Dixie - In Memoriam
New member
Who was the miserable little Atheist who used to post this challenge? I have been racking my brain trying to remember him. He has probably ended his pathetic life by now, but his challenge lives on in my mind.
My first instinct was to issue a counter-challenge of $10 million if he could scientifically prove God didn't exist. Of course, it is a stupid and pointless challenge either way, because it is impossible. You may as well offer $10,000 to make a cow jump over the moon.
Still, the basic idea of the challenge is to provoke a response, to have pro-God people actually say something the Atheist can repudiate. So, I never took the obvious bait. But I did ponder the question of how to build a case for existence of God, as a valid and possible theory. In light of current debates on whether we should teach Intelligent Design, it seems an appropriate theory to consider.
First, we must agree, Science is mandated to question the very things we may think are impossible, our personal opinions have no validity to Science. Because a person happens to not believe we were created by an intelligent designer, has no effect on Science and shouldn't prejudice findings of Science in any way. We must also agree, science does not determine absolutes, it can't prove or disprove creation, evolution, or any other potential theory for origins of life. Keeping an open mind is of the utmost importance, and it is very difficult for Atheists to keep an open mind, when it comes to the possibility of an Intelligent Designer.
Let's have a look at some scientific evidence to support the possibilities of Intelligent Design.
1. The failure of Darwin's Theory.
One of the most obvious facts is the failure of Darwin's Theory to adequately explain origin of life. The theory was established at the turn of the 20th century, and has endured as the definitive theory of Atheists for how life originated. From a purely Scientific standpoint, the theory has been found to have incredible flaws, with the advent of macro-biology and the discovery of DNA, much more is known about our species and others, and there is no evolutionary connection between many various forms of life on the planet. While Darwin's theory may explain "adaptation" of species to various conditions, there is absolutely no scientific evidence to support cross-species evolution of anything, ever.
2. Natural Selection's Validity.
One aspect of Darwin's theory, the Theory of Natural Selection, actually supports the scientific theory of Intelligent Design. In Darwin's Natural Selection theory, animals retain attributes conducive with survival, and are 'selected' over animals which do not retain the attributes. Humans have obviously adopted the behavior of worshiping something greater than self. According to NS, this attribute must have been required by our species of life to survive.
3. Human Behavioral Psychology
As much a "science" as biology or chemistry, the study of animal behavior subscribes to the same scientific methods and principles of other sciences, and it is here that we find the most compelling evidence for intelligent design. We know and understand, by repeated studies and observations of all kinds of animals and life forms in general, they all display behavior for a reason. Nothing behaves in any way that is without purpose or reason. It may take us time to determine the reason, and it may sometimes appear there is no logical reason, but science can always conclude and rely on this to be the case. That being said, humans have always exhibited the behavior of worship. From the most ancient civilizations we've discovered, we find evidence of some kind of spiritual ritual. Through centuries of wars and oppression, mankind has held fast to the behavior of worship. We know for a fact, any animal exhibiting a routine behavior, has a fundamental purpose for that behavior, therefore, we must conclude there is fundamental purpose for human worship and spirituality.
4. Ockham's razor
It is a principle attributed to the 14th-century English logician, William of Ockham. The principle states that the explanation of any phenomenon should make as few assumptions as possible, eliminating those that make no difference in the observable predictions of the explanatory hypothesis or theory. The simplest explanation for the origin of life is an intelligent designer. All other theories require many assumptions and can be quite complicated.
5. Patterns are not random.
The unique complexity of life in every form, is defined by DNA, an essential blueprint for every living thing. In the study of DNA structures, we see the patterns of design. We can observe various components of living things and find advanced engineering, things that would have been impossible to develop through the evolution process, because the components function together in an engineered, machine-like manner. This structural design is not likely to have happened randomly, and science would indicate this is virtually impossible to have happened randomly.
6. Laws of Random Odds.
In the physical universe of which we live, the basic laws of random odds apply to virtually everything. In order to accept Evolution as the valid explanation for the origin of all life, we must suspend the laws of random odds. There are dozens of things which had to happen in a certain order, to a certain degree, and in a certain way, for the Earth to even be conducive for life. The sheer odds of this should be apparent to anyone who has a look around our solar system and known universe, we seem to be the only place where life exists, anywhere nearby. So, just the miracle of physics which enable life to even exist, are beyond the limits of possibility with random odds. Furthermore, the existence of the vast array of life, in all the billions of forms, and millions of varieties, each add to the stretching of these limits. It is simply a physical impossibility that it all happened randomly.
