The existence of God has been fiercely debated for centuries
but regardless of what you think or feel is true
can we use math, the universal, unbiased language
to come to a conclusion?
Can math prove God's existence?
The most famous argument in favour of a God-made world
using logic and reasoning is the "argument by design"
Simply put, given how complex and amazing
everything around us is
can we really believe that
dumb luck put it together?
Even from a scientist perspective
life is amazing
incredibly rare
and took a monumental amount of steps
chance-happenings and time to come about
So, a religious person may argue:
"Doesn't it seem much more plausible
that there was some driving force behind it all?"
This type of argument is called
reductio ad absurdum
which simply means it attempts to
disprove a statement by showing
it inevitably leads to absurd
or impractical conclusions
In this case
it suggests that 1) if there is no God, humans developing is very unlikely
2) humans did develop
therefore, 3) it is unlikely that there is no God
but let's take this logic one step further
and imagine a universe before anything has been created
Here, we have a base box
where we have our two possibilities of
God existing and no God existing
On the other side are possibilities are that
humans exist or that humans don't exist
If no God is true
then most would agree that human existence takes a lot of specific factors to come about
so let's make up a tiny probability
and say that there's a 1/4 billion billion chance
of humanity coming into existence
in a world with no God
and if God is real
even though we don't know that God would make humans
certainly He could
so let's give it a higher probability
of 1/4 million
Of course, if we examine the evidence
we know we exist
so we can get rid of the other row
and as many of you who have used the "argument by design" point out
a human-made world with God
seems much, much more likely rationally and statistically
and while this is true in some ways
it forgets an important point
that we have assumed there are only two major theories
but we know this isn't true
many societies have believed in multiple gods
and given there are some aspects of this life that
aren't merely as beautifully complex
or seemingly intentional
perhaps a variety of squabbling gods
created the world
Mathematician Jordan Ellenberg uses
the probability of 1/400,000
that universe with multiple gods would create humans
but it's important to remember
that the exact numbers don't actually matter
What does matter is that we can agree
rationally, that a universe with more gods
has a higher chance of creating humans
then one with a single God
or none at all
it's also important to remember that
we're not comparing the probability
of gods or no gods existing
we're asking ourselves
if the God option is true
what is the likelihood of Him making humans?
and then we're asking separately
if the multiple gods option is true
what is the likelihood that they would make humans?
now, let's take this even further
to theories of us simply living in a simulation
like that of the Sims
Which individuals like Elon Musk
and Oxford philosopher Nick Bostrom believe
as technology advances
it's almost a certainty that future humans
will make extremely realistic human simulations
based on the world that we live in
to study these humans like we study mice
scientists already use simulations
to understand nature and human behaviour
but in the future it's possible
that the human test subjects
will be conscious and think they are real
so we can give this scenario
a fairly high probability
again, the exact number doesn't matter
just that we can agree it's very likely
that advanced humans would create these kinds of simulations
compared to the probability of a God or gods
randomly deciding to make humans
when they don't need to
or could make millions of other animals
or other aspects of the universe
after all, humanity is obsessed with humans
so as you can see
while maths can, in fact, show that
the existence of life is evidence that God exists
compared to no God
the same maths shows
more compiling evidence that we're simulation by much smarter people
special thanks to audible for supporting this episode
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this week we wanted to recommend the book
'How Not To Be Wrong: The Power of Mathematical Thinking' by Jordan Ellenberg
which was the main source of this episode
and an incredible read on the hidden beauty and logic of our world
through the lens of maths
but in a way that is accessible to everyone
you can get a free 30-day trial at audible.com/asap
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