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Topic: Evidence for a Designer...
no photo
Sun 11/01/09 02:20 PM

there is no grand design..again these are just human ideas made up to cope with the fear of the unknown...mainly death....we are all products of a 13.7 billion year process..our atoms everything came from the same big bang..ever changing never dying until they formed us...when we die our atoms will move on to the next thing


So then are you saying that atoms are the "creator?" How did atoms get so smart??




no photo
Sun 11/01/09 02:20 PM
Perhaps the first universe began not with a big bang but with a low moan, building into a roar that gave way to a deafening hiss. And those sounds gave birth to the first stars.

jrbogie's photo
Sun 11/01/09 02:21 PM
when i die my atom will move in with eve.

no photo
Sun 11/01/09 02:21 PM



Creative wrote
Again, there is no evidence to prove "happensstance" is not the answer.
Neither is there evidence to prove that 'design' in not the answer.



rofl rofl rofl rofl

Check and mate. Nobody can prove anything.







now ya got it. nothing can be proven. a theory can only be tested over and over again. no way to know which future test it might fail. neither the big bang nor the designer can ever be proven. of course intelligent design does not meet the standard of a scientific theory anyway but hey.


and of course that means you think it has more weight. laugh laugh :tongue:

Shoku's photo
Sun 11/01/09 02:23 PM

Also, why is it so 'objectionable' for atheists to consider that there might be an unseen intelligence at work in this thing we call existence and life?
There's nothing wrong with considering it, we object to elevating it to beyond that without evidence for it.

In the end it is all science and the truth will be known, so relax and consider all possibilities. Where there are still questions, I still consider the possibility of a unified field that is intelligent and creative. I find no objection to that consideration. I am not claiming that I know this for a fact.
You certainly act like we should accept it as one.
We consider these things too but that's it. There's no reason to take it further so we don't have any reason to inform people of other possibilities.

But when I ask the bottom line question and I get the answer: "I don't know." I ask myself ... then what do you imagine?

Some people don't want to go there. And yet imagination is what makes who we are, and separates us from the more unconscious animals.
And it's often personal. Would you criticize someone for not getting naked on command?

Now maybe you don't mean any harm but a lot of times when I have told people what I imagine they turn it against me and say all of the things I have said are ridiculous because of it. I'm not totally scared by that or anything but what I imagine is rarely relevant to the conversation so I leave it out when reasonable.


I have said before, many times that I have not concluded anything. Yet everyone assumes that I have and that I am insisting I am right.
If not then why keep telling us we're closed minded and such?

So to feed this delusion, I am trying to explain to them that the current best "conclusion" I have is this and this is why....

Now as for what I meant by what is NOT a solution, I am talking about all of the non-answers I have been getting from you and others. They are incomplete and they are not acceptable because they do not answer the question... how and why.

As long as those question are not answered ..(yes to my own satisfaction) they remain questions.
Why do you keep answering the questions with "designer"?



Jenny, I added this later, but it's important and worthwhile read:

Evolution is NOT driven by a survival instinct. In fact, it is driven by two things: 1. survival and 2. canging of the species in random directions and the one direction that aids* survival will get propagated into future generations.

{(*) not because it is chosen or it is superior, but because the individuals without a particular "winning" direction of change may be less able to survive, and they indeed don't produce offspring.

In fact, there is a HUGE number of differences between members of species, but they are going to be significant only if one or more of these differences will give a distinct advantage for those who have it against those who don't. Some humans can twirl their tongues sideways, some can't; some humans can taste and smell particular tastes and smells, some can't; some humans have sticy earwax, some have the kind that easily peels off and rolls away. These are all evoltutionary differences, that are passed down from parent to offspring, but obviously they're not such that they would make a difference in survival. However, once a microbe that produces deathly poison with its metabolism, and which finds sticky earwax lovely to live in, but not the other kind, then this difference will be a suvival advantage to humans who have non-sticky earwax.}



A Random direction?

Now do we have to get into a deep discussion about if random exists and if it does, what is the cause of randomness?

How does this 'randomness' fit in with the idea of cause and effect?

Doesn't everything have a cause?

If so, then randomness does not exist.

