Week 7 Exercises — Reading Both Books
Six reps to turn this week’s reading into something you can actually do at a kitchen table. Together they take about 30–45 minutes. Keep them in one document (Google Doc, Word file, or plain notes) — the last rep flows straight into Project 7. The keyboard is the gym: don’t just read these, run them.
Ground rules
- Write it yourself. Draft the answers in your own words. Rep 5 uses an AI assistant on purpose — but you own the verdict, and you verify everything it hands you (that was Week 6).
- Modest, not mushy. A pointer that ends in a question beats a “proof” that ends in a mic drop. Practice landing soft.
- Say it out loud. An answer you can only write is only half-learned. Speak the short ones to the wall or a willing spouse.
Rep 1 — Your sixty-second answer
Write your own reply to “Hasn’t science disproved God?” — four to six sentences, no jargon. It must (a) refuse the false war, (b) name that science explains how, not why there’s anything at all, and (c) end with a question that hands the conversation back. Produce: one short paragraph. Then read it aloud and time it. If it runs past sixty seconds, cut, don’t add.
Rep 2 — Sort the widget, mark your misses
Work through every snippet in the “Gaps or Glory?” widget below the chapter and commit before you check. Produce: two lines naming the two snippets you found hardest, and for each, one sentence on why it fooled you — was it a gaps argument dressed as a pointer, or scientism dressed as humility?
Rep 3 — Rescue a gaps argument
Take this weak line: “Scientists can’t fully explain how the first living cell formed, so God must have done it.” Rewrite it so it stops hiding in a gap and instead points from something we do know. Produce: a before/after pair — the original, then your modest rewrite that argues from evidence rather than from ignorance, and admits plainly what it does not prove.
Rep 4 — A quantum reality check
Find one real example of quantum mysticism — “observation creates reality,” “quantum manifesting,” “your consciousness collapses the universe” (a wellness post, a video caption, or an AI-written article will do). Verify it’s really making the claim before you critique it (Week 6 habit). Produce: the claim in one line, then your two-sentence calm correction — what a “measurement” actually means in physics, and why wishing doesn’t rearrange an atom. No mockery; you’re rescuing a person, not scoring a point.
Rep 5 — Spar with an AI skeptic (and verify it)
Open a free AI assistant and prompt it: “Play a friendly, science-minded skeptic. I’m going to offer one reason the universe points to God. Push back with your single strongest objection, then wait for my reply.” Offer ONE pointer, take its objection, and answer using the two questions from Week 2 (“What do you mean by that?” / “How did you come to that conclusion?”). Produce: a short transcript excerpt, one honest line on where you got stuck — and an AI usage note: what you asked, anything the AI got wrong or overstated, and what you checked yourself.
Rep 6 — One modest pointer, out loud
Pick a single pointer — beginning, fine-tuning, or comprehensibility — and write the paragraph you’d actually say to a science-minded friend. Present it in plain words, concede honestly what it does not prove, and end with an invitation (“Would you ever want to look at this together?”) rather than a conclusion. Produce: one paragraph. Save it — it’s the seed of your Project 7 dialogue.
Check yourself
A good week’s reps look like this:
- Your sixty-second answer refuses the war and ends with a question — it doesn’t lecture.
- Your rescued gaps argument now points from what we know, and openly says what it can’t prove.
- Your quantum correction is accurate and kind — it could be read aloud to the person who posted the claim without wounding them.
- Your AI transcript ends with a real usage note, because you treated the machine as a sparring partner, not an oracle.
- Your modest pointer sounds like an open door, not a slammed one.
Done all six? You’re ready for Project 7.