I am not G.K. quoter. Don't get me wrong, I love the fat man with the awesome 'stache. But so many Catholic bloggers quote him that it sometimes seems to be the easy way out. Ya know, intellectually lazy.

Speaking of intellectually lazy, I got such a kick out of an article over at Space.com.

The eggheads over there contort themselves into such pretzels in order to deny the obvious that I had a sudden and inexplicable craving for yellow mustard and beer after reading it.

They want you know know that we absolutely do not need a Creator to have creation. How? The universe spontaneously created itself out of nothing. How? The rules of physics were already in place. Well, who made the rules? Hey, what's that over there?!?!
 

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Our universe could have popped into existence 13.7 billion years ago without any divine help whatsoever, researchers say.

That may run counter to our instincts, which recoil at the thought of something coming from nothing. But we shouldn't necessarily trust our instincts, for they were honed to help us survive on the African savannah 150,000 years ago, not understand the inner workings of the universe.

Instead, scientists say, we should trust the laws of physics.

"The Big Bang could've occurred as a result of just the laws of physics being there," said astrophysicist Alex Filippenko of the University of California, Berkeley. "With the laws of physics, you can get universes."

 

Obviously, this line of argumentation does nothing to answer the big question, well at least not in any way satisfactory to those not willing to acknowledge a very obvious answer.

But this is where the fat man with the cool 'stache comes in. If the article had stopped there, I likely would not be commenting on it as it seems just run-of-the-mill denial. If it had stopped there... It didn't.

As Chesterton famously said "When people stop believing in God, they don't believe in nothing -- they believe in anything."

The article continues with what I refer to as a weak episode of  "The Outer Limits" theory and/or the really stupid plot of a really stupid Stephen King novel. The article quotes Seth Shostak speculating on our non-Deity inspired origins.

"Quantum mechanical fluctuations can produce the cosmos..."If you would just, in this room, just twist time and space the right way, you might create an entirely new universe. It's not clear you could get into that universe, but you would create it."

"So it could be that this universe is merely the science fair project of a kid in another universe," Shostak added. "I don't know how that affects your theological leanings, but it is something to consider."

 

Right....

God couldn't have created the Universe, no way no how. But a kid from another universe does a science experiment and whammo we are here. That is something to consider. But not God.

Oh, by the way? Who created the kid from the other universe with the awesome science lab?

Oh never mind.

On last thing. As mentioned, those quotes and really deep and interesting speculations come from Seth Shostak. Who is Seth? Seth Shostak is a senior astronomer at the non-profit Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institute. I am totally serious.

Chesterton must have had the editors of Space.com and Mr. Shotak in mind when he penned that piece of pith. They will believe in anything, as long as that anything has no right to sit in judgement over their bad life and editorial decisions.