7. The Moon
Without the Moon, it is most likely, no life could exist on this planet. The Moon is responsible (through its collision with Earth) for the rotational wobble of the planet, giving us 4 distinct seasons. Without the seasons, we would have no plant life, and with no plant life, we would have nothing to produce oxygen and enable other life to exist. It is also responsible for ocean tides, which enable all sea life to exist, and acts as a gyroscope to keep the Earth from spinning out of control, off its axis.
8. Hydrogen, Oxygen, Nitrogen, Carbon.
The elements of the Universe which enable life to exist. These elements are present throughout our universe, but they happened to come together in the correct proportions on this planet, to enable life to flourish. We have no scientific explanation or theory on where these elements came from, why they exist, or what caused the Big Bang.
9. Mankind's Amusing Arrogance.
For whatever reason, mankind has always assumed it knew almost everything, at any given time in history. Even in this advanced technological age, we remain arrogant to the fact that we are ignorant in the scope of the universe. There are trillions of unanswered questions, billions of them we are too ignorant to even ask at this point. We are like babies in a cradle in the middle of a dark room, we know our cradle well, and we know we are in a room, some of it we can identify, but beyond the darkness, we have no knowledge or understanding whatsoever. We relate to things on human terms, within our own infantile understanding of the universe around us, when there may be thousands of dimensions we are unaware of, and many things we can't even comprehend in our small dimension of existence.
10. The Unexplained.
Numerous anomalies we have discovered to exist, that science simply can't provide any explanation for. Discovery of the Hobbit people, small humans which lived after the supposed "evolution" of Homo sapiens . In all of the evolution studies, there has never been an explanation for creatures like the giraffe, and animal which seemingly has no evolutionary ancestor, it has always been a giraffe.
Now.... None of this "proves" God exists. As we established to start with, that is an impossible task, but it does provide a sufficient amount of scientifically based evidence to support a rational theory, the theory of intelligent design.
My first instinct was to issue a counter-challenge of $10 million if he could scientifically prove God didn't exist. Of course, it is a stupid and pointless challenge either way, because it is impossible. You may as well offer $10,000 to make a cow jump over the moon.
Still, the basic idea of the challenge is to provoke a response, to have pro-God people actually say something the Atheist can repudiate. So, I never took the obvious bait. But I did ponder the question of how to build a case for existence of God, as a valid and possible theory. In light of current debates on whether we should teach Intelligent Design, it seems an appropriate theory to consider.
First, we must agree, Science is mandated to question the very things we may think are impossible, our personal opinions have no validity to Science. Because a person happens to not believe we were created by an intelligent designer, has no effect on Science and shouldn't prejudice findings of Science in any way. We must also agree, science does not determine absolutes, it can't prove or disprove creation, evolution, or any other potential theory for origins of life. Keeping an open mind is of the utmost importance, and it is very difficult for Atheists to keep an open mind, when it comes to the possibility of an Intelligent Designer.
Let's have a look at some scientific evidence to support the possibilities of Intelligent Design.
1. The failure of Darwin's Theory.
One of the most obvious facts is the failure of Darwin's Theory to adequately explain origin of life. The theory was established at the turn of the 20th century, and has endured as the definitive theory of Atheists for how life originated. From a purely Scientific standpoint, the theory has been found to have incredible flaws, with the advent of macro-biology and the discovery of DNA, much more is known about our species and others, and there is no evolutionary connection between many various forms of life on the planet. While Darwin's theory may explain "adaptation" of species to various conditions, there is absolutely no scientific evidence to support cross-species evolution of anything, ever.
2. Natural Selection's Validity.
One aspect of Darwin's theory, the Theory of Natural Selection, actually supports the scientific theory of Intelligent Design. In Darwin's Natural Selection theory, animals retain attributes conducive with survival, and are 'selected' over animals which do not retain the attributes. Humans have obviously adopted the behavior of worshiping something greater than self. According to NS, this attribute must have been required by our species of life to survive.
