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[quote=takoma]I'm going to write something rather long winded, but which I think is relevant.  To those who give up reading because they are bored silly or who get through it all and think it's a bunch of irrelevant nonsense, I apologize.

In very simple terms, a computer program is a set of rules that are applied to various input data sets to produes output.  You can often resubmit the output as input an see what happens

I have written a simple program for which the input and output are geometric configuration, and the rules are of a fairly simple type.  But even with such simple rules and a simple type of configuration as data, the number of combinations is enormous, and it is really interesting for me to watch the patterns as the rules are repeatedly applied.

I can choose different sets of rules and different starting configurations and watch them develop, and even run several choices simiultaneously.  I can also let the rules or the data be determined randomly.  I can even make changes in the rules or the configuration mid-stream to see what effect the changes might lead to.

Let me emphasize that, even though I am, in a sense, totally in control, I usually have no idea what to expect as things progress.  In fact, that's precisely why I find it so interesting.

So what's the relevance?  I thinks of the universe as one running of such program, with the laws of nature -- physics, chemistry, biology, etc -- as the rules.  I have no idea how it all came into existence, and even if there is some Creator responsible for it all, I see no reason to assume that he/she/it is motivated by anything more than the curiosity that motivates me to run my program.  Similarly, even if this Creator should share my tendency to intervene now and then, perhaps by sending a Jesus or a Hitler, I see no reason to think there is advance knowledge of the effect these interventions will have.

So although I call myself an atheist, I'm quite willing to accept as possibilities much of what religious people believe about God.  I just don't think there is reason to believe in the ominipotence of God, or that I can have any conception of what motivates Him/Her/It.  Nor do I see any readon to believe that my ideas of good and evil have any relevance to such an entity.

So, if you don't like atheists, consider me a member of the Church of He Doesn't Really Give a Damn.  Or call me an agnostic atheistic believer and get a threefer.[/quote]

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