I love it when smart cranky men rant about God

It’s always so entertaining, especially when they have a gravelly voice that just adds to their cantankerousness. Here, Harlan Ellison talks about God and the cold, unknowing and uncaring nature of the Universe, and the presumptuousness of people here on Earth who claim to know what no-one knows and possibly can know. It’s a shortie but a goodie.

I just have to transcribe my favorite bit, for anyone unlucky enough not to be able to view the vid:

‘The Universe doesn’t know we’re here. It just doesn’t know. Einstein says, “God does not shoot craps with the Universe (it does not play dice with the Universe)”. Yeah, it does! Yeah, it does! It’s random. The Universe will one day give you the lottery for $16 million, and next day, colon cancer. The Universe doesn’t know; the Universe doesn’t care. The Universe is just boogiein’ on along, having its own self a good time. There is no rhyme, there is no reason. There are laws, restrictions, rules; Darwinism, astrophysics; all of these things are part of the way the machinery runs. And it’s a machine – “Well, who created the machine?” I don’t give a fuck who created the machine! I’ll never know, you’ll never know, no-one’ll ever know. If Saint Thomas [?] couldn’t figure it out, I sure as hell am not gonna be able to […]’

Exactly. The man’s as coarse in real-life as PZ Myers is on his blog (seeing as we all know how in real-life, PZ’s just a big softie. =P). It’s a great interview, so be sure to check it all out.

(via Pharyngula)
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