The Atheist Blogger

In less than 2 hours (08:30 BST), the LHC will be turned on. Protons will be hurtled round the 27km circuit in opposite directions at 99.99999% the speed of light. They will attempt to smash them together and recreate the environment of the universe, a billionth of second after the Big Bang. The main purpose of the experiment is to find the elusive Higgs Boson, which would solve the problems we currently have in the standard model of particle physics.

Of course, everyone knows that the real purpose is to create a Black Hole and end the universe. BBC Radio 4 is having a day of programmes aimed at explaining the LHC, as well as the situation live from the control room at CERN.

Should be either an interesting day…or a final one.

Atheist blogger Kieran Bennett was asked the question “Why are you atheist and not agnostic?” and replies in essay format. He argues that whilst I am correct in saying that agnosticism has nothing to do with gods, I am wrong in thinking that “gnostic atheism” is irrational, and it is in fact the agnostic atheists who are the irrational ones.

I find this a bit incredulous, but I think his argument stems from the semantics of the word “god”. Kieran says that every god that exists today can ben traced back through history to it’s human origin, and we can also explain why such gods have so much power over people (fear, comfort, etc). However, I do not think that any of these gods are gods that the agnostic atheist would claim are unknowable.

In essence, the agnostic atheist is as certain as the gnostic atheist about most gods humanity has ever come up with. What we are really agnostic about is a god that humanity has not just dreamt up, the god of deism. Ok, so perhaps this god was dreamt up by a human, but it very different from it’s brothers and sisters. The god of deism is an attempt at explaining the reasons for the origins of the universe. Instead of an all-powerful being, we have a semi-powerful being, able to create but not to interfere, thus letting science do all the explaining of existence and the universe.

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