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10 Scientists Who Claim to Have Proof about the Existence of God
1/7/2014 by Natalie Umansky Weird Science 95,529 views
7
Both believers and atheists are constantly waiting for clear evidence to confirm or deny the existence of God. Check out this list about theories and tests conducted by scientists from different fields that are intended to demonstrate the existence of God, Heaven, and Hell. Are they fact or fiction? You decide!
1
The Scientist Who Dug into Hell in Siberia and Recorded the Cries of Damned Souls (1989)
The Scientist Who Dug into Hell in Siberia and Recorded the Cries of Damned Souls (1989)
According to legend, in 1989 a team of Russian scientists who were operating under the direction of Dr. Azzacove drilled a hole that was nine miles deep in an unnamed place in Siberia before breaking through into a cavity. Intrigued by this unexpected discovery, they lowered an extremely heat tolerant microphone, along with other sensory equipment, into the well. They listened and recorded (purportedly) the tormented screams of desperate people. The second surprise was the high temperature that they discovered at the earth's center, which was over 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The conclusion was that they had opened a hole into Hell.
The story was first published in 1990 by the Finnish newspaper Ammennusatia, a journal published by a group of Christians from Leväsjoki, a town in Western Finland.
United States tabloids soon ran the story, and sound files—recordings of those alleged supplications from the damned—began appearing on various sites across the Internet. Immediately, the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TNB) discussed the sound clip on its evangelical channels, proclaiming that the clip was the ultimate proof of the existence of Hell.
Age Rendalen, a Norwegian teacher, heard the story on TBN while visiting the United States. Disgusted with what he perceived to be mass gullibility, Rendalen decided to augment the tale at TBN's expense. Rendalen wrote to the network, originally claiming that he disbelieved the tale but, upon his return to Norway, supposedly read a "factual account" of the story. According to Rendalen, the "story" claimed not only that the cursed well was real, but that a bat-like apparition (a common pictorial representation of demons, such as in Michelangelo's The Torment of Saint Anthony) had risen out of it before blazing a trail across the Russian sky. To perpetuate his hoax, Rendalen deliberately mistranslated a trivial Norwegian article about a local building inspector and submitted both the original Norwegian article and the English "translation" to TBN. Rendalen also included his real name, phone number, and address, as well as those of a pastor friend who knew about the hoax and had agreed to expose it to anyone who called seeking verification.
Unfortunately, the Trinity Broadcasting Network ran the story without contacting Renalden or the Californian pastor, and the false story of "Well to Hell hoax" appeared on television, radio, and in a large number of publications.
The real story is that the Soviet Union had, in fact, drilled a hole nearly eight miles deep, the Kola Superdeep Borehole, located not in Siberia but on the Kola Peninsula, which shares borders with Norway and Finland. Upon completing the borehole in 1989, some interesting geological anomalies were found, although they reported no supernatural encounters. Temperatures reached 180 °C (360 °F), making deeper drilling prohibitively expensive. The recording, however, was later revealed to have been a cleverly remixed portion of the soundtrack of the 1972 movie Baron Blood, with various effects added.
The best part is that you can actually get your copy of Hell Sounds today for just $12.99! (Source 1 | Source 2 | Source 3)
2
The Neuroscientist Who Claimed that Heaven Exists After Being in a Week-Long Coma (2008)
The Neuroscientist Who Claimed that Heaven Exists After Being in a Week-Long Coma (2008)
In 2008, Eben Alexander III, a Harvard neurosurgeon, suffered a very ferocious E coli meningitis infection which attacked his brain and plunged him deep into a week-long coma. Brain scans showed that his entire cortex – the parts of the brain that give us consciousness, thought, memory, and understanding – was not functioning. Doctors gave him little chance to live and told his family that if he did survive he'd probably be brain-damaged for the rest of his life. Against all odds, Mr. Alexander woke up a week after being stricken.
Deep in a coma, his brain was infected so badly that only the most primitive parts were working. He claimed that he experienced something extraordinary: a journey to Heaven.
In his autobiographical book Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon's Journey into the Afterlife, he asserts that he left his body and had a near death experience.
Mr. Alexander asserts that there is an eternity of perfect splendor awaiting us beyond the grave, complete with angels, clouds, and departed relatives.
As of July 3, 2013, Proof of Heaven has been on The New York Times Best Seller list for 35 weeks.
In a wide-ranging investigation of Mr. Alexander's story and medical background, Esquire magazine reported in their August 2013 issue that prior to the publication of Proof of Heaven, Mr. Alexander had been terminated or suspended from multiple hospital positions, and had been the subject of several malpractice lawsuits, including at least two involving the alteration of medical records to cover up a medical error. The magazine also found what it claimed were discrepancies with regard to Alexander's version of events in the book. Among the discrepancies, according to an account of the article in Forbes, "Alexander writes that he slipped into the coma as a result of severe bacterial meningitis and had no higher brain activity, while a doctor who cared for him says the coma was medically induced and the patient was conscious, though hallucinating."
