our own free will, choose good (the result of
the love of God) over evil the result of independence or the
absence of the love of God). "There is nothing greater than love.
God is love and God is good. If He is good, then the innate act of
his goodness would be to give man the opportunity to experience the
greatest thing that exists -- love. But love cannot be forced on
someone or else it is not love. There must be a choice involved.
God loved us enough to allow us to make the choice. Evil is the
result of the choice of independence from God."
The professor bridles. "As a philosophical scientist, I don't view
this matter as having anything to do with choice; as a realist, I
absolutely do not recognize the concept of God or any other
theological factor as being part of the world equation because God
is not observable."
"I would have thought that the absence of God's moral code in this
world is probably one of the most observable phenomena going," the
Christian replies, "Newspapers make billions of dollars reporting
it every week! Tell me, Professor, do you teach your students that
they evolved from a monkey?"
"If you are referring to the natural evolutionary process, young
man, yes, of course I do."
"Have you ever observed evolution with your own eyes, sir, or are
you placing your 'faith' in the unobservable?"
The professor makes a sucking noise with his teeth and gives the
student a silent, stony stare.
"Professor, since no one has ever observed the process of evolution
at work and cannot even prove that this process is an ongoing
endeavor, are you not teaching your opinion, sir? Are you now not a
scientist, but a priest?"
"I'll overlook your impudence in the light of our philosophical
discussion. Now have you quite finished?" the professor
hisses.
The student replies: "May I follow up on the point you were making
earlier to the other student?"
The professor wisely keeps silent.
"I believe you have a great mind Professor, but with all respect
let me ask the class a question regarding it. Is there anyone here
who has ever heard the professor's great mind... felt the
professor's mind, touched or smelled the professor's mind?"
The class remains silent.
"No one appears to have done so. No one here has had any sensory
perception of the professor's mind whatsoever.
"While I would not dare to imply it myself, but wouldn't the
limitations of what you 'believe in' (the rules of empirical,
testable, demonstrable, protocol, science) say that you have no
mind? Wouldn't the same apply to your emotions and your will? "I
believe your great mind is hidden within your brain although I
cannot observe it within the small box, or within the limited
parameters which you want to place God within.
"If I want to know your mind or better yet the real you (your mind,
emotions, will and even your spirit), all I have to do, if you are
willing to be known, is be willing to seek to know you and to spend
time with you.
"You can know that God exists, .... if you are willing ... Are you
willing Professor?"
Silence Silence Silence Silence Silence Silence Silence
The bell rings.
"Class dismissed," replies the professor. "Time is up!
Author Unknown
[/b]
The student's points are fundamentally flawed.
1) Evolution can be proven through fossils.
2) Evil is not the absence of good
The argument of choosing good over evil reminds of the ongoing
casino issue. It's like building a casino but telling Singaporeans
not to go. Then what's the point of building it in the first place?
