Reply to Bill Maher about Religious Nuts and Science

    Rabbi David Eidensohn www.gendercentral.com

I just received an e-mail from Chairman of American Family Association Donald E. Wildman entitled, “Bill Maher Says Christians Have Neurological Disorder, Are Crazy.” Mr. Wildman quotes the following from Mr. Maher: “Religion stops people from thinking. I think it justifies crazies. I think that flying planes in a building was a faith-based initiative. I think religion is a neurological disorder. If you look at it logically, it’s something that was drilled into your head when you were a small child.” Christians, “do not believe in science and rationality.” Also, he claims that the bible is a book of fairy tales.

Now, I am not a Christian. I am an Orthodox rabbi. Yet, the remarks of Mr. Maher reflect on all religious people. They are commonly taught in American colleges, and by the time a young person graduates, his brain has been boiled solid with these types of ideas.

I never heard of Mr. Maher, and surely didn’t hear or see the program quoted from by Don Wildman. (I don’t allow a TV in my house.) So, I am entering the fray regardless of what Maher did or did not say. I believe that such an attitude is common and must be answered, because it is ammunition for the eventual destruction of all religious expression and rights.

If you disagreed with the Communists and Nazis, you were neurologically ill and needed to be quarantined and treated in a mental asylum lest you infect people with the “wrong” ideas. So this “crazy” talk is dead serious. The Gay Lobby and people like Mr. Maher, if he indeed said these things, are following the leader.

How do we respond?

I come from a scientific family. I was weaned on hours of discussion with America’s leading battery scientist, Father, and even today, when I talk with my brothers who are rabbis with medical doctorates, we talk about science along with everything else. When I was a little kid, and wore my yarmulka head-covering outside, did I catch it. I relished every moment. I got so much attention!

And yet, the whole world believed in evolution. One day, I was reading Father’s Scientific American, with all of those fantastic pictures of rockets and molecules. There was an article entitled, “Darwin’s Missing Evidence.” What? It was missing? For that, people tortured me? Anyway, what was the missing evidence? It seems that a white moth in England turned black in order that the birds wouldn’t be able to see it. In those days, factories spewed smoke and blacked the walls. A white moth could be seen on a black wall. So, says the articles, the moths realized they had to turn black, or disappear! I thought, Does anyone really believe that moths are so smart? The article said that chemicals in the soot can also turn the moths black, but don’t let that stop you. Evidence is evidence!

What about today? Can I believe in my religion and science? Mr. Maher, if you don’t believe in G‑d and religion, you can kiss science goodbye! How is that for a brazen response? Allow me to prove it.

Modern science believes the basic postulates of Newton and the new stuff from Einstein. Both of these eras of science produced ideas that cannot be resolved without G‑d and religion. Let’s go one at a time.

One, religion believes in creation. Mr. Maher does not. So, Mr. Maher, where did the universe come from? Ha, ha, says he. Didn’t Einstein teach about the Big Bang? Exactly. What is the Big Bang? It means something from nothing. A tiny drop, the tiniest thing possible, emerged from nothing. Something from nothing? The Law of Conservation of Energy states, “Energy may not be created or destroyed, only changed in form.” Mass can be changed to energy in nuclear explosions, but mass cannot be created from nothing. Thus, for the Big Bang to take place, something came from nothing, and this was a supernatural process, as nature cannot make something from nothing. Thus, the Big Bang is impossible unless you believe in Creation.

Mr. Maher will tell us that this tiny drop expanded and formed atoms, quarks, etc. How could this happen? The tiny dot, holding within it the entire mass now seen in the universe, was a black hole, the ultimate black hole. A black hole is a star compressed into a small space. So strong is the gravity that nothing, not even light, can escape. A black hole cannot expand; nothing in it or near it can move away. Thus, the expansion of the tiny dot was a supernatural process, defying physics and the basic laws of gravity.

Mr. Mayer will protest that everyone knows that the universe is comprised of primal atoms that formed planets, etc. Simple things became complex, just like in evolution. Can you just see the smirk on his face? Wow.

Well, Mr. Maher, forgive me, but the expansion of the universe, as well as evolution, defy physics! That’s right, there is a law in physics called entropy. Entropy, derived from the Second Law of Thermodynamics (about heat and temperature), says that all energy and work within a closed system, such as a room, a plant, a solar system, etc., tend to disorder and a decline in the efficiency and complexity of the closed system. Entropy precludes evolution, indeed, any improvement in a closed system. Thus, there cannot be an expansion of the universe from a blob of plasma into electrons and quarks, because that would be a rise in order and complexity in a closed system.

Mr. Maher will surely reply that only religious fanatics, with their neurological deficiencies, can interpret science as approving of Creation. Surely, the real scientists, the atheists, believe that everything came about by chance, with absolutely no connotation of a Creation. Right? Now, note his smirk this time. A little entropy is revealed by it; the degree of smugness has declined. Still, he is confident. If science is neurologically deficient, at least, the atheist scientists are reliable as ever. Right? Right?

Wrong, sir. Wrong, indeed. The greatest of the scientific atheists, Professor Weinberg from the University of Texas, agrees with the consensus of his colleagues that the formulas of physics for the strength of forces in the atom, etc. prove that the universe was designed and created for human beings. This is the Anthropic Principle. Creation, anyone?

Oh yes, I forgot about evolution. Everyone knows, Mr. Maher would object, that people come from monkeys, and biology proves that lower forms produce higher forms. Wrong again, Bill! The greatest evolutionist in our time was Steven Gould, who denied that there is a biological process whereas simple forms produce or become complex forms. He says that nature is filled with simple forms and there are only a few complex forms, proving that nature does not tend to produce complexity, only simplicity. Yes, Mr. Gould believes that people came from monkeys, but not as a biological process. He thinks it is an accident.

Forgive me, Mr. Maher, if I don’t think that people are accidents. I once spoke to the mathematical genius Paul Erdos from Hungary about these issues, and mentioned a study that the chances of accidental evolution requires a number of one to the power that can barely imagined. He said he had heard of the study. Can anyone believe in such an accident? And these guys make fun of religious people who believe in Creation? Please.

Bill, I would be happy to continue the discussion in person. If you have any scientific friends who want to join the discussion, I am ready.

Have a great day.