If not, then what is randomness?
It's not random but it's stochastic. If you drop a single molecule of poison (that messes up DNA,) into a cell it's very hard to say which molecule it will interact with. Maybe it will bump around and touch on one strand of DNA or maybe it will touch down somewhere else. Same with high energy photons of light.

If you're standing in exactly a certain position and we shot a particular beam of light absolutely perfectly at a certain spot then sure, we could say what mutation would happen, but because the Sun is what's shooting most of those at us an we don't know exactly where it's going to shoot them and because we don't know exactly where all the molecules in anything you eat or otherwise put in your body and because we don't know the absolute exact position of your body there's so much going on that we're nowhere near close to working out cause and effect down to the level of atoms and photons.

We flat out know how most of those things interact that we can say how they will if we know exactly what they're all doing at any particular moment but we don't know exactly how things are at any moment in life. Generally sure but it's hard enough to just count how many hairs are on your head much less where all your cells are and how the stuff inside them is sitting.

So we call that random instead.

My question is why does it even change at all? So what if conditions are "different." How would the DNA know to change?
It wouldn't and it doesn't know to change. Know how computers sometimes freeze? They wouldn't if they did everything exactly the way they are programmed to but sometimes they don't follow the program. Maybe an electron jumped into the wrong place or some magnetic field threw it off. There's no way I could tell you exactly why it happened on a forum like this and even if I was there I probably wouldn't even be able to figure out what exactly happened unless I was lucky and watched it happen.

But programs are different than life so what freezes a program might make some stretch of DNA into something useful.



The only remaining problem is how evolution has no foresight. These don't design complex systems and then build them- they just try everything and as you pile up single step upon single step eventually you get a complicated staircase.


wux said: Very good point. No foresight, no willed direction, no driven direction.

That's the paradigm you need to accept, Jeanny, if you wish to know how evolution works.

Well to fair I think there's a problem there. You're telling her to just accept it, and I think everyone has been.

I know it would be completely impractical to make everyone learn about the depths of chemistry and physics before they clear up misconceptions like these but I wish people would add a tool to their toolbox: The "I'm not good enough at this science to explain it well enough" tool. There are a lot of things that fall outside my range of expertise; even though I've seen the fantastic reasoning and evidence that lead up to the conclusions I don't every last piece of it and it's completely unreasonable to think that other people should see how right something is just from me recalling bits and pieces of what lead me to it.

So she doesn't need to accept it to know how evolution works, she needs to understand it to start understanding evolution.


My question is why does it even change at all? So what if conditions are "different." How would the DNA know to change?

Everything responds to outer and/or inner changes. It is a part of being alive.

I think if we have a preconcieved idea then we tend to see the proof everywhere we look.

I see the wonder of a natural event in all that I see. It just happened just right and we are here
I guess to put it another way:
imagine a pool table where the balls have just been split and are bumping around wildly. You know that bounce off of each other in certain ways and that it's all very mechanical but if you first hit that cue ball at a very slightly different angle or with very slightly different force the balls might end up in a very different position.

If you want you can see why illustrated here: http://faraday.physics.utoronto.ca/GeneralInterest/Harrison/Flash/Chaos/Bunimovich/Bunimovich.html

Just a tiny change and things start to bounce differently and as you add those up it very quickly becomes too much to handle. Now imagine if the balls never slowed to a halt and if there were hundreds, thousands, or millions of them. If you know how they interact when there are just two hitting each other you can technically work out exactly what they should all do but even just figuring out where they all are before they've moved some more is an impossible task.


Creative said
All known designs = P

The universe = Q

P has 1(intent), 2(purpose), 3(order), 4(designer)

Q seems to have 3
This is not the logic I am using.

So you either didn’t understand, or this was a strawman.

Designs do not have purpose or intent (any more than a bridge or a chair has purpose or intent). Only designers can have purpose and intent.

So the correct logic is much simpler: In all cases where the source of order is known, it is the direct result of purposeful intent by a designer. Therefore any order may reasonably be assumed to have been the direct result of intention and purpose by a designer.

The very nature of inductive logic means that it cannot result in proof. It is only an assumption based on similarities.

Hell, why not say that all cases of disorder must have been the direct result of intention and purpose by a designer as well and that we just do not recognize the order in them?

But with that or without that the fallacy that renders that invalid is called begging the question. You do understand why fallacies are not valid, right?


