Faith arguments Part 12

40:17 - 42:47 Lennox: Does D think that size is the measure of importance? On a logarithmic scale, D is about halfway between the atom and the universe. So if God thinks in logarithms, D's point falls. (D: This is an emotional argument they are getting into.) (L disagrees.) (D: If he were to respect a god, it would be the sort of God that Carl Sagan might have worshipped. Not the medieval God who fusses about sin and righteousness. He keeps coming back to the word petty and stands by it.) It's an image of God that worries L, adverts on London buses say 'There probably is no God, so don't worry and enjoy your life.' Does D associate the idea of God with worrying? (D: He fought for a better slogan than that. This was devised by a woman on the Guardian to collect GBP5 here and there, and he offered to match the donations. He said he would rather change the slogan to 'There almost certainly is no God, live your life to the full', but it was too late. The money was raised in the first day, about GBP23,000 - she was only hoping for 5,500. He'll have a say in the next slogan, and it will not be the present one.) From L's perspective, it's the very relationship he has with God that stops the worrying and gives him the fullness of life. They are back to the pettiness: because if God is real and has revealed himself, then it's through a relationship with Him that we can really enjoy a full life, science included. (D disagrees: He finds this so unconvincing.)

A world without God offers more opportunities - in the short run. In the long run, a world with God offers more social capital. You gain social capital by deliberately (i.e. for old-fashioned moral considerations) missing out on some 'opportunities' that will predictably backfire. Living life to the full has at least two possible definitions: 1. stormy full life: leaping at every opportunity to assert whatever you think is your best interest at the time, making your present stormy and your future miserable; 2. happily full life: balancing opportunity and morality, you gather social capital, making your present and also your future prosperous. By full life, D and L mean two radically different things.