Mr. Alexander issued a statement after the article's publication, asserting that he wrote a truthful account of his experiences during a coma.
Alexander's book and publicity campaign have been criticized by scientists, including neuroscientist Sam Harris, who described Alexander's NDE account (chronicled in Newsweek, October 2012) as “alarmingly unscientific,” and "the evidence he provides for this claim is not only inadequate — it suggests that he doesn't know anything about the relevant brain science.”
In November 2012, Alexander responded to critics in a second Newsweek article claiming that his doctors have told him that according to all the brain tests they were doing, there was no way that any of the functions, including vision, hearing, emotion, memory, language, or logic, could possibly have been intact.
Is it true or false? Only you can decide.
(Source 1 | Source 2)
3
The Chemistry Student Who Demostrated that Heaven and Hell Exist
The Chemistry Student Who Demostrated that Heaven and Hell Exist
According to urban legend, the following is an actual question given on a University of Washington Chemistry midterm.
The answer by one student was so "profound" that the professor shared it with colleagues via the Internet, which is, of course, why we now have the pleasure of enjoying it as well.
Bonus Question: Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat) or endothermic (absorbs heat)?
Most of the students wrote proofs of their beliefs using Boyle's Law (gas cools when it expands and heats when it is compressed) or some variant.
One student, however, wrote the following:
First, we need to know how the mass of Hell is changing in time. So, we need to know the rate at which souls are moving into Hell and the rate at which they are leaving. I think we can safely assume that once a soul gets to Hell, it will not leave. Therefore, no souls are leaving. As for how many souls are entering Hell, let's look at the different religions that exist in the world today.
Most of these religions state that if you are not a member of their religion, you will go to Hell. Since there is more than one of these religions and people do not belong to more than one religion, we can project that all souls go to Hell.
With birth and death rates as they are, we can expect the number of souls in Hell to increase exponentially. Now, we look at the rate of change of the volume in Hell because Boyle's Law states that in order for the temperature and pressure in Hell to stay the same, the volume of Hell has to expand proportionately as souls are added. This gives two possibilities.
1. If Hell is expanding at a slower rate than the rate at which souls enter Hell, then the temperature and pressure in Hell will increase until all Hell breaks loose.
2. If Hell is expanding at a rate faster than the increase of souls in Hell, then the temperature and pressure will drop until Hell freezes over.
So which is it?
If we accept the postulate given to me by Theresa during my freshman year that "It will be a cold day in Hell before I sleep with you," and we take into account the fact that I slept with her last night, then number two must be true, and thus I am sure that Hell is exothermic and has already frozen over.
The corollary of this theory is that since Hell has frozen over, it follows that it is not accepting any more souls and is therefore leaving only Heaven, thereby proving the existence of a divine being which explains why, last night, Theresa kept shouting, "Oh my God."
Of course, this student received an A+. (Source)
4
The Professor of Medicine Who Claimed to Have Found Sculptures Made by God Himself (1725)
The Professor of Medicine Who Claimed to Have Found Sculptures Made by God Himself (1725)
In 1725, Professor Johann Bartholomeus Adam Beringer, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Würzburg, found many pieces of limestone carved into the shapes of lizards, frogs, spiders on their webs, a fish-faced bird, suns, and stars on Mount Eibelstadt, Germany. Some of them were bearing inscriptions such as the Hebrew name of God in Latin, Arabic, and Hebrew characters. These pieces with peculiar forms, in his opinion, were stones carved by God himself while experimenting with the types of life that He thought to create.
Beringer also proposed several possible explanations for the supposed fossils, in addition to his own preferred interpretation that while some few of these stones might be dead animals (fossils), most were just "capricious fabrications of God." He also considered the possibility that they were the carvings of prehistoric pagans, but he had to rule this out since pagans would not know the name of God. However, this evidence of sculpting only convinced him more strongly that the chisel was wielded by the hand of God.
In fact, he was the victim of a hoax perpetrated by his colleagues, the ex-Jesuit J. Ignatz Roderick, Professor of Geography and Mathematics, and Johann Georg von Eckhart, privy counselor and university librarian. Upon discovering the truth, Beringer took his hoaxers to court, and the scandal that followed left all three of them in disgrace.
Some of the stones are now on display at the Oxford University Museum and Teylers Museum in the Netherlands. (Source)
5
Pascal's Wager: God Is, or He Is Not. You Must Wager (17th century)
Pascal's Wager: God Is, or He Is Not. You Must Wager (17th century)
Pascal's Wager is an argument in apologetic philosophy which was devised by the seventeenth-century French mathematician, physicist, and philosopher Blaise Pascal (1623–1662). It posits that humans all bet with their lives either that God exists or does not exist. Given the possibility that God actually does exist and assuming the infinite gain or loss associated with belief in God or with unbelief, a rational person should live as though God exists and seek to believe in God. If God does not actually exist, such a person will have only a finite loss (some pleasures, luxury, etc.).