JB said: A single atom contains all of the 'seeds' and/or programing and information to create entire worlds teaming with life.

When you say things like this it's hard to see how you can say that you're not telling us how things are. What you just did is called a statement. If you first tell us to imagine something or you insert words like "maybe" into that it could be less that a declaration of how things are.

You might ask how can so much information be contained in something so small, but size is relative and meaningless.
Well what really matters is how many interactions any single part can make and how many parts you have.

I remember when a computer no better than what we now use as a hand held calculator took up an entire room. Now powerful computers are contained in smaller and smaller packages.
But if size doesn't matter why didn't we start small?

A tiny chip no bigger than a freckle can hold huge amounts of information.

And that is our crude man-made current technology.

Look how quickly we went from cave dwellers to a computing society.

Now give a universe unlimited 'time' and just imagine what kind of 'computing' ability it or the intelligent creatures living in it could come up with.
But if we're the first then our crude computers would be the best computers, would they not?

I am a simple person. I don't understand math. And I am astonished just with our current technology.

Imagine a technology from a mind or society living in a different space time. One in which we are just a universe inside of some test-tube or computer. :tongue: laugh
Why should I imagine that? Just to be distracted from this conversation?


I can answer that. This universe is so unique that it is probably one in a billion billion chances that it even exists if it is 'random' or 'happenstance'

One in a billion billion is just a guess, it could be more.

So where are the billion billion failed universes?

Having failed they would have fallen back in on themselves into basically nothingness.

But I thought you didn't understand math (I can grab the quote of you saying so if you want.) How could you think the universe had such a small chance when you don't understand any of the math people used to argue that?

You've accepted that idea, if only to use against people, because you liked it but you didn't corral any of the reasons for it to show to us.

-trying to catch up in this thread is quite the task. I fear I need yet another break.

Dragoness's photo
Sun 11/01/09 02:24 PM
Are we dancing the dance of an abstract thinker and an organized thinker?

Some people seem to look for order in everything in their lives. Then there are those who accept that order or reason is not a necessity to live.

jrbogie's photo
Sun 11/01/09 02:26 PM


there is no grand design..again these are just human ideas made up to cope with the fear of the unknown...mainly death....we are all products of a 13.7 billion year process..our atoms everything came from the same big bang..ever changing never dying until they formed us...when we die our atoms will move on to the next thing


So then are you saying that atoms are the "creator?" How did atoms get so smart??






don't read that he said atoms are the creator. read that there is no design.

no photo
Sun 11/01/09 02:40 PM



there is no grand design..again these are just human ideas made up to cope with the fear of the unknown...mainly death....we are all products of a 13.7 billion year process..our atoms everything came from the same big bang..ever changing never dying until they formed us...when we die our atoms will move on to the next thing


So then are you saying that atoms are the "creator?" How did atoms get so smart??






don't read that he said atoms are the creator. read that there is no design.


Sorry but if there were no design then there really would be Chaos.
I just don't agree that 'patterns' and 'programs' are NOT designs.


bedlum1's photo
Sun 11/01/09 02:45 PM



there is no grand design..again these are just human ideas made up to cope with the fear of the unknown...mainly death....we are all products of a 13.7 billion year process..our atoms everything came from the same big bang..ever changing never dying until they formed us...when we die our atoms will move on to the next thing


So then are you saying that atoms are the "creator?" How did atoms get so smart??






don't read that he said atoms are the creator. read that there is no design.
our science is improving and theories that use to be unfounded just guesses are becoming fact. the deeper and farther we look..personaly i think the proof that all life giving marerial ...carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, etc.. are all condensed in stars just adds further evidence of the big bang "theory" which they are now mapping btw.

no photo
Sun 11/01/09 02:59 PM
If not then why keep telling us we're closed minded and such?


Shoku;
I have not once accused anyone of being 'closed minded.'

I said:
I find no objection to that consideration. I am not claiming that I know this for a fact.

You said:

You certainly act like we should accept it as one.
We consider these things too but that's it. There's no reason to take it further so we don't have any reason to inform people of other possibilities.


You have no reason. I do.

You asked:
Why do you keep answering the questions with "designer"?


Because I have not been convinced of anything more logical and I am not convinced this world is an accident.

