Robert J. Sawyer - Calculating God (2000)

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How do you define God? Like this. A God I could understand, at least potentially, was infinitely more interesting and relevant than one that defied comprehension.

Robert J. Sawyer
Learning to ignore things is one of the great paths to inner peace.

Robert J. Sawyer
You can't choose the ways in which you'll be tested.

Robert J. Sawyer
The right things to do are those that keep our violence in abeyance; the wrong things are those that bring it to the fore.

Robert J. Sawyer
It is either coincidence piled on top of coincidence," said Hollus, "or it is deliberate design.

Robert J. Sawyer
There is no indisputable proof for the big bang," said Hollus. "And there is none for evolution. And yet you accept those. Why hold the question of whether there is a creator to a higher standard?

Robert J. Sawyer
That natural selection can produce changes within a type is disputed by no one, not even the staunchest creationist. But that it can transform one species into another — that, in fact, has never been observed.

Robert J. Sawyer
Not wanting to die was another universal constant, it seemed.

Robert J. Sawyer
No one disputes that seeming order can come out of the application of simple rules. But who wrote the rules?

Robert J. Sawyer
The true God is not a form idealized; he/she/it is real and therefore, by definition, imperfect; only an abstraction can be free of flaws. And since God is imperfect, there will be suffering.... There is no perfect God. And your suffering requires no more explanation than that unavoidable imperfection.

Robert J. Sawyer
Since ancient times, the philosophers' secret has always been this: we know that God does not exist, or, at least, if he does, he's utterly indifferent to our individual affairs--but we can't let the rabble know that; it's the fear of God, the threat of divine punishment and the promise of divine reward, that keeps in line those too unsophisticated to work out questions of morality on their own.

Robert J. Sawyer