The philosophy uses the following logic:
1. God is, or He is not.
2. A Game is being played where heads or tails will turn up.
3. According to reason, you can defend neither of the propositions.
4. You must wager. (It's not optional.)
5. Let us weigh the gain and the loss in wagering that God is. Let us estimate these two chances. If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing.
Historically, Pascal's Wager was groundbreaking because it charted new territory in probability theory, marked the first formal use of decision theory, and anticipated future philosophies such as existentialism, pragmatism, and voluntarism. (Source)
6
Euler's Formula to Explain God's Existence (18th century)
Euler's Formula to Explain God's Existence (18th century)
Leonhard Euler (April 15,1707 - September 18, 1783) was a pioneering Swiss mathematician and physicist who made important discoveries in fields as diverse as infinitesimal calculus and graph theory. Euler also introduced much of the modern mathematical terminology and notation, particularly for mathematical analysis, such as the notion of a mathematical function, and he is renowned for his work in mechanics, fluid dynamics, optics, and astronomy. He spent most of his adult life in St. Petersburg, Russia and in Berlin, Prussia.
Much of what is known of Euler's religious beliefs can be deduced from his Letters to a German Princess and an earlier work, Rettung der Göttlichen Offenbahrung Gegen die Einwürfe der Freygeister (Defense of the Divine Revelation against the Objections of the Freethinkers). These works show that Euler was a devout Christian who believed the Bible to be inspired; the Rettung was primarily an argument for the divine inspiration of scripture.
There is a famous legend inspired by Euler's arguments with secular philosophers over religion, which is set during Euler's second stint at the St. Petersburg academy. The French philosopher Denis Diderot was visiting Russia on Catherine the Great's invitation. However, the Empress was alarmed that the philosopher's arguments for atheism were influencing members of her court, so Euler was asked to confront the Frenchman. Diderot was informed that a learned mathematician had produced a proof of the existence of God; he agreed to view the proof as it was presented in court. Euler appeared, advanced toward Diderot, and in a tone of perfect conviction announced the following non-sequitur: "Sir, \frac{a+b^n}{n}=x, hence God exists—reply!" Diderot, to whom (says the story) all mathematics was gibberish, stood dumbstruck as peals of laughter erupted from the court. Embarrassed, he asked to leave Russia, a request that was graciously granted by the Empress. However amusing the anecdote may be, it is apocryphal, given that Diderot himself did research in mathematics.
Euler was featured on the sixth series of the Swiss 10-franc banknote and on numerous Swiss, German, and Russian postage stamps. The 2002 asteroid Euler was named in his honor. He is also commemorated by the Lutheran Church on their Calendar of Saints on May 24, since he was a devout Christian (and believer in biblical inerrancy) who wrote apologetics and argued forcefully against the prominent atheists of his time. On April 15, 2013, Euler's 306th birthday was celebrated with a Google Doodle. (Source)
7
The Mathematician Who Developed the Theorem of God (1931)
The Mathematician Who Developed the Theorem of God (1931)
Kurt Friedrich Gödel was an Austrian, and later American, logician, mathematician, and philosopher. Considered, along with Aristotle and Frege, to be one of the most significant logicians in human history, Gödel made an immense impact upon scientific and philosophical thinking in the 20th century.
Gödel published his two incompleteness theorems in 1931 when he was 25 years old, one year after finishing his doctorate at the University of Vienna. The first incompleteness theorem states that for any self-consistent recursive axiomatic system powerful enough to describe the arithmetic of the natural numbers (for example Peano arithmetic), there are true propositions about the naturals that cannot be proved from the axioms. To prove this theorem, Gödel developed a technique now known as Gödel numbering, which codes formal expressions as natural numbers.
He also showed that neither the axiom of choice nor the continuum hypothesis can be disproved from the accepted axioms of set theory, assuming these axioms are consistent. The former result opened the door for mathematicians to assume the axiom of choice in their proofs. He also made important contributions to proof theory by clarifying the connections between classical logic, intuitionistic logic, and modal logic.
When Gödel died in 1978, he left behind a tantalizing theory based on principles of modal logic, a type of formal logic that, narrowly defined, involves the use of the expressions “necessarily” and “possibly,” according to Stanford University. So the theorem says that God, or a supreme being, is that for which no greater can be conceived. God exists in the understanding. If God exists in the understanding, we could imagine Him to be greater by existing in reality. Therefore, God must exist. (Source)
8
The Scientist Who Finds No Conflict Between Science and Religious Faith (2007)
The Scientist Who Finds No Conflict Between Science and Religious Faith (2007)
During an interview by CNN in April 2007 in Rockville, Maryland, Francis S. Collins M.D. & Ph.D., the director of the Human Genome Project, reaffirms that information embedded in DNA proves the existence of God.
As the director of the Human Genome Project, he has led a consortium of scientists to read out the 3.1 billion letters of the human genome. As a believer, Dr. Collins sees DNA - the information molecule of all living things - as God's language, and the elegance and complexity of bodies and the rest of nature as a reflection of God's plan. However, he hasn't always embraced these perspectives. When he was a graduate student in physical chemistry in the 1970s, he was an atheist, finding no reason to postulate the existence of any truths outside of mathematics, physics, and chemistry. Then he went to medical school and encountered life and death issues at the bedsides of his patients. Challenged by one of those patients, who asked, "What do you believe, doctor?” he began searching for answers.
