May 29 2008
Nothing is Impos;sible is Nothing
After completing my painting of Canal street with the billboard stating “Impossible is nothing”, I’ve been thinking about writing about the phrase. The ambiguous words have fascinated me because they can imply very different philosophies. “Nothing is Impossible” comes from the ADiDAS sports ads, which is simply a carpet motivational statement meaning next to nothing. A human being will never run as fast as a cheetah. The reason the statement caught my attention was because it’s very similar to where my philosophy originated from. My friend Jamie asked me what the opposite of a spoon was and the answer I deducted, no-spoon, was my first step down a path of thinking about zero. The opposite of anything is the lack of that thing (the empty set), noanything is pure zero and to ever have it is impossible. That, which at the time I didn’t recognize as the first law of thermodynamics, sent me thinking about nothing for quite some time. I was overwhelmed by the power the knowledge of zero had over me. I’ve yet to meet another atheist who made the switch to naturalism is such a manor.
After g00gling “nothing is impossible” for a quick briefing on the search returns, I ran into god. I wasn’t planing on writing about god but it seems as though his omnipresence is hard to escape. Nothing is impossible with god with quotes, returns 60 thousand results. I watched the first video which was from Facing the Giants, a Christian promotional movie who’s plot follows a boring but classic underdog story about American football. It earned an impressive 10 million for the minuscule budget is was made with. I believe the budget was due to the volunteer cast and the return must of been an act of god’s money managers. I watched the you-tube clip as the coach worked on convincing his team that it was god who helped them kick the giants asses because of all the petitioning they made to the lord. And that got me thinking about Reverend Hagee’s remarks about god sending Katrina to New Orleans because of the gay pride parade.
A few posts back I wrote, “god could not make a law that he could not brake.”, which is a refined version of the “could god make a mountain that he could not move?” question. It begs the argument about god as he is defined: the all powerful, all knowing, all loving creator of everything. I can completely understand why believers in god would think that he works through us and nature. There is a staggering amount of strange and mysterious things that happen down here on our little blue planet. And people who believe in an interactive god would naturally use their derivative skills to interpret the will of god. It’s frightening to watch Hagee as he condemns New Orleans, not directly for the fairly high percentage of homosexuals we have, but for the huge number of Christians that “allow” them to be here.
That got me thinking about a world in where god actually does work his intent. I’ve decided that if there is a god he has got to be a trickster. His personality is more akin to the definition of the devil. And I’m not only referring to “bad” things that happen in life. If we are to assume that we can derive gods will from acts on earth, than those acts should at least be somewhat clear. Otherwise he’s not communicating at all, he’s playing the fool. Hagee thinks that Hurricane Katrina was sent here on the day of the Gay pride parade as a sign that he disapproves of homosexuality. A completely rational stance for a person who derives there reason from nonsense. I think that the hurricane came because of warm gulf water and winds from western Africa.
The Christian writer Vox Populi recently asked atheists why they don’t believe in god. From his vast network of blogfoolafans he ascertained the following reasons: Argument from: Sub-optimal design, insufficient evidence, lack of scientific evidence, failure to be impressed by religion, inability to believe, unfamiliarity, material utility, post-trauma disorder, accident of circumstance, unconvincing arguments.
Apparently non of these anti-arguments are convincing to him. But to be fair he most likely doesn’t believe that hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans to punish the homosexuals. But why not? Why wouldn’t a living god punish those who he doesn’t like. Isn’t that why Jesus pleaded against his skillful persecuters, “They know not what they do”. Or is god so busy that he would rather let the devil do the work for him in the after world? That doesn’t sound like an all powerful or guiding god at all. This world would be much different if god were acting on it and that’s evidence based reason to believe that god does not exist or that he’s a trickster who likes fucking with our heads. Perhaps god doesn’t like the less intelligent because he makes his intent so difficult to deduct and his managers are trained to keep the flock from skeptical thought. If we lived in a world were he sent Hurricanes to San Fransisco and earth quakes to New Orleans when too many people get their gay on, I think far less people would find it impossible to have faith.
Nothing must be god’s MOA.
Basing your analysis on recoiling from dipshits is not conducive to objective thought.
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I’ve said it to you again and again… when I grab the last jelly bean, there are zero left in the bowl. You may not like discrete math, but it is real, and fundamental to every branch of knowledge.
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Your foe is infinity, which is why you drone on about Epicurus and Mountains to high for gods to climb.
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I like your painting very much. I prefer your portraits, I think because you are more adept at rendering the emotions when you get a root level profile. But now you seem able to capture the emotions of the biome. I look forward to more progress.
Again and again I’ve tried to communicate that I’m not talking about zero jelly beans. You’re a bright guy so I assume that my writing skills aren’t quite there yet. I’ve rewritten a line which I hope makes my thought more clear.
The opposite of anything is the lack of that thing (the empty set - thimsjellybean), noanything is absolute zero and to ever have it is impossible This is true even for his 0mnipotence, unless of course he never was anything in the all place.
I don’t have a problem with infinity. I know that I’ll never be able to understand it “completely”. But I’m made out of infinity; I can experience slices of it; I recognize that the answer to ‘why is there anything instead of nothing’ is that the question is not relevant. The foe is the delusion of thinking that we can understand a thing without end. Infinity is my God and Zero my seductive Devil. The difference between my god and yours is that I don’t give mine an individual consciousness with intent, although, ironically, all consciousness is derived from it.
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I’ve been thinking about doing a portrait before leave for my three month plein air trip to the west coast. I’ve been working hard on NOLA subjects because that’s all I’ve ever been able to sell on a regular basis. What I think you recognize in my portraits is the freedom I feal when I paint a representation of the self without any concern for return.
I see. You mean that to even conceive of nothing you need something.
Hmmmm.
My comment from my phone disappeared.
I essentially said that I think I see what you mean: Nothing cannot even be defined without something; but since it is the lack of something, anything, then it is still something.
It sounds like you believe in an eternal universe, and that there is no first cause… did you seize onto this revelation when someone was trying to argue that God exists as the first cause?
Oops… there it is.
I believe the substance of the universe is eternal. And that cause isn’t relevant to infinity.
No. I came upon this revelation when a friend asked me what the opposite of a spoon was.