{"id":35902,"date":"2026-01-27T05:00:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T10:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/?p=35902"},"modified":"2026-01-26T21:06:46","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T02:06:46","slug":"to-do-the-best-we-can","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/27\/to-do-the-best-we-can\/","title":{"rendered":"To Do the Best We Can"},"content":{"rendered":"

There is a certain subspecies of scientists who enjoy feeling smarter than \u201cregular people.\u201d\u00a0 And I won\u2019t be too exclusive.\u00a0 This carries along to anyone who has \u201ctechnical\u201d training; physicists, biologists, engineers of every stripe, doctors of all kinds.\u00a0 These folks are extremely proud of the fact that they don\u2019t believe in God and enjoy preening about how much smarter they are than these religious folks.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s an example.:<\/p>\n

https:\/\/x.com\/LyingWrongAgain\/status\/2015459692848337176?s=20<\/a><\/p>\n

He\u2019s set up a strawman; a pretend religious person saying that order cannot come from disorder.\u00a0 And then he shows how a tub full of nails randomly jumbled together can become an ordered pile with all the nails parallel by someone rhythmically swinging it back and forth.\u00a0 And somehow this is supposed to disprove the existence of God.\u00a0 Well, I\u2019m sure there are just as many annoying religious people who try to crow over their proofs of the foolishness of disbelievers and create strawmen of their own.\u00a0 But I guess I\u2019m more aware of all the educated fools who enjoy this game in academia and elsewhere.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t claim to be an expert on cosmology or theology but I\u2019m pretty sure neither camp can prove or disprove the existence of God to both sides\u2019 satisfaction.\u00a0 And I could be wrong but right up until the moment of truth I don\u2019t think they ever will.<\/p>\n

So, what\u2019s my point?\u00a0 I think both sides should be honest and forthcoming about the inability of either side to point to irrefutable proof for their point of view.\u00a0 Maybe instead they could try to provide arguments for why their point of view is \u201cbetter\u201d for people.\u00a0 In other words which belief makes people happier or better citizens or better parents.\u00a0 Show us statistics that measure the behaviors and outcomes that go along with theism or atheism.\u00a0 That at least has some relevance to people if something beyond their own fundamental beliefs is important.\u00a0 Maybe there are some people who just will never make up their minds and instead could use social benefit to \u201cbreak the tie.\u201d\u00a0 From everything I\u2019ve read, people who believe in God are happier, healthier and better neighbors than atheists are.\u00a0 So, from society\u2019s point of view this might be something that should be touted (I guess).<\/p>\n

But honestly, I\u2019m happy that we live in a country where freedom of religion (or freedom from religion) is written into the fine print.\u00a0 Making people pretend to believe something they don\u2019t is counterproductive and absurd.\u00a0 If there is a God, how abominable would he find unbelievers forced against their will to pretend to faith.\u00a0 And alternatively forcing believers to deny God is bound to make them hate the state that forces them into this lie.<\/p>\n

Whether we consciously consider it or not, we are all constantly looking for some part of the truth about life.\u00a0 We are always making decisions to try and make our lives better; health wise, socially, politically and maybe spiritually.\u00a0 And so, we come up with ad hoc rules for ourselves and how we live with our fellow humans.\u00a0 But I think we\u2019re all better off if we tread lightly on other people\u2019s religious (or irreligious) beliefs.\u00a0 We\u2019re all here in the valley of the shadow of death and most of us are trying to do the best we can.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is a certain subspecies of scientists who enjoy feeling smarter than \u201cregular people.\u201d\u00a0 And I won\u2019t be too exclusive.\u00a0 This carries along to anyone<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[86],"class_list":["post-35902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-events","tag-religion"],"yoast_head":"\nTo Do the Best We Can - Orion's Cold Fire<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/27\/to-do-the-best-we-can\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"To Do the Best We Can - 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