In his mind, Dr. Collins admitted that the science, which he loved so much, was powerless to answer the following questions:"What is the meaning of life?" "Why am I here?" "Why does mathematics work, anyway?" "If the universe had a beginning, who created it?" "Why are the physical constants in the universe so finely tuned to allow the possibility of complex life forms?" "Why do humans have a moral sense?" "What happens after we die?"
Dr. Collins always assumed that faith was based on purely emotional and irrational arguments, and was astounded to discover, initially in the writings of the Oxford scholar C.S. Lewis and subsequently from many other sources, that one could build a very strong case for the plausibility of the existence of God on purely rational grounds.
Actually, Dr. Collins says that he finds no conflict here. Yes, he also claims evolution by descent from a common ancestor is clearly true. He affirms that if there was any lingering doubt about the evidence from the fossil record, then the study of DNA provides the strongest possible proof of our relatedness to all other living things.
According to Dr. Collins' words, he found that there is a wonderful harmony in the complementary truths of science and faith. The God of the Bible is also the God of the genome. God can be found in the cathedral or in the laboratory. By investigating God's majestic and awesome creation, science can actually be a means of worship.
(Source)
9
The Computer Scientists Who Allegedly Proved God Exists (2013)
The Computer Scientists Who Allegedly Proved God Exists (2013)
In October 2013, two scientists, Christoph Benzmüller of Berlin's Free University and his colleague, Bruno Woltzenlogel Paleo of the Technical University in Vienna, formalized a theorem regarding the existence of God that was penned by the Austrian mathematician Kurt Gödel.
Using an ordinary MacBook computer, they have shown that Gödel's proof was correct, at least on a mathematical level, by way of higher modal logic.
In their initial submission on a research server, “Formalization, Mechanization, and Automation of Gödel's Proof of God's Existence,” the pair say that “Goedel's ontological proof has been analysed for the first-time with an unprecedented degree of detail and formality with the help of higher-order theorem provers.”
But unsurprisingly, there is a rather significant caveat to that claim. In fact, what the researchers in question say they have actually proven is a theorem which was put forward by the renowned Gödel, and the real news isn't about a Supreme Being, but rather what can now be achieved in scientific fields using superior technology. The mathematicians say that their proof of Gödel's axioms has more to do with demonstrating how superior technology can help bring about new achievements in science.
Benzmüller and Paleo believe that their work can benefit areas such as artificial intelligence and the verification of software and hardware.
Ultimately, the formalization of Gödel's ontological proof is unlikely to win over many atheists, nor is it likely to comfort true believers who might argue that the idea of a higher power is one that defies logic by definition. Nevertheless, for mathematicians looking for ways to break new ground, maybe the news could represent an answer to their prayers. (Source 1 | Source 2)
10
The Neurologist Who Claimed that Near-Death Experiences Actually Can Happen (2013)
The Neurologist Who Claimed that Near-Death Experiences Actually Can Happen (2013)
While those lines don't mention accurate statements about the existence of Heaven or Hell, we don't want to miss the opportunity to mention this article about near-death experiences.
A scientific study has revealed that near-death experiences such as seeing a bright light, travelling through a tunnel, or the sensation of leaving your own body are more vivid than any other memory.
According to Dr. Steven Laureys, a Belgian neurologist who heads the Coma Science Group at the university hospital in the city of Liege (Belgium), has spoken to many patients over the years who have awakened from a coma and told him about "journeys" they have been on during the near-death experience.
The team, which was made up of scientists from the Coma Science Group and the University's Cognitive Psychology Research Uni, conducted Memory Characteristics Questionnaires, which test for the sensory and emotional details in recollections. They then compared near-death experiences with other memories of intense real-life events, as well as memories of dreams and thoughts. However, the scientists were surprised to find that near-death experiences were much richer than any imagined or real event, including births and marriages.
On April 10, 2013, Dr. Laureys told CNN that patients in intensive care are often scared to tell their stories of near-death experiences, as they are afraid that people won't take them seriously; but people who go on the journeys can be forever changed, with some no longer fearing death.
The questionnaire asked survivors about how certain they were that a remembered experience was a real event. Dr. Laureys, who believes that the experiences originate in human physiology, said, "They (the patients) are very convinced that it is real."
It has also been discovered that it is enough just to think you're dying to have a memory of a near-death experience.
The study said, "Many individuals having had NDEs were not physically in danger of death suggesting that the perception, on its own, of the risk of death seems to be important in eliciting NDEs."
