Existence Survey

I sometimes listen to audio recordings of debates between Christians and atheists.
Most atheists argue from a position that the idea of God is just so extraordinary or outside of normal experience that no one should be expected to accept it.

I will grant that the idea of God is extraordinary.

But will you not also admit that the existence of the universe(s), and especially consciousness, is also extraordinary. Non-existence would seem to be the default state of things, and yet here we are. Trees growing, planets orbiting, me typing, you reading, communication happening, history being made, beauty being enjoyed. This existence thing is all so extraordinary, but everyone accepts it. The jump from belief in non-existence to belief in existence is HUGE.

A person who has already made the enormous leap to believing that physical things exist is but a small stride away from believing that not only physical things exist (the assertion that only physical things exist is not only unprovable, but unsupportable and dogmatic as well).

Not only that, I think it is a natural and necessary stride because I think the existence of the universe needs a cause (and, no, I don’t think the existence of God needs a cause given His attributes).

So I want to end with a survey:
1) Does ‘something existing’ (as opposed to ‘nothing existing’) strike you as a peculiar/special/extraordinary state of things?
2) Do you think the existence of the universe requires an explanation, or do you think it can exist without a cause?

Your thoughts please.
(a pledge: I won’t post any more entries that use the word ‘exist’ so many times)

Southern Mie Solo Bike/Camp Trip

Kim Weatherford had been visiting for about 5 days. I planned to take her to the airport bus when she left, and then take my bike on a train 2 hours south to Southern Mie. Unfortunately, I became sick that morning, despite being the only one I know who didn't get sick all winter. But I went ahead with my plan, deciding that if I feel worse 'I can quit anytime'.

Okay: here's a map with the path I traveled.


So I took a train down to Southern Mie, and got off at Ugata station. Because it was already 11:30am I thought it would be good to get lunch out of the way as long as I'm in a largish town. So I stopped at Gusto Burger for lunch. They have very good burgers, so it was a treat for me. For the first 3 hours, I was on a highway between two towns, so there was more traffic than I would have liked. But at one point, I turned onto a smaller road, just to see where it led. For the first time, I got a taste of an empty open country road.


At that point, it began raining. Very inconvenient, but I did bring a rainsuit for me and a tarp to cover the bags on my bike. The rain plus the traffic made for an annoying bike ride, but after I went through the first tunnel, the traffic cleared up. Also, small alternative routes became available. So I took one smaller road to a cliff lookout. From here I could see two towns I had passed through. Also, I could see Goza, where Ryan and I snorkeled last October.


Shortly after, it stopped raining. I rode for about 2 more hours, then set up camp just off of a closed cliffside road that looks over the beach. I could see a lighthouse way off on the tip of Goza. I watched it for a few minutes, listening to the waves. I couldn't have asked for a better place to pitch a tent.


Next day, I slept in, ate a spaghetti breakfast, and started off, hoping to find a convenience store or something in a nearby village so I could buy some food and eat a bigger breakfast. Instead, in a small alley, I found a 'Ma & Pop' grocer, where I bought more breakfast and lunch, and asked to have my water bottles refilled. I rode to a nearby marina and ate more breakfast on a dock, looking on the Gokasho Bay for the first time. A little later, I took this picture of the bay
from this lookout point

Later, I went through a long tunnel. It got darker and darker, until I could see nothing but the light at the end (I couldn't even see my hands). I was glad to get out of that tunnel. Then I made a detour down a neigborhood under construction and took one more shot of the Gokasho Bay, this time with hillside houses dotting the...um...hillsides.


I stopped to cook lunch near a town at the mid-point of the bay. As I was eating, a very loud musical chime was played over the whole town at the strike of noon. It was a nice, inticate, multi-faceted tune about 1 minute long, but what really amazed me was the echo. It seemed as if the tempo of the tune were chosen on purpose to benefit from the echo of the mountains surrounding the bay. The natural delay was just right to create a wonderfully articulate harmony coming from all directions.

After eating, I decided I was too sick to continue on all the way to the next train line. So I took a bus back to the trainline I came from. The southern coast of Mie is such a nice, interesting ride, much more so than ride from Dallas to Houston, for example. Although I wish I hadn't been sick, I got a good taste for what a bike/camp trek is like, and I hope to try it again when I get a chance.