… Why?

I was reading this comment on this post when I realized something. First the comment, so that you can get my mindframe:

Terri Says:

Instead of ranting about how all that the Christain believes is false, why don’t you research it for yourself. The sciences and archeology have done a lot of work on this and you might find it interesting. By the way, How do you think the world began? Why?

And Sean‘s response that got me thinking…

…As to why the universe was created, only humans ask that question. Nature doesn’t give a rat’s ass about “why.” Nature just is. That’s why the religious are left scrambling for answers when 150,000 people are killed in a tsunami. And they never come up with anything remotely satisfactory. There is no why, just what and how… Natural disaster, plain and simple…

To phrase it another way: Any ‘why’ implies rationality.

Think about it. If I punch you, you ask me why, and I say “purple glorbed star is sigma stratosphere,” you would assume I was crazy and likely not ask me why again. The same is true for all metaphysical questions.

The problem comes when we attempt to apply this question to something that doesn’t immediately lend itself to rational interpretations. A drunken captain slaloms through the ocean, hits an iceberg, and the ship sinks, killing a hundred sailors and a slow sea lion. Why?

Because. Just because.

If you answered “because some guy didn’t do his job,” then you just committed a logical fallacy. You didn’t answer ‘why,’ but ‘how’ and passed it off as a solution. If you answered “because God deemed it correct,” you implied the ultimate rationality… and a rational cause for that. Which, of course, creates greater problems than I’d care to address.

Why implies rationality. If that is all you learn from me, it will suffice. Just remember that next time you or anyone else asks a ‘why’ question. It’ll save you time and frustration.
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… though if you are interested, I might as well explain the rest of them to you as well.

• Any who implies rational actors.
• Any what implies substance or coherence.
• Any how implies cause and effect.
• Any when implies ordering of time.
• Any where implies ordering of space.
• Any whodunnit implies the butler.

I was reading this comment on this post when I realized something. First the comment, so that you can get my mindframe: Terri Says: Instead of ranting about how all that the Christain believes is false, why don’t you research it for yourself. The sciences and archeology have done a lot of work on this…