Laureys doesn't want to speculate on the existence of Heaven or Hell, but he does say that only a small minority of near-death experiences are horrifying. Most of them are pleasant and uplifting. From his accounts, it sounds like more people go to "Heaven" than "Hell." (Source 1 | Source 2)
10 Scientists Who Claim to Have Proof about the Existence of God
1/7/2014 by Natalie Umansky Weird Science 95,529 views
7
Both believers and atheists are constantly waiting for clear evidence to confirm or deny the existence of God. Check out this list about theories and tests conducted by scientists from different fields that are intended to demonstrate the existence of God, Heaven, and Hell. Are they fact or fiction? You decide!
1
The Scientist Who Dug into Hell in Siberia and Recorded the Cries of Damned Souls (1989)
The Scientist Who Dug into Hell in Siberia and Recorded the Cries of Damned Souls (1989)
According to legend, in 1989 a team of Russian scientists who were operating under the direction of Dr. Azzacove drilled a hole that was nine miles deep in an unnamed place in Siberia before breaking through into a cavity. Intrigued by this unexpected discovery, they lowered an extremely heat tolerant microphone, along with other sensory equipment, into the well. They listened and recorded (purportedly) the tormented screams of desperate people. The second surprise was the high temperature that they discovered at the earth's center, which was over 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The conclusion was that they had opened a hole into Hell.
The story was first published in 1990 by the Finnish newspaper Ammennusatia, a journal published by a group of Christians from Leväsjoki, a town in Western Finland.
United States tabloids soon ran the story, and sound files—recordings of those alleged supplications from the damned—began appearing on various sites across the Internet. Immediately, the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TNB) discussed the sound clip on its evangelical channels, proclaiming that the clip was the ultimate proof of the existence of Hell.
Age Rendalen, a Norwegian teacher, heard the story on TBN while visiting the United States. Disgusted with what he perceived to be mass gullibility, Rendalen decided to augment the tale at TBN's expense. Rendalen wrote to the network, originally claiming that he disbelieved the tale but, upon his return to Norway, supposedly read a "factual account" of the story. According to Rendalen, the "story" claimed not only that the cursed well was real, but that a bat-like apparition (a common pictorial representation of demons, such as in Michelangelo's The Torment of Saint Anthony) had risen out of it before blazing a trail across the Russian sky. To perpetuate his hoax, Rendalen deliberately mistranslated a trivial Norwegian article about a local building inspector and submitted both the original Norwegian article and the English "translation" to TBN. Rendalen also included his real name, phone number, and address, as well as those of a pastor friend who knew about the hoax and had agreed to expose it to anyone who called seeking verification.
Unfortunately, the Trinity Broadcasting Network ran the story without contacting Renalden or the Californian pastor, and the false story of "Well to Hell hoax" appeared on television, radio, and in a large number of publications.
The real story is that the Soviet Union had, in fact, drilled a hole nearly eight miles deep, the Kola Superdeep Borehole, located not in Siberia but on the Kola Peninsula, which shares borders with Norway and Finland. Upon completing the borehole in 1989, some interesting geological anomalies were found, although they reported no supernatural encounters. Temperatures reached 180 °C (360 °F), making deeper drilling prohibitively expensive. The recording, however, was later revealed to have been a cleverly remixed portion of the soundtrack of the 1972 movie Baron Blood, with various effects added.
The best part is that you can actually get your copy of Hell Sounds today for just $12.99! (Source 1 | Source 2 | Source 3)
2
The Neuroscientist Who Claimed that Heaven Exists After Being in a Week-Long Coma (2008)
The Neuroscientist Who Claimed that Heaven Exists After Being in a Week-Long Coma (2008)
In 2008, Eben Alexander III, a Harvard neurosurgeon, suffered a very ferocious E coli meningitis infection which attacked his brain and plunged him deep into a week-long coma. Brain scans showed that his entire cortex – the parts of the brain that give us consciousness, thought, memory, and understanding – was not functioning. Doctors gave him little chance to live and told his family that if he did survive he'd probably be brain-damaged for the rest of his life. Against all odds, Mr. Alexander woke up a week after being stricken.
Deep in a coma, his brain was infected so badly that only the most primitive parts were working. He claimed that he experienced something extraordinary: a journey to Heaven.
In his autobiographical book Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon's Journey into the Afterlife, he asserts that he left his body and had a near death experience.
Mr. Alexander asserts that there is an eternity of perfect splendor awaiting us beyond the grave, complete with angels, clouds, and departed relatives.
As of July 3, 2013, Proof of Heaven has been on The New York Times Best Seller list for 35 weeks.
In a wide-ranging investigation of Mr. Alexander's story and medical background, Esquire magazine reported in their August 2013 issue that prior to the publication of Proof of Heaven, Mr. Alexander had been terminated or suspended from multiple hospital positions, and had been the subject of several malpractice lawsuits, including at least two involving the alteration of medical records to cover up a medical error. The magazine also found what it claimed were discrepancies with regard to Alexander's version of events in the book. Among the discrepancies, according to an account of the article in Forbes, "Alexander writes that he slipped into the coma as a result of severe bacterial meningitis and had no higher brain activity, while a doctor who cared for him says the coma was medically induced and the patient was conscious, though hallucinating."
