but regardless of what you think or feel is true

can we use math, the universal, unbiased language

to come to a conclusion?

Can math prove God's existence?

The most famous argument in favour of a God-made world

using logic and reasoning is the "argument by design"

Simply put, given how complex and amazing

everything around us is

can we really believe that

dumb luck put it together?

Even from a scientist perspective

life is amazing

incredibly rare

and took a monumental amount of steps

chance-happenings and time to come about

So, a religious person may argue:

"Doesn't it seem much more plausible

that there was some driving force behind it all?"

This type of argument is called

reductio ad absurdum

which simply means it attempts to

disprove a statement by showing

it inevitably leads to absurd

or impractical conclusions

In this case

it suggests that 1) if there is no God, humans developing is very unlikely

2) humans did develop

therefore, 3) it is unlikely that there is no God

but let's take this logic one step further

and imagine a universe before anything has been created

Here, we have a base box

where we have our two possibilities of

God existing and no God existing

On the other side are possibilities are that

humans exist or that humans don't exist

If no God is true

then most would agree that human existence takes a lot of specific factors to come about

so let's make up a tiny probability

and say that there's a 1/4 billion billion chance

of humanity coming into existence

in a world with no God

and if God is real

even though we don't know that God would make humans

certainly He could

so let's give it a higher probability

of 1/4 million

Of course, if we examine the evidence

we know we exist

so we can get rid of the other row

and as many of you who have used the "argument by design" point out

a human-made world with God

seems much, much more likely rationally and statistically

and while this is true in some ways

it forgets an important point

that we have assumed there are only two major theories

but we know this isn't true

many societies have believed in multiple gods

and given there are some aspects of this life that

aren't merely as beautifully complex

or seemingly intentional

perhaps a variety of squabbling gods

created the world

Mathematician Jordan Ellenberg uses

the probability of 1/400,000

that universe with multiple gods would create humans

but it's important to remember

that the exact numbers don't actually matter

What does matter is that we can agree

rationally, that a universe with more gods

has a higher chance of creating humans

then one with a single God

or none at all

it's also important to remember that

we're not comparing the probability

of gods or no gods existing

we're asking ourselves

if the God option is true

what is the likelihood of Him making humans?

and then we're asking separately

if the multiple gods option is true

what is the likelihood that they would make humans?

now, let's take this even further

to theories of us simply living in a simulation

like that of the Sims

Which individuals like Elon Musk

and Oxford philosopher Nick Bostrom believe

as technology advances

it's almost a certainty that future humans

will make extremely realistic human simulations

based on the world that we live in

to study these humans like we study mice

scientists already use simulations

to understand nature and human behaviour

but in the future it's possible

that the human test subjects

will be conscious and think they are real

so we can give this scenario

a fairly high probability

again, the exact number doesn't matter

just that we can agree it's very likely

that advanced humans would create these kinds of simulations

compared to the probability of a God or gods

randomly deciding to make humans

when they don't need to

or could make millions of other animals

or other aspects of the universe

after all, humanity is obsessed with humans

so as you can see

while maths can, in fact, show that

the existence of life is evidence that God exists

compared to no God

the same maths shows

more compiling evidence that we're simulation by much smarter people

special thanks to audible for supporting this episode

to give you a free 30-day trial at audible.com/asap

this week we wanted to recommend the book

'How Not To Be Wrong: The Power of Mathematical Thinking' by Jordan Ellenberg

which was the main source of this episode

and an incredible read on the hidden beauty and logic of our world

through the lens of maths

but in a way that is accessible to everyone

you can get a free 30-day trial at audible.com/asap

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