And because I am a designer, and I exist.

I am not looking for a single "God" or "creator" or "designer" like so many of you seem to have the impression.

I believe we are the designers.

And you are right... I don't NEED TO ACCEPT anything.

I will accept it when the evidence is clear that I am wrong. Not one single scrap of reasoning or logic has lead me to believe that yet.



************************************

no photo
Sun 11/01/09 03:18 PM
Edited by Bushidobillyclub on Sun 11/01/09 03:22 PM
Again, accident implies purpose. Its a poor usage unless you have already accepted that an intelligence guides this universe and makes mistakes.

Nature is not accidental. Evolution is not accidental. Its not driven by purpose, but interaction and sustenance.

This is true even before evolution started. Organic molecules continue on to interact longer if they are more stable. If less stable they unravel, or are hijacked by other processes. Even at the atomic level we have resonance which can allow for the furtherance of atomic fusion inside stars, but is this guided by anything other then interaction and structure? Can we really say that the fundamental particles must be designed with life as a purpose? The real answer is no. We cannot know if the fundamental particles have to be this way, or can be variable and are themselves based in the way universes begin, or . . or . . . or .. . many possibilities yet imagined.

One of the main flaws of any of these discussions is that the English language is littered with great words that are anthropomorphic. If you wish to see regardless of evidence that there must be purpose and choose to use semantic fallacious logic, you will always have something to pick out in any scientists presentation. Accident is such a word.

My main point in this discussion, and in the topic as a whole is that if we presume a design then we throw out all those other possibilities and blind ourselves to the potential mechanics of cosmology, or evolution, or . . .

Its really intellectually bankrupt. Many fallacies are involved, and have been pointed out.

Dragoness's photo
Sun 11/01/09 03:23 PM

Again, accident implies purpose. Its a poor usage unless you have already accepted that an intelligence guides this universe and makes mistakes.

Nature is not accidental. Evolution is not accidental. Its not driven by purpose, but interaction and sustenance.

Organic molecules continue on to interact longer if they are more stable. If less stable they unravel, or are hijacked by other processes.

One of the main flaws of any of these discussions is that the English language is littered with great words that are anthropomorphic. If you wish to see regardless of evidence that there must be purpose and choose to use semantic fallacious logic, you will always have something to pick out in any scientists presentation. Accident is such a word.



:thumbsup:


Shoku's photo
Sun 11/01/09 03:29 PM

I cannot provide proof of what started the galaxy or universe or what started everything, but I do find it very interesting that scientists have found planets that they claim could hold life! 32 of them last time I read an article about it!

Now if only we could find a way to get spaceships like the Star Trek Enterprise to go there. I bet we might find more answers to the questions we have possed for thousands of years if we could get off this planet and out of this universe.

Happy Halloween everybody by the way!glasses drinker bigsmile smooched laugh happy :tongue: :smile: :wink: :banana:

Well for life like we know it you need temperatures that allow for liquid water (our solar system actually almost has three planets like that n_n) and common elements with around this amount of gravity. Basically there should be thousands or maybe millions of planets like that in our galaxy- the trouble has only been that our telescopes couldn't find planets much smaller than Jupiter. Now we're starting to.


you know the source of the universe?

It just so happens I do, but that has nothing to do with my argument - or anything else really.


So do I. :wink: bigsmile

All this after you said you only had questions... you've just lost some of my trust.



Quote a peer reviewed scientific paper that even mentions mind no less requires it in QM.


Don't need to. It doesn't matter what the call it or don't call it.

They've already shown that it has all the attributes required to be a mind by the definition that I gave. So it doesn't matter what label they use to describe it.

That's totally irrelevant.
Well no, it matters that you said scientists proved it. If they proved it that means somebody did research and published it. Show us that or admit you were lying.


But responding to a direct question by being sarcastic or changing the subject or going off on some tangent about an angry controlling deity IS NOT AN ANSWER.
I've said quite a bit by this point. Do you think none of it answers your questions?



6. Even cosomologists confess that in order for this universe to be considered a happenstance event, there must necessarily exist infinitely many other failed and lifeless universes to justify that this one life-giving universe was indeed the one that just happened to work out.


This doesn't even make logical sense that it is a "have to" in order for anything to be.