Mr. Alexander issued a statement after the article's publication, asserting that he wrote a truthful account of his experiences during a coma.
Alexander's book and publicity campaign have been criticized by scientists, including neuroscientist Sam Harris, who described Alexander's NDE account (chronicled in Newsweek, October 2012) as “alarmingly unscientific,” and "the evidence he provides for this claim is not only inadequate — it suggests that he doesn't know anything about the relevant brain science.”
In November 2012, Alexander responded to critics in a second Newsweek article claiming that his doctors have told him that according to all the brain tests they were doing, there was no way that any of the functions, including vision, hearing, emotion, memory, language, or logic, could possibly have been intact.
Is it true or false? Only you can decide.
(Source 1 | Source 2)
3
The Chemistry Student Who Demostrated that Heaven and Hell Exist
The Chemistry Student Who Demostrated that Heaven and Hell Exist
According to urban legend, the following is an actual question given on a University of Washington Chemistry midterm.
The answer by one student was so "profound" that the professor shared it with colleagues via the Internet, which is, of course, why we now have the pleasure of enjoying it as well.
Bonus Question: Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat) or endothermic (absorbs heat)?
Most of the students wrote proofs of their beliefs using Boyle's Law (gas cools when it expands and heats when it is compressed) or some variant.
One student, however, wrote the following:
First, we need to know how the mass of Hell is changing in time. So, we need to know the rate at which souls are moving into Hell and the rate at which they are leaving. I think we can safely assume that once a soul gets to Hell, it will not leave. Therefore, no souls are leaving. As for how many souls are entering Hell, let's look at the different religions that exist in the world today.
Most of these religions state that if you are not a member of their religion, you will go to Hell. Since there is more than one of these religions and people do not belong to more than one religion, we can project that all souls go to Hell.
With birth and death rates as they are, we can expect the number of souls in Hell to increase exponentially. Now, we look at the rate of change of the volume in Hell because Boyle's Law states that in order for the temperature and pressure in Hell to stay the same, the volume of Hell has to expand proportionately as souls are added. This gives two possibilities.
1. If Hell is expanding at a slower rate than the rate at which souls enter Hell, then the temperature and pressure in Hell will increase until all Hell breaks loose.
2. If Hell is expanding at a rate faster than the increase of souls in Hell, then the temperature and pressure will drop until Hell freezes over.
So which is it?
If we accept the postulate given to me by Theresa during my freshman year that "It will be a cold day in Hell before I sleep with you," and we take into account the fact that I slept with her last night, then number two must be true, and thus I am sure that Hell is exothermic and has already frozen over.
The corollary of this theory is that since Hell has frozen over, it follows that it is not accepting any more souls and is therefore leaving only Heaven, thereby proving the existence of a divine being which explains why, last night, Theresa kept shouting, "Oh my God."
Of course, this student received an A+. (Source)
4
The Professor of Medicine Who Claimed to Have Found Sculptures Made by God Himself (1725)
The Professor of Medicine Who Claimed to Have Found Sculptures Made by God Himself (1725)
In 1725, Professor Johann Bartholomeus Adam Beringer, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Würzburg, found many pieces of limestone carved into the shapes of lizards, frogs, spiders on their webs, a fish-faced bird, suns, and stars on Mount Eibelstadt, Germany. Some of them were bearing inscriptions such as the Hebrew name of God in Latin, Arabic, and Hebrew characters. These pieces with peculiar forms, in his opinion, were stones carved by God himself while experimenting with the types of life that He thought to create.
Beringer also proposed several possible explanations for the supposed fossils, in addition to his own preferred interpretation that while some few of these stones might be dead animals (fossils), most were just "capricious fabrications of God." He also considered the possibility that they were the carvings of prehistoric pagans, but he had to rule this out since pagans would not know the name of God. However, this evidence of sculpting only convinced him more strongly that the chisel was wielded by the hand of God.
In fact, he was the victim of a hoax perpetrated by his colleagues, the ex-Jesuit J. Ignatz Roderick, Professor of Geography and Mathematics, and Johann Georg von Eckhart, privy counselor and university librarian. Upon discovering the truth, Beringer took his hoaxers to court, and the scandal that followed left all three of them in disgrace.
Some of the stones are now on display at the Oxford University Museum and Teylers Museum in the Netherlands. (Source)
5
Pascal's Wager: God Is, or He Is Not. You Must Wager (17th century)
Pascal's Wager: God Is, or He Is Not. You Must Wager (17th century)
Pascal's Wager is an argument in apologetic philosophy which was devised by the seventeenth-century French mathematician, physicist, and philosopher Blaise Pascal (1623–1662). It posits that humans all bet with their lives either that God exists or does not exist. Given the possibility that God actually does exist and assuming the infinite gain or loss associated with belief in God or with unbelief, a rational person should live as though God exists and seek to believe in God. If God does not actually exist, such a person will have only a finite loss (some pleasures, luxury, etc.).
