Friday, October 06, 2006

 

Институт Открытия


This may be a disturbing sign of things to come:

Moscow, October 6, Interfax – The existence of God has been proved by scientific methods, Academician Anatoly Akimov, director of the Institute of Theoretical and Applied Physics, has stated.

‘There is God, and we can see the manifestations of His will. This is the opinion of many scientists; they not only believe in the Creator but rely on certain knowledge’, he said in an interview published by the Moskovsky komsomolets daily on Friday.

The arguments are depressingly familiar:

The argument from authority:

[I]n the past centuries very many physicists believed in God. Moreover, until Isaac Newton, there was no separation between science and religion; science was practiced by clergy as they were the most educated people. Newton himself studied theology and used to repeat: ‘I deduce laws of mechanics from laws of God’.

The argument from complexity:

When scientists invented the microscope 300 years ago and began studying what happens within the cell, the duplication and segmentation of chromosomes overwhelmed them: ‘How this can be without Providence?!’

The argument from mathematical handwaving:

‘[I]f man had appeared on the Earth as a result of evolution, then, considering the frequency of mutations and the speed of biochemical processes, more time would have been required to develop man from elementary cells then the age of the Universe itself’.

Besides, he continued, calculations have been made to show that the number of quantum elements in the observed Universe cannot be fewer than 10155 (sic) and it cannot but possess a superintellect.

‘If it is all a single system, then, viewing it as a computer, let us ask: is there anything beyond the power of a computing system with such a great number of elements? It means it has unlimited powers, times and times greater than the most sophisticated modern computer has!’ the scientist stressed.

Akimov was baptized at the age of 55 and when he was asked if he had come to believe in God, he says he relpied: 'No, I have simply realized that He cannot but exist!'

Can full-blown evolution denial be far behind?

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Comments:
A friend of mine visited the Soviet Union in the 1980s on a study tour. When she asked one of the official guides why there were no women in the Politburo (the executive government), the answer was that God had clearly not intended that women should govern over men - and this was under communism!
 
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