In the defence of Atheism

*Sighs*

Forgive them, Father. They know not what they do.

These words, spoken by a man who was not the Son of God, are the only things that redeem him, in my eyes. It is a good principle to live by - forgive those that harm you through ignorance, through unintentional action. For a lot of these things are motivated by fear, and fear makes humankind act in a manner not entirely 'human'.

So, I got my response from the Ex-atheist. I think I'll call him 'The Ex', from now on. It'll make matters simpler. So, The Ex messages today, and begins by complimenting me on my blog. Thank you, I work on it occasionally. I'm glad to know it bore some fruit. He then went on to say that one must have 'trusted sources' of information. Also, agreed. However, trust is an issue, because I do not trust the Koran one whit.

He stated that his method of research was as follows -
1. Does God exist?
2. If yes, then which religion is the true one? He says he went through their authentic sources.
3. If the source had some scientific error, then it couldn't be the word of God. Since the Koran stated many 'scientific facts' that have only recently come to 'light', it must be the word of God.

Hence proved, he says. Of course, he follows this up with the scientific facts, and substantiations. He mails me some text that I am sure is taken off some website or the other, proving the perfect nature of the Koran.

This particular part of the message speaks first of the theory of probability, of which I am sure anyone reading this will be familiar with, and states that the Koran predicts, primarily, 3 scientific facts, before they were discovered or realised -
1. The Earth is round.
2. The Moon reflects light.
3. The human body is made of water.

He states that there are some 30 conceivable shapes of the Earth, hence odds of the Koran guessing that are 1 in 30. The odds of the moon reflecting light are 1/2. And the odds of the human body being made of water are 1 in 10,000, assuming 10,000 other possible substances. If one multiplies these three odds, there is a .00017% chance that this has been arrived at through guesswork. Hence, this being so overwhelmingly likely that God wrote this since it is right, and so unlikely that this is guesswork, this is the word of God.

There are two parts to the logic above - one, that these can be likened to guesses, and hence probability applies; and second, that such overwhelming odds would create a definite tendency to believe that God wrote the Koran. There is a third part to my defence of atheism, but I shall come to that at the very end.

Guesswork
These three statements by the Koran are called 'guesswork' on the basis that the 'prevailing viewpoint' at the time was to the contrary - the World was supposed to be flat, the moon was thought to be auto-luminous, etc. However, these are the prevailing viewpoints only in a certain part of the world - in Europe. It is a testament to the westernization of education that we truly believe that the world was conceived to be round only when, during the Renaissance, it was shown to be so.

This is ridiculous in the extreme. The Koran is estimated to have been written in the 8th Century AD in Arabia. In the 6th and 7th Centuries AD, there was an Indian philosopher by the name of Aryabhatta, who had come to these two conclusions already. Also, given that trade between the Western coast of India and Arabia was common at the time, such ideas were easily communicated to Arabia, and in fact the Renaissance was borne out of these ancient thoughts being transported to Europe through the interaction between Europe and Arabia many centuries later.

To the credit of the Europeans, though, they came up with this even before Aryabhatta - the Ancient Greek Astronomer Anaxagoras, from the 5th Century BC, had already thought of this, too - more than a thousand years before the Koran was written. So much for 'guesswork', really.

There is, of course, the 'guess' of the Koran with relation to the composition of the Human Body. It is stated in the Koran that the human body is made of water - well, this is a gross misunderstanding of biology, as far as I know it. While the cells of the human body are composed of 65-70% of water, it does not mean that the human body is 'made' of water. There are no components, the arbitrary 10,000 number besides. It is a ridiculous statement to make, and if God exists and did write the Koran, it must be something that causes him merriment.

Odds and Proof
Even if one assumes that the last four paragraphs have not been written, and that the Koran does make these statements against prevailing thought at the time, I think it's more than a bit of a stretch, to use probability to prove something. Probability gives odds. There is no proof in saying there's a .00017% chance of something being false, hence it is true. To mandate that millions lead their lives the way you want them to, to make them bend, bow, and scrape to an idea which may or may not be true, given that these are odds, is a crazy one. To prove something scientifically, it is not enough to prove that it is likely - a single exception would prove a scientific theory false. Hence, the mere chance that the Koran is guesswork is enough to disprove the definite existence of God. His existence might be likely, even overwhelmingly probable, but that is not enough. That is not proof. Proof, in science, is beyond any doubt.

God Existing v. Atheism
The final, little bit. Assume Atheism is wrong. Assume that God exists. Assume that the Koran is his word. What, truly, binds me to follow his word? Nothing, really. Merely the threat of punishment in the afterlife. If, in his infinite wisdom, he gives us will to do as we choose, and to follow or not follow his words, than clearly it is a decision for us to make. We can choose to take the paradise and the houris (I always wondered what faithful women got - forced lesbianism?) or we can choose hell.

I choose hell, honestly. I'd rather suffer that torment than force myself to do things that don't agree with my conscience. Islam means to 'submit' - your morals, for someone else's. I won't do that. I do not submit.

I thank you for you patience in reading this horribly long thing. If anyone is interested, I shall be glad to forward you the Ex's message, and/or send you links from Wikipedia dealing with Aryabhatta, etc. Also, if someone could find out what the real prevailing notion in Arabia was with regard to human body composition, I'd be much obliged.