• Quick note - the problem with Youtube videos not embedding on the forum appears to have been fixed, thanks to ZiprHead. If you do still see problems let me know.

Intelligent Design

PartSkeptic said:
Not one person has so far said "Maybe he is right". Why? Because everyone is certain the universe is not an illusion, and they KNOW for certain that God cannot exist.

What if one can influence events by positive determined thinking? It would mean that all of you get your wishes to live in a purely physical world.

And what if I am right? It would mean that theists have an evolutionary advantage and are using one of the built-in elements of intelligent design to their advantage. Atheists will eventually die off. There will be no monuments or places of worship for future archeologists to find to prove that atheists even existed. The theists will burn their books and their mark on the world will not exist. ;)
Click to expand...
What if you are right? Then you would be able to prove it. If you can't then you have no reason to think you are right.
 
Delvo said:
Every time you claim that our position has been something other than what we actually say, you lie. Again.
Click to expand...

Pixel42 said:
Your straw men are getting more and more ridiculous.
Click to expand...

Aridas said:
From my perspective, they've largely stayed at roughly the same level of ridiculousness.
Click to expand...

Here are the ones I've noticed most often over the years I've been debating him:

What sceptics say: Everybody has cognitive biases, fallible perceptions and malleable memories which can lead them to misinterpret mundane experiences as supernatural

PartSkeptic's straw man: Sceptics say everyone who ever reported a supernatural experience is either lying or hallucinated

What sceptics say: Our brains have evolved to bring data which confirms anticipated patterns to the attention of our conscious awareness whilst filtering out disconfirming data as noise, leading us to sometimes believe we see a pattern which isn't really there

PartSkeptic's straw man: Sceptics say my memory is as bad as theirs but I know it's far superior

What sceptics say: Patterns perceived by PartSkeptic are not evidence for the existence of the supernatural unless they can be experimentally confirmed under controlled conditions

PartSkeptic's straw man: Sceptics say they know there is no God

Yeah Aridas is right, they're no more ridiculous now than they've always been.
 
PartSkeptic said:
Not one person has so far said "Maybe he is right". Why?.........vast heaps of straw clipped......
Click to expand...

Because you haven't produced a single jot of evidence, nor any sort of logical argument explaining why no such evidence exists. Simple.
 
PartSkeptic said:
And what if I am right? It would mean that theists have an evolutionary advantage and are using one of the built-in elements of intelligent design to their advantage. Atheists will eventually die off. There will be no monuments or places of worship for future archeologists to find to prove that atheists even existed. The theists will burn their books and their mark on the world will not exist.
Click to expand...


This tells us nothing about whether theism is true, but quite a lot about your kind of theist.
 
Last edited:
Pixel42 said:
They will certainly outlast every church and temple currently standing.
Click to expand...

Lyrics of one of my favorite songs spring to mind:

Now, nobody lives forever
Nothin' stands the test of time
Oh, you heard 'em say "never say never"
But it's always best to keep it in mind
That every tower ever built tumbles
No matter how strong, no matter how tall
Someday even great walls will crumble
And every idol ever raised falls
And someday even man's best laid plans
Will lie twisted and covered in rust
When we've done all that we can but it slipped through our hands
And it's ashes to ashes and dust to dust

Ashes To Ashes - Steve Earle

Worth a listen if you don’t know it.
 
There's always Ozymandias:

Percy Shelley's "Ozymandias"

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert... near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed:

And on the pedestal these words appear:
'My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away
 
I wonder if the Steve Earle song is an homage...

“Then the sea gave birth and it crawled up on the dirt
And stood up and took a look around
Said "I'm the next big thing and the gift that I bring
Comes directly from God, so there ain't no holdin' me down"
So he crowned himself king
Now no one remembers his name...”
 
Ozymandias was for me in junior high a tipping point; it remains one of my favorites.
 
PartSkeptic said:
Not one person has so far said "Maybe he is right". Why?
Click to expand...

Because there is no evidence and no solid reasoning to support your position. It's up there with saying "Maybe there's a small pink unicorn flying around the rings of Saturn, and it's farts are what creates weather patterns on the planet Earth!". Nobody would ever say "maybe that's right", because there is nothing at all that supports that speculation.
 
Emily's Cat said:
Because there is no evidence and no solid reasoning to support your position. It's up there with saying "Maybe there's a small pink unicorn flying around the rings of Saturn, and it's farts are what creates weather patterns on the planet Earth!". Nobody would ever say "maybe that's right", because there is nothing at all that supports that speculation.
Click to expand...

Rubbish - just last week I had my car serviced and they had to change a filter, but apparently it isn't the usual filter they keep in stock so were going to have to order one. But that week they were going to do a service on the same type of car and they'd ordered one in for that, and then the other owner rang up to cancel their appointment! So they did have one for me!!!

If that doesn't demonstrate there are small pink unicorns flying around the rings of Saturn then I don't know what it would take to convince you closed minded skeptics.
 
Darat said:
Rubbish - just last week I had my car serviced and they had to change a filter, but apparently it isn't the usual filter they keep in stock so were going to have to order one. But that week they were going to do a service on the same type of car and they'd ordered one in for that, and then the other owner rang up to cancel their appointment! So they did have one for me!!!

If that doesn't demonstrate there are small pink unicorns flying around the rings of Saturn then I don't know what it would take to convince you closed minded skeptics.
Click to expand...


Well you've won me over. How could one argue with that?
 
Darat said:
Rubbish - just last week I had my car serviced and they had to change a filter, but apparently it isn't the usual filter they keep in stock so were going to have to order one. But that week they were going to do a service on the same type of car and they'd ordered one in for that, and then the other owner rang up to cancel their appointment! So they did have one for me!!!

If that doesn't demonstrate there are small pink unicorns flying around the rings of Saturn then I don't know what it would take to convince you closed minded skeptics.
Click to expand...

Well then, how do you explain last week for me? My car starts acting horrible. Barely ran and kept dying on me. I diagnose it to be a bad MAP sensor. Replace it, runs great...then two days later it won't start at all. Replace the coil. Runs good for 1 day, then I replace a failed ignition module again runs good for 1 day. And now i have to replace the fuel pump.

Everyone sees pink unicorns when things coincidentally go well. What is the answer when it goes bad? Blame it on Murphy's law I guess.
 
acbytesla said:
Well then, how do you explain last week for me? My car starts acting horrible. Barely ran and kept dying on me. I diagnose it to be a bad MAP sensor. Replace it, runs great...then two days later it won't start at all. Replace the coil. Runs good for 1 day, then I replace a failed ignition module again runs good for 1 day. And now i have to replace the fuel pump.
Click to expand...

Simple. Each day you've been delayed, a small child has run out into the road just where you would have been driving past if your car had been running OK. Those children have been saved from a sudden and violent death by the miracle of a series of precisely timed breakdowns to your car. You should be grateful that their deaths aren't on your conscience.

Dave
 
Exactly. And the children who have been run over during that time had been naughty, and so didn't deserve such intervention.
 
Pixel42 said:
Exactly. And the children who have been run over during that time had been naughty, and so didn't deserve such intervention.
Click to expand...


Or, alternatively, were entirely innocent and virtuous, and have been taken by a benevolent god so that they won't sin and be cast into the HELLFIRE.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top Bottom