Einstein vs Professor Video

DISCLAIMER: I think the language spoken is German, but I have to rely on the English subtitles to comprehend the video.

 

01.  When the boy said “God’s love”, did he mean i) God’s love for a person or ii) A person’s love for God ?

02. If it’s the person’s love for God, then this argument does not prove anything significant. The possibility that the belief itself and not God’s presence, wards off evil thoughts can’t be ruled out.

03. If it’s God’s love, then why does God choose not to love some? And if that’s the case, the person can’t be held responsible for his evilness, because God didn’t choose to love him/her in the first place.

04. Or some may say that it is the God’s presence/absence in the person’s heart that determines the outcome. Again the same question, why and how God chooses?

05. Ok, maybe it is the act of exercising free will that a person chooses not to receive God’s love/presence in his/her heart. So, God leaves/withdraws His love for the person, and therefore the person becomes evil and/or engages in evil conducts.

06. But similarly, can’t we also say that evil arises when we reject goodness?[i] And I think goodness represents the negation of evil more accurately.  Or maybe God’s love is goodness. In that case, this points out that only God’s love can be goodness, otherwise other forms of goodness can be used to fill our hearts without the necessity of God’s love.

07. Wait, think I missed a point here. The boy argued that darkness is the absence of light, cold is the absence of heat. Basically, his argument is that in the absence of a physical quantity[ii], we notice the absence of its properties.[iii]. Following this argument, did he also mean that God’s love is also a physical quantity? This partially answers point 06.  God’s love is a physical quantity, and goodness is just the property. But, will it not still be possible for us to fill our hearts with other physical quantities also having goodness property? Say, maybe parents’ love?

08. If God’s love is a physical quantity, it has to follow naturalistic physical laws in principle, as how the other quantities do. Whether these laws are currently known or not, is a separate question.[iv] However, since God is supernatural after all, He can choose to suspend natural laws[v] and thus prevent us from finding out the equations for God’s love. But I can’t think of any reason why God would do that.

09. The professor made the assumption that because God created evil, then God must also be evil.  The boy may have successfully managed to show that God did not create evil, but he didn’t not explicitly state that God is not evil.  There might be other arguments to suggest that God is not evil, but from this video, there seems to be only one. That is; because God did not create evil, then God is not evil. This line of reasoning actually adopts the professor’s logic and with some modifications, we can say that God doesn’t possess evil quality. From the original logic we can also infer that God is bright and hot because He created light and heat[vi].[vii] Since God is Omnipotent, does this mean that He has infinite heat and light? And if He exists in this world, then surely we would get blind and burnt. If it’s argued that God is far away and/or exists in other planes or dimensions, then He is not Omnipresent.  Again, the explanation might be that since God is supernatural, He can choose to transmit His energies the way He wishes. It will be interesting to find out the mechanism of how this happens.

10. Referring back to the above point, the rest of the argument only makes sense if we accept the professor’s line of logic to show that God does not have evil quality. As I said, there might be other ways to argue that God is not evil. But the fact remains that the boy did not explicitly state that God is not evil.

11. And this video is mainly shows that God, if He exists did not create evil (and maybe God is not evil). I think it’s not a good argument in proving God’s existence. It’s mainly a philosophical attempt at understanding the nature of God, and certainly does not automatically prove the validity of religion. Which religion the video is talking about anyway? And what are the concepts contained in it about God?

12. And Albert Einstein never really believed in a supernatural God, at least in his later years. The “God” that he talks about is just the term he uses to refer to the natural world. Another frequent misquoted statement is his famous “God does not play dice with the Universe”. This is actually his statement against quantum mechanics which posits that natural laws are probabilistic.

13. I agree that teaching religion at school is a good idea. It would be best if the kids are taught comparative religious studies. The kids should be exposed to all religions (or at least the major ones), and be left to choose their own religion when they grow up.

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[i]  In making this point, I’m assuming that an agreed and concrete concept of goodness and evil exists. In practise however, there are many different standards used for determining good and evil.

[ii] Light and heat are physical quantities which can be measured. The different physical interpretations aside, both can be quantified in terms of energy.

[iii] Temperature and brightness are properties of heat and light. In the absence of hotness(high temperature) and brightness, we notice cold and darkness respectively. I can’t find a better word to replace “Hotness”.

[iv] If indeed God’s love is a physical quantity, then it becomes a scientific problem. Proper scientific hypotheses can be formed and this concept can be formally confirmed, i.e. it is falsifiable.

[v] This is how miracle happens, by definition. That is when God decides to intervene and produce results which otherwise natural laws rule out.

[vi] Light and heat must have been created by God, since He created everything that exists.

[vii] Another way of arriving at this is from the statement, “God is not evil(does not possess evil quality) because God did not create evil.” So, God is not dark and cold(doesn’t possess dark and cold qualities) too, because He didn’t create darkness and cold. Therefore, God must be bright and hot.

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