"This is not your father's creationism": Atheist Michael Shermer meets Stephen Meyer

I subscribed to Scientific American magazine for decades. I let my subscription lapse. Michael Shermer was one of the reasons. The man is truly an idiot. He wrote an article every month where he played the skeptic, and every month it was the same thing:

I do not believe in <blah> because people who are smarter than me tell me what to think and they tell me <blah> is wrong. Instead I believe in <halb> because that is what these people tell me to believe.

From the above:

It's not a debate — it's a discussion between respectful, eminently thoughtful people, neither of whom is trying to "win."

I have read enough of Michael's writings to know that he is pathologically incapable of a rational discussion. I have also come to realize that atheism is just as much a "religion" as Christianity or Islam or whatever. Atheists are just a different kind of true believer, its just that they "believe" in nothing and can be just as fervently evangelical as any christian.

Let's add a whole lot of complexity to world views that boil down to assertions that 1) the universe does not contain anything more than the additive result of the combination of its smallest parts and 2) the universe does contain more than the additive result of the combination of its smallest parts. Neither assertion can be proven by the addition of conceptual gymnastics. Yawn.

Shermer: Entropy ends the universe? Then what started it? Your philosophy has no beginnings, just endings. You are part of a death cult.

Meyer: Your philosophy adds an instruction set to the combination of small parts, but tries to make meaning or purpose irrelevant. You are part of a complexity cult.

You are both materialists, both just snake-fascinated by your own intellectual meanderings. You're perfect foils for one another, but have little to contribute to human understanding.

Shermer is completely typical of people who are fundamentally offended by the idea of a superior being manipulating them like puppets on a string. His moral outrage exudes from his every pore. He'd rather there BE no intelligence than it not be inherent to human life itself. That's why his is a death cult. Intelligence dies with the being that expresses it. When the universe slows down, cools down, and eventually stops, so does intelligence. And that's just fine with him, as long as there is nothing to comprehend that his intellect can't eventually encompass.

Meyer wants there to be a God, but have it just be an explanatory force, and otherwise leave us alone to play in our massively entertaining universe with our massively entertaining language-and-concept-spinning brain. That's why his is a complexity cult.

Whereas Shermer's philosophy can't posit a source, Meyer's can't posit a destination. As good materialists, they will agree not to challenge one another on their basic flaws. They then can talk forever and a day about nothing substantial, and have loads of self-masturbatory fun.

'The End of Closed System Geopolitics and the Rise of Open System Development- Vernadsky’s Law for the 21st Century' by Matthew Ehret [Link]
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"It has become popular today among the scientific community, to proclaim as a matter of fact, that the universe is ultimately governed by death and decay on the large scale and randomness on the microscale..."

"...When we start looking at transcendental concepts like LIFE, MIND, or MORALITY contained in the scientific work and life of the great Russian biogeochemist Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky, we tend to find that entropy breaks down in the most devastating manner..."

"...The great Russian biogeochemist Vladimir Vernadsky (1863-1945) noted in his famous 1926 book The Biosphere [Link] that the biosphere (the thin envelop over the face of the globe which shapes and is shaped by living matter) was not a closed system defined by entropy as Darwinians assumed, but rather an open system shaped by the intersection of cosmic radiation and internal radiations emanating from within the earth.."

"...When humanity appeared onto the scene, a new phenomenon began expressing itself in a form which the great Russian academician Vladimir Vernadsky (1863-1945) described as the Noosphere (as opposed to the lithosphere and biosphere). Vernadsky understood this new geological force to be driven by human creative reason, and devoted his life to teaching the world that the law of humanity must accord with the law of nature stating:

“The noösphere is a new geological phenomenon on our planet. In it, for the first time, man becomes a large-scale geological force. He can, and must, rebuild the province of his life by his work and thought, rebuild it radically in comparison with the past. Wider and wider creative possibilities open before him. It may be that the generation of our grandchildren will approach their blossoming”. [Link]
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In Vernadsky’s mind, neither the noosphere, nor the biosphere obeyed a law of mathematical equilibrium or statis, but was rather governed by an asymmetrical harmony and progress from lower to higher states of organization. It was only by coming to understand the principles of nature that mankind became morally and intellectually fit to improve upon nature by turning deserts green, harnessing the power of the atom or applying scientific progress to health and agriculture. Some of his most important insights were published in his Scientific Thought as a Planetary Phenomena (1938), [Link] Evolution of Species and Living Matter (1928) [Link] Some Words About the Noosphere (1943), [Link] and The Transition of the Biosphere to the Noosphere (1938)." [Link]
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The current crop of Malthusian/Darwinian nihilists that are STS driven and highly psycopathic and who currently have the reins of western society in hand, need to be removed. It seems that their dream world, made in their own image, doesn't include most of the world's inhabitants. I would add that this way of thinking is antithetical to the 'natural order of things' because the Earth does what it does best, it brings forth life... it people's.

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Matthew goes on to say, "...And while cynics look only at the periodic mass extinctions scattered across the fossil records, where entire systems of life were wiped out, the true scientist observes that a higher process of creation of new systems is at play always moving towards expressing ever greater degrees of freedom of action and complexity towards the expression of human life."

Humanity stands poised at this moment to perform a great leap by utilizing ever more denser forms of energy to produce the ergs and calories necessary to fuel our expansion to the stars. Check out this 8 and a half minute section of Matt's video: [Link]

The current crop of Malthusian/Darwinian nihilists that are STS driven and highly psycopathic and who currently have the reins of western society in hand, need to be removed

Or made irrelevant.

They're doing a pretty good job of that all by themselves.

Does Human 'Civilization' Deserve to Survive? [Link]