3. Human Behavioral Psychology
As much a "science" as biology or chemistry, the study of animal behavior subscribes to the same scientific methods and principles of other sciences, and it is here that we find the most compelling evidence for intelligent design. We know and understand, by repeated studies and observations of all kinds of animals and life forms in general, they all display behavior for a reason. Nothing behaves in any way that is without purpose or reason. It may take us time to determine the reason, and it may sometimes appear there is no logical reason, but science can always conclude and rely on this to be the case. That being said, humans have always exhibited the behavior of worship. From the most ancient civilizations we've discovered, we find evidence of some kind of spiritual ritual. Through centuries of wars and oppression, mankind has held fast to the behavior of worship. We know for a fact, any animal exhibiting a routine behavior, has a fundamental purpose for that behavior, therefore, we must conclude there is fundamental purpose for human worship and spirituality.
4. Ockham's razor
It is a principle attributed to the 14th-century English logician, William of Ockham. The principle states that the explanation of any phenomenon should make as few assumptions as possible, eliminating those that make no difference in the observable predictions of the explanatory hypothesis or theory. The simplest explanation for the origin of life is an intelligent designer. All other theories require many assumptions and can be quite complicated.
5. Patterns are not random.
The unique complexity of life in every form, is defined by DNA, an essential blueprint for every living thing. In the study of DNA structures, we see the patterns of design. We can observe various components of living things and find advanced engineering, things that would have been impossible to develop through the evolution process, because the components function together in an engineered, machine-like manner. This structural design is not likely to have happened randomly, and science would indicate this is virtually impossible to have happened randomly.
6. Laws of Random Odds.
In the physical universe of which we live, the basic laws of random odds apply to virtually everything. In order to accept Evolution as the valid explanation for the origin of all life, we must suspend the laws of random odds. There are dozens of things which had to happen in a certain order, to a certain degree, and in a certain way, for the Earth to even be conducive for life. The sheer odds of this should be apparent to anyone who has a look around our solar system and known universe, we seem to be the only place where life exists, anywhere nearby. So, just the miracle of physics which enable life to even exist, are beyond the limits of possibility with random odds. Furthermore, the existence of the vast array of life, in all the billions of forms, and millions of varieties, each add to the stretching of these limits. It is simply a physical impossibility that it all happened randomly.
7. The Moon
Without the Moon, it is most likely, no life could exist on this planet. The Moon is responsible (through its collision with Earth) for the rotational wobble of the planet, giving us 4 distinct seasons. Without the seasons, we would have no plant life, and with no plant life, we would have nothing to produce oxygen and enable other life to exist. It is also responsible for ocean tides, which enable all sea life to exist, and acts as a gyroscope to keep the Earth from spinning out of control, off its axis.
8. Hydrogen, Oxygen, Nitrogen, Carbon.
The elements of the Universe which enable life to exist. These elements are present throughout our universe, but they happened to come together in the correct proportions on this planet, to enable life to flourish. We have no scientific explanation or theory on where these elements came from, why they exist, or what caused the Big Bang.
9. Mankind's Amusing Arrogance.
For whatever reason, mankind has always assumed it knew almost everything, at any given time in history. Even in this advanced technological age, we remain arrogant to the fact that we are ignorant in the scope of the universe. There are trillions of unanswered questions, billions of them we are too ignorant to even ask at this point. We are like babies in a cradle in the middle of a dark room, we know our cradle well, and we know we are in a room, some of it we can identify, but beyond the darkness, we have no knowledge or understanding whatsoever. We relate to things on human terms, within our own infantile understanding of the universe around us, when there may be thousands of dimensions we are unaware of, and many things we can't even comprehend in our small dimension of existence.
10. The Unexplained.
Numerous anomalies we have discovered to exist, that science simply can't provide any explanation for. Discovery of the Hobbit people, small humans which lived after the supposed "evolution" of Homo sapiens . In all of the evolution studies, there has never been an explanation for creatures like the giraffe, and animal which seemingly has no evolutionary ancestor, it has always been a giraffe.
Now.... None of this "proves" God exists. As we established to start with, that is an impossible task, but it does provide a sufficient amount of scientifically based evidence to support a rational theory, the theory of intelligent design.