YES IT DOES unless you think that only one accident ever happened and that accident magically manifested an entire universe full of intelligent creatures.

The whole idea of evolution is based on the fact that there had to have been many different evolutionary paths and failed attempts before a successful one happened. That it the whole theory about evolution.

It is the same with a happenstance universe. It did not just happen the first time. IF it did then logic insists that it had to be ON PURPOSE AND INTENTIONAL. A DESIGN.

Ok, here's the big problem with that.
1. They don't say they know what started out universe.
2. They are making judgments about how likely it is.

That's bad. Let's say you don't know how many sides a dice has or if it starts at the number 1 but you do know that it came up six. What were the odds of that?

If you can even begin to think of a way to say what the odds of a dice you know nothing about coming up six... well I'm not sure you have a functional understanding of reality.
The odds might be one in six or they might be one in two (thing a coin with rounded edges,) or they might be one in a billion. If you don't know how many numbers there are you shouldn't be able to say how likely any number is.

Now what they are saying is that they DO know this dice. They say this dice is infinity and that all numbers are equally possible- except that they don't. They only imply it while saying that they don't know because they have to to pass this lie off.

It's like saying "The chances of a grilled cheese sandwich are virtually impossible! There must be countless failed grilled cheese sandwiches out there!"
Chances how? Are we talking about the chances of someone who is an ok cook putting cheese and bread together and then grilling it or are we talking about the chances of a tornado doing that? There might be a robot-cook involved, what then? Do you think a chimp might ever make a grilled cheese sandwich given the tools and ingredients?


But there's also a problem in your objections. "Nobody has ever shown these failed universes!" Well by definition they should be outside of our universe and nobody has ever been able to look there, at least not yet. To me this sounds kind of like saying "if the world was round there must be whole other continents out there and nobody has ever seen those" to Columbus.
*I know that's a bit inaccurate but the point should be obvious.

So without having found a 'failed' universe the idea is wrong but after we get a chance to look if we find one will it be right?



Creative wrote
Again, there is no evidence to prove "happensstance" is not the answer.
Neither is there evidence to prove that 'design' in not the answer.



rofl rofl rofl rofl

Check and mate. Nobody can prove anything.

So murder and stealing from babies are ok, or least nobody can prove they're not.
Wow, this opens up so many possibilities!

._.;


Sorry but if there were no design then there really would be Chaos.
I just don't agree that 'patterns' and 'programs' are NOT designs.


It's very hard to tell when you change your story about what you are saying so much :\


If not then why keep telling us we're closed minded and such?


Shoku;
I have not once accused anyone of being 'closed minded.'
I know those weren't your exact words but it's the closest phrase I could think of to describe what you have been doing.

I said:
I find no objection to that consideration. I am not claiming that I know this for a fact.
And you've said that you DO know. Which is it?

You said:

You certainly act like we should accept it as one.
We consider these things too but that's it. There's no reason to take it further so we don't have any reason to inform people of other possibilities.


You have no reason. I do.
So what your reason for reminding us all of these specific possibilities?

You asked:
Why do you keep answering the questions with "designer"?


Because I have not been convinced of anything more logical and I am not convinced this world is an accident.
Why must it be an accident if there is no designer?

And because I am a designer, and I exist.
Are you the original designer of the universe?

I am not looking for a single "God" or "creator" or "designer" like so many of you seem to have the impression.

Of course not, just awhile ago you said you already knew it.

We aren't talking about if there are designers now. Nobody in this thread would argue that you do not design things.

We are talking about origins. Did everything around us come from a designer or did it happen naturally? Do you think it couldn't have happened naturally?

I believe we are the designers.
But what about before there was anything alive on Earth and before there was anything alive on any planet in our universe?

And you are right... I don't NEED TO ACCEPT anything.

I will accept it when the evidence is clear that I am wrong. Not one single scrap of reasoning or logic has lead me to believe that yet.

Well I can't say that you are definitely wrong but you seem definitely inconsistent. Since you keep saying you're not saying certain things and then turning around and saying them I can't say what it is that you're saying so I don't have anything to show is wrong.

SkyHook5652's photo
Sun 11/01/09 03:49 PM
Edited by SkyHook5652 on Sun 11/01/09 03:50 PM
Sky wrote:
How is that an argument from ignorance.