The philosophy uses the following logic:
1. God is, or He is not.
2. A Game is being played where heads or tails will turn up.
3. According to reason, you can defend neither of the propositions.
4. You must wager. (It's not optional.)
5. Let us weigh the gain and the loss in wagering that God is. Let us estimate these two chances. If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing.
Historically, Pascal's Wager was groundbreaking because it charted new territory in probability theory, marked the first formal use of decision theory, and anticipated future philosophies such as existentialism, pragmatism, and voluntarism. (Source)
6
Euler's Formula to Explain God's Existence (18th century)
Euler's Formula to Explain God's Existence (18th century)
Leonhard Euler (April 15,1707 - September 18, 1783) was a pioneering Swiss mathematician and physicist who made important discoveries in fields as diverse as infinitesimal calculus and graph theory. Euler also introduced much of the modern mathematical terminology and notation, particularly for mathematical analysis, such as the notion of a mathematical function, and he is renowned for his work in mechanics, fluid dynamics, optics, and astronomy. He spent most of his adult life in St. Petersburg, Russia and in Berlin, Prussia.
Much of what is known of Euler's religious beliefs can be deduced from his Letters to a German Princess and an earlier work, Rettung der Göttlichen Offenbahrung Gegen die Einwürfe der Freygeister (Defense of the Divine Revelation against the Objections of the Freethinkers). These works show that Euler was a devout Christian who believed the Bible to be inspired; the Rettung was primarily an argument for the divine inspiration of scripture.
There is a famous legend inspired by Euler's arguments with secular philosophers over religion, which is set during Euler's second stint at the St. Petersburg academy. The French philosopher Denis Diderot was visiting Russia on Catherine the Great's invitation. However, the Empress was alarmed that the philosopher's arguments for atheism were influencing members of her court, so Euler was asked to confront the Frenchman. Diderot was informed that a learned mathematician had produced a proof of the existence of God; he agreed to view the proof as it was presented in court. Euler appeared, advanced toward Diderot, and in a tone of perfect conviction announced the following non-sequitur: "Sir, \frac{a+b^n}{n}=x, hence God exists—reply!" Diderot, to whom (says the story) all mathematics was gibberish, stood dumbstruck as peals of laughter erupted from the court. Embarrassed, he asked to leave Russia, a request that was graciously granted by the Empress. However amusing the anecdote may be, it is apocryphal, given that Diderot himself did research in mathematics.
Euler was featured on the sixth series of the Swiss 10-franc banknote and on numerous Swiss, German, and Russian postage stamps. The 2002 asteroid Euler was named in his honor. He is also commemorated by the Lutheran Church on their Calendar of Saints on May 24, since he was a devout Christian (and believer in biblical inerrancy) who wrote apologetics and argued forcefully against the prominent atheists of his time. On April 15, 2013, Euler's 306th birthday was celebrated with a Google Doodle. (Source)
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The Mathematician Who Developed the Theorem of God (1931)
The Mathematician Who Developed the Theorem of God (1931)
Kurt Friedrich Gödel was an Austrian, and later American, logician, mathematician, and philosopher. Considered, along with Aristotle and Frege, to be one of the most significant logicians in human history, Gödel made an immense impact upon scientific and philosophical thinking in the 20th century.
Gödel published his two incompleteness theorems in 1931 when he was 25 years old, one year after finishing his doctorate at the University of Vienna. The first incompleteness theorem states that for any self-consistent recursive axiomatic system powerful enough to describe the arithmetic of the natural numbers (for example Peano arithmetic), there are true propositions about the naturals that cannot be proved from the axioms. To prove this theorem, Gödel developed a technique now known as Gödel numbering, which codes formal expressions as natural numbers.
He also showed that neither the axiom of choice nor the continuum hypothesis can be disproved from the accepted axioms of set theory, assuming these axioms are consistent. The former result opened the door for mathematicians to assume the axiom of choice in their proofs. He also made important contributions to proof theory by clarifying the connections between classical logic, intuitionistic logic, and modal logic.
When Gödel died in 1978, he left behind a tantalizing theory based on principles of modal logic, a type of formal logic that, narrowly defined, involves the use of the expressions “necessarily” and “possibly,” according to Stanford University. So the theorem says that God, or a supreme being, is that for which no greater can be conceived. God exists in the understanding. If God exists in the understanding, we could imagine Him to be greater by existing in reality. Therefore, God must exist. (Source)
8
The Scientist Who Finds No Conflict Between Science and Religious Faith (2007)
The Scientist Who Finds No Conflict Between Science and Religious Faith (2007)
During an interview by CNN in April 2007 in Rockville, Maryland, Francis S. Collins M.D. & Ph.D., the director of the Human Genome Project, reaffirms that information embedded in DNA proves the existence of God.
As the director of the Human Genome Project, he has led a consortium of scientists to read out the 3.1 billion letters of the human genome. As a believer, Dr. Collins sees DNA - the information molecule of all living things - as God's language, and the elegance and complexity of bodies and the rest of nature as a reflection of God's plan. However, he hasn't always embraced these perspectives. When he was a graduate student in physical chemistry in the 1970s, he was an atheist, finding no reason to postulate the existence of any truths outside of mathematics, physics, and chemistry. Then he went to medical school and encountered life and death issues at the bedsides of his patients. Challenged by one of those patients, who asked, "What do you believe, doctor?” he began searching for answers.
