Thursday, February 26, 2009

An Interesting Conversation...

Was just blog-hopping & found this rather interesting post ... more like a rather interesting conversation between an agnostic prof & one of his students. The thing is when I googled there were a lot of different versions on the conversation... some even have an extended version of the conversation while others adapted it to suit their religion... Islamic version ... Christianity version and there's the question on who is the student actually? Be it Albert Einstein or PJ Abdul Kalam or maybe someone else? The version below is from We Canadians webbies. Some other extended version can be found here! <- I prefer this version actually but it's a Christian version :p


An atheist professor of philosophy speaks to his class on the
problem science has with God. He asks one of his new students:

Prof: So you believe in God?
Student:
Absolutely, sir.

Prof : Is
God good? Is God all-powerful?
Student : Yes.

Prof: My brother died
of cancer even though he
prayed to God to heal him. But God didn't. How is this
God good then? Hmm?
(Student is silent.)

Prof: You can't answer, can
you? Let's
start again, young fella. Is God good?
Student: Yes.

Prof: Is Satan
good?
Student : No

Prof: Where does Satan
come from?
Student: From...God....

Prof: That's right. Tell me son,
is
there evil in this world?
Student: Yes.

Prof: Evil is everywhere,
isn't it? And God did make everything. Correct?
Student: Yes.

Prof:
So who created evil?
(Student does not answer.)

Prof: Is there
sickness? Immorality? Hatred? Ugliness? All these
terrible things exist in the
world, don't they?
Student: Yes, sir.

Prof: So, who created them?
(Student has no answer.)

Prof:
Science says you have 5 senses you
use to identify and observe the world
around you. Tell me, son...Have you ever
seen God?
Student: No, sir.

Prof: Tell us if you have ever heard
your God?
Student: No, sir.

Prof: Have you ever felt your God,
tasted your God, smelt your God?
Have you ever had any sensory perception of God
for that matter?
Student: No, sir. I'm afraid I haven't.

Prof: Yet
you still
believe in Him?
Student: Yes.

Prof: According to
empirical,
testable, demonstrable protocol, science says your GOD doesn't exist.
What
do you say to that, son?
Student: Nothing. I only have my faith.

Prof: Yes. Faith. And that is the problem science has.
Student:
Professor, is there such a thing as heat?

Prof: Yes.
Student:
And is
there such a thing as cold?
Prof: Yes.

Student: No sir.
There isn't.
(The lecture theatre becomes very quiet with this turn of
events.)

Student: Sir, you can have lots of heat, even more heat,
superheat, mega
heat, white heat, a little heat or no heat. But we d on't
have anything called
cold. We can hit 458 degrees below zero which is no
heat, but we can't go any
further after that.
There is no such thing as
cold . Cold is only a word we
use to describe the absence of heat . We
cannot measure cold. Heat is energy .
Cold is not the opposite of heat, sir,
just the absence of it. (There is
pin-drop silence in the lecture theatre.)

Student: What about darkness,
Professor? Is there such a thing as
darkness?
Prof: Yes. What is night if
there isn't darkness?

Student: You're wrong again, sir. Darkness 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? In reality, darkness isn't. If it were you would be
able
to make darkness darker, wouldn't you?
Prof: So what is the point you
are making, young man?

Student: Sir, my point is your philosophical
premise is flawed.
Prof: Flawed? Can you explain how?

Student:
Sir,
you are working on the premise of duality. You argue there is life and
then
there is death, a good God and a bad God. You are viewing the concept
of God as
something finite, something we can measure. Sir, science can't
even explain a
thought. It uses electricity and magnetism, but has never
seen, much less fully
understood either one. 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 : just the absence of
it. Now tell me, Professor. Do you teach
your students that they evolved
from a monkey?

Prof: If you are
referring to the natural
evolutionary process, yes, of course, I do.
Student: Have you ever observed
evolution with your own eyes, sir?
(The
Professor shakes his head with a
smile, beginning to realize where the argument
is going.)

Student:
Since no one has ever observed the process of
evolution at work and cannot
even prove that this process is an on-going
endeavor, are you not teaching
your opinion, sir? Are you not a scientist but a
preacher? (The class is in
uproar.)
Student: Is there anyone in the class
who has ever seen the
Professor's brain?
(The class breaks out into
laughter.)

Student: Is there anyone here who has ever heard the
Professor's
brain, felt it, touched or smelt it? No one appears to have done so.
So,
according to the established rules of empirical, stable, demonstrable
protocol, science says that you have no brain, sir. With all due respect,
sir,
how do we then trust your lectures, sir?
(The room is silent. The
professor
stares at the student, his face unfathomable.)

Prof: I
guess you'll have
to take them on faith, son.
Student: That is it
sir.... The link between man
& god is FAITH . That is all that keeps
things moving & alive.

2 Angel Kisses:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for posting this interesting conversation, from my web-site "We Canadians".

Just a bit of background -the student went on to become the President of India, Abdul Kalam.

A great philosopher and a logical thnker.

Angel On Parole [Mino-Chan] said...

No problem at all. I really like this article so much... It's really something to reflect upon & to learn from. I can be shallow at times & articles like this help get me back on track... lol.