You’ve conveniently excluded the known – “all designs with known cause have order” (or “all order with known cause is designed” – either way, take your pick).

That is where it starts.
I pick both, because the universe does not fill the requirements necessary for the conclusion of either one.
It does fill the requirements for both.

Besides that both are generalizations and false.
Generalizations, yes, False, no.

1.)All design with known cause has order.
This is untrue. There are loads of artistic designs which show no signs of order. The design is there. The cause is there. There is no order.
Where there is disorder in artistic designs, the cause is always unknown. So this argument does not apply to either of my statements because they both explicitly refer to “known cause”. Strawman.

The statement is false.
No, it’s true.

2.)All order with known cause is designed.
This is untrue as well. As I said earlier, I can take five pennies and drop them on the ground. Eventually they will land in an orderly fashion. The order is there. The known cause is there. It was not designed.
As with the strawman “art” example above, the cause of the design is not known.

The statement is false.
No, your statement is a strawman.

The two do not logically equate anyway. So you are attempting to base the conclusion that the universe is a design on faulty reasoning.
No, it is you who are attempting to base your conclusion about my argument on faulty reasoning.

You’re presupposing that all order equates to design, and all design equates to order.
No, I am not presupposing that, I am observing that.

Add to that the fact that both of those arguments (even if they were valid) depend upon knowing the cause.
Nope. Neither of them depend on that in any way. They depend on nothing but my own observation and evaluation.

no photo
Sun 11/01/09 03:56 PM
Shoku I am glad you are here, its hard to continue being so wonderfully specific in the face of such outrageous fallacious specious arguments. Dont get tired of it too soon, I know there are more lurkers out there that need to read it, I think you do the reasonable scientific skeptics justice.

SkyHook5652's photo
Sun 11/01/09 04:02 PM
Edited by SkyHook5652 on Sun 11/01/09 04:06 PM
Creative said
All known designs = P

The universe = Q

P has 1(intent), 2(purpose), 3(order), 4(designer)

Q seems to have 3
This is not the logic I am using.

So you either didn’t understand, or this was a strawman.

Designs do not have purpose or intent (any more than a bridge or a chair has purpose or intent). Only designers can have purpose and intent.

So the correct logic is much simpler: In all cases where the source of order is known, it is the direct result of purposeful intent by a designer. Therefore any order may reasonably be assumed to have been the direct result of intention and purpose by a designer.

The very nature of inductive logic means that it cannot result in proof. It is only an assumption based on similarities.


Hell, why not say that all cases of disorder must have been the direct result of intention and purpose by a designer as well and that we just do not recognize the order in them?
Because as far as I’m concerned, there is no known cause for any disorder, so the same inductive reasoning would not apply.

But then, I guess we’d have to have an agreement at to what actually constitutes disorder before that argument could get anywhere.

So let me just say that I don’t see any disorder anywhere and leave it at that.

To me “disorder” simply means “lacking a point of reference”. So all one has to do to see order is to pick a point of reference.

SkyHook5652's photo
Sun 11/01/09 04:05 PM
Edited by SkyHook5652 on Sun 11/01/09 04:40 PM
Are we dancing the dance of an abstract thinker and an organized thinker?
Good observation, although I would call it the dance of inductive reasoning and deductive reasoning. drinker

Dragoness's photo
Sun 11/01/09 04:26 PM

Are we dancing the dance of an abstract thinker and an organized thinker?
Good observation, although I could call it the dance of inductive reasoning and deductive reasoning. drinker



:wink: laugh

bedlum1's photo
Sun 11/01/09 04:38 PM

Shoku I am glad you are here, its hard to continue being so wonderfully specific in the face of such outrageous fallacious specious arguments. Dont get tired of it too soon, I know there are more lurkers out there that need to read it, I think you do the reasonable scientific skeptics justice.

some of us just understand

Dragoness's photo
Sun 11/01/09 04:47 PM
What I see here is that if you have it in your mind that there is intelligent design to the universe, you see it, without any tangible proof.

If you see the chance that it is all a "happening" at a molucular level, then that is what you see, without any tangible proof.

Until someone can tell we who the intelligent designer or designers are and who made them and who made their designers.... etc... I will have to see the chances for the latter as more likely.

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