In his mind, Dr. Collins admitted that the science, which he loved so much, was powerless to answer the following questions:"What is the meaning of life?" "Why am I here?" "Why does mathematics work, anyway?" "If the universe had a beginning, who created it?" "Why are the physical constants in the universe so finely tuned to allow the possibility of complex life forms?" "Why do humans have a moral sense?" "What happens after we die?"
Dr. Collins always assumed that faith was based on purely emotional and irrational arguments, and was astounded to discover, initially in the writings of the Oxford scholar C.S. Lewis and subsequently from many other sources, that one could build a very strong case for the plausibility of the existence of God on purely rational grounds.
Actually, Dr. Collins says that he finds no conflict here. Yes, he also claims evolution by descent from a common ancestor is clearly true. He affirms that if there was any lingering doubt about the evidence from the fossil record, then the study of DNA provides the strongest possible proof of our relatedness to all other living things.
According to Dr. Collins' words, he found that there is a wonderful harmony in the complementary truths of science and faith. The God of the Bible is also the God of the genome. God can be found in the cathedral or in the laboratory. By investigating God's majestic and awesome creation, science can actually be a means of worship.
(Source)
9
The Computer Scientists Who Allegedly Proved God Exists (2013)
The Computer Scientists Who Allegedly Proved God Exists (2013)
In October 2013, two scientists, Christoph Benzmüller of Berlin's Free University and his colleague, Bruno Woltzenlogel Paleo of the Technical University in Vienna, formalized a theorem regarding the existence of God that was penned by the Austrian mathematician Kurt Gödel.
Using an ordinary MacBook computer, they have shown that Gödel's proof was correct, at least on a mathematical level, by way of higher modal logic.
In their initial submission on a research server, “Formalization, Mechanization, and Automation of Gödel's Proof of God's Existence,” the pair say that “Goedel's ontological proof has been analysed for the first-time with an unprecedented degree of detail and formality with the help of higher-order theorem provers.”
But unsurprisingly, there is a rather significant caveat to that claim. In fact, what the researchers in question say they have actually proven is a theorem which was put forward by the renowned Gödel, and the real news isn't about a Supreme Being, but rather what can now be achieved in scientific fields using superior technology. The mathematicians say that their proof of Gödel's axioms has more to do with demonstrating how superior technology can help bring about new achievements in science.
Benzmüller and Paleo believe that their work can benefit areas such as artificial intelligence and the verification of software and hardware.
Ultimately, the formalization of Gödel's ontological proof is unlikely to win over many atheists, nor is it likely to comfort true believers who might argue that the idea of a higher power is one that defies logic by definition. Nevertheless, for mathematicians looking for ways to break new ground, maybe the news could represent an answer to their prayers. (Source 1 | Source 2)
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The Neurologist Who Claimed that Near-Death Experiences Actually Can Happen (2013)
The Neurologist Who Claimed that Near-Death Experiences Actually Can Happen (2013)
While those lines don't mention accurate statements about the existence of Heaven or Hell, we don't want to miss the opportunity to mention this article about near-death experiences.
A scientific study has revealed that near-death experiences such as seeing a bright light, travelling through a tunnel, or the sensation of leaving your own body are more vivid than any other memory.
According to Dr. Steven Laureys, a Belgian neurologist who heads the Coma Science Group at the university hospital in the city of Liege (Belgium), has spoken to many patients over the years who have awakened from a coma and told him about "journeys" they have been on during the near-death experience.
The team, which was made up of scientists from the Coma Science Group and the University's Cognitive Psychology Research Uni, conducted Memory Characteristics Questionnaires, which test for the sensory and emotional details in recollections. They then compared near-death experiences with other memories of intense real-life events, as well as memories of dreams and thoughts. However, the scientists were surprised to find that near-death experiences were much richer than any imagined or real event, including births and marriages.
On April 10, 2013, Dr. Laureys told CNN that patients in intensive care are often scared to tell their stories of near-death experiences, as they are afraid that people won't take them seriously; but people who go on the journeys can be forever changed, with some no longer fearing death.
The questionnaire asked survivors about how certain they were that a remembered experience was a real event. Dr. Laureys, who believes that the experiences originate in human physiology, said, "They (the patients) are very convinced that it is real."
It has also been discovered that it is enough just to think you're dying to have a memory of a near-death experience.
The study said, "Many individuals having had NDEs were not physically in danger of death suggesting that the perception, on its own, of the risk of death seems to be important in eliciting NDEs."
Laureys doesn't want to speculate on the existence of Heaven or Hell, but he does say that only a small minority of near-death experiences are horrifying. Most of them are pleasant and uplifting. From his accounts, it sounds like more people go to "Heaven" than "Hell." (Source 1 | Source 2)
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