"If you can read this sentence, I can prove to you that God exists"
Chris,
See this email I just sent you, that you're reading
right now? This email is proof of the existence of God.
Yeah, I know, that sounds crazy. But I'm not asking you
to believe anything just yet, until you see the evidence for
yourself. All I ask is that you refrain from disbelieving
while I show you my proof. It only takes a minute to convey,
but it speaks to one of the most important questions of all
time.
So how is this email proof of the existence of God?:
This email you're reading contains letters, words and
sentences. It contains a message that means something.
As long as you can read English, you can understand what
I'm saying.
You can do all kinds of things with this email. You
can read it on your computer screen. You can print it out on
your printer. You can read it out loud to a friend who's in
the same room as you are. You can call your friend and read it
to her over the telephone. You can save it as a Microsoft
WORD document. You can forward it to someone via email, or you
can post it on a website.
Regardless of how you copy it or where you send it,
the information remains the same. My email contains a message.
It contains information in the form of language. The message
is independent of the medium it is sent in.
Messages are not matter, even though they can be carried
by matter (like printing this email on a piece of paper).
Messages are not energy even though they can be carried
by energy (like the sound of my voice.)
Messages are immaterial. Information is itself a very
unique kind of entity. It can be stored and transmitted and
copied in many forms, but the meaning still stays the same.
Messages can be in English, French or Chinese.
Or Morse Code. Or mating calls of birds. Or the Internet.
Or radio or television. Or computer programs or architect
blueprints or stone carvings. Every cell in your body
contains a message encoded in DNA, representing a complete
plan for you.
OK, so what does this have to do with God?
It's very simple. Messages, languages, and coded
information ONLY come from a mind. A mind that
agrees on an alphabet and a meaning of words and
sentences. A mind that expresses both desire and
intent.
Whether I use the simplest possible explanation,
such as the one I'm giving you here, or if we analyze
language with advanced mathematics and engineering
communication theory, I can say this with total
confidence:
"Messages, languages and coded information never,
ever come from anything else besides a mind.
No one has ever produced a single example of a message
that did not come from a mind."
Nature can create fascinating patterns - snowflakes,
sand dunes, crystals, stalagmites and stalagtites. Tornados
and turbulence and cloud formations.
But non-living things cannot create language. They
*cannot* create codes. Rocks cannot think and they
cannot talk. And they cannot create information.
It is believed by some that life on planet earth arose
naturally from the "primordial soup," the early ocean which
produced enzymes and eventually RNA, DNA, and primitive cells.
But there is still a problem with this theory: It fails to
answer the question, 'Where did the information come from?'
DNA is not merely a molecule. Nor is it simply a "pattern."
Yes, it contains chemicals and proteins, but those chemicals
are arranged to form an intricate language, in the exact same way
that English and Chinese and HTML are languages.
DNA has a four-letter alphabet, and structures very similar
to words, sentences and paragraphs. With very precise
instructions.
To the person who says that life arose naturally,
you need only ask: "Where did the information come from?
Show me just ONE example of a language that didn't come
from a mind."
As simple as this question is, I've personally presented it
to many hundreds of people who say that life arose without the
assistance of God. But to a person, none of them have ever been
able to explain where the information came from. This riddle is
"So simple any child can understand, yet so complex,
no atheist can solve."
You can hear or read my full presentation on this topic at
http://www.cosmicfingerprints.com/ifyoucanreadthis.htm
For a high-school level, layman's version, go here:
http://www.cosmicfingerprints.com/information.htm
Matter and energy have to come from somewhere. Everyone
can agree on that. But information has to come from somewhere,
too! Information is separate entity, fully on par with matter and
energy. And information can only come from a mind. If books
and poems and TV shows come from human intelligence, then all
living things inevitably came from a superintelligence.
Every word you hear, every sentence you speak, every
dog that barks, every song you sing, every email you read,
every packet of information that zings across the Internet,
is proof of the existence of God. Because information
and language always originate in a mind.
In the beginning were words and language.
In the Beginning was Information.
When we consider the mystery of life - where it came
from and how it was possible - do we not at the same time
ask the question where it is going, and what its purpose is?
Respectfully Submitted,
Perry Marshall
If you can read this sentence, I can prove to you that God exists
Originally Posted by Perry Marshall
"If you can read this sentence, I can prove to you that God exists"
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Hume. I would elaborate but Rationalism got it's arse kicked by Empiricism hundreds of years ago. And go read some Dawkins if you don't yet understand DNA.
