https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trey_Parker#Personal_lifeTrey Parker said not wrote:Basically… out of all the ridiculous religion stories which are greatly, wonderfully ridiculous—the silliest one I've ever heard is, 'Yeah… there's this big giant universe and it's expanding, it's all gonna collapse on itself and we're all just here just 'cause… just 'cause'. That, to me, is the most ridiculous explanation ever.
What I've gathered from this is that there must be a God, because the explanation of "It all just happened" sounds ridiculous, therefore existentialism etc etc. Now of course, he said this way back in 2006, so he may have changed his stances, but, like with the Dillahunty situation, I don't know, and this also can regard other people who follow this way of thinking. Plus, he also said that it would take a long time to hear his whole view on religion, so let's be charitable and assume that his opinion is a lot more in depth, or he just misspoke during a live interview. So keep in mind, everything here is based off of this one piece of interview.
Now I do believe Parker is an intelligent person, but I feel that this is the dumbest thing he's ever said (and I have come to disagree with some of the things he and Stone have posited regarding presidential politics, but that's a different matter).
The problems I have with this are in great abundance, so here's a quick summary of what I find wrong with this in bullet points:
- It's a non-sequitur, since just because there is a God doesn't mean there is meaning in life, and just because there isn't a God doesn't mean there isn't meaning in life. I'm not sure if there is an objective meaning in life, but there are secular existential philosophies that can be advocated to satisfy this dilemma.
- It seems to be under the impression that humans were somehow destined to exist, and we must have some objective role in the universe (I think that this is just Parker's brain trying to find an existential justification for the existence of humanity).
- Parker isn't a scientist or philosopher, and he's just assuming it's ridiculous without any justification. Why do you believe it to be ridiculous? Be open to the possibility that it might not be ridiculous until you've read up on the literature (I mean, I haven't (yet), but I'm not going around and calling things ridiculous without any particular reason (sometimes)).
- How is it a religion? I mean, you can argue that it's faith based, but the mainstream consensus seems like the best explanation from an objective point of view from what we currently know (and you acknowledge this).
- The universe, animals, and humans all came here from (if I'm not mistaken) a process of seemingly random events and mutations, and humans just so happen to evolve to a state where they can create existential issues like these. Again, I refer to Parker's mind trying to find reason.
So those are my issues, anyone agree/disagree? Anything to add/remove?
BTW the topic title is a reference to a South Park episode if anyone was wondering about it (plus Parker is getting kinda fat).