"Peter Webb" <webbfamily-diespamdie@optusnet.com.au> wrote in
news:416fd3ac$0$26323$afc38c87@news.optusnet.com.au: 

However, the argument against a God being untruthful is far more
compelling. It means we cannot be sure of internal consistency. If God
can make all the photons in the Universe appear in one blink, he can
make them all disappear in the next blink. What's the point of
building observatories, if this is the case?

I'm sure the person who thought astronomy is a "soulless science" would not 
be unhappy if we didn't build observatories.  In fact, he might even be 
quite content with an Earth centric model of the universe.