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Is "god did it" an explanation?

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jaydeehess said:
If "god did it" is sufficient to explain such things, would not "the devil made me do it" be sufficient to absolve one from guilt?
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Awesome ~ It's Heaven & Hell.

"God did it" Is just an excuse for the weak and scared minded to avoid the truth, that is any truth that involves God. Face it ~ " We are on our own "

Sorry if my answer was short and lazy, lacking any intellectuality, but when talking about something that don't exist. Why waste anymore time with some long drawn out useless thesis when the obvious is quit clear.

Tim
 
Character Assassin said:
Hi, this is my first thread on this forum hopefully it won't be the last :D.

Some religious people are contented with "god did it" as an explanation for just about anything that science hasn't explained yet or that they think that science hasn't explained (the apparent design of living things).

How can anyone be satisfied with "god did it" as an explanation? It doesn't explain how he did it. In other words they don't seem to be bothered that they don't have a mechanism for their explanation. It's no better than "it just happened".

What good is an explanation if it doesn't tell you how something happened? Unless its an explanation of who did it or what kind of thing it was, it doesn't help you if you want to know how something happened.

Thoughts?
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No more than "garden fairies did it"...and for the same reason(s).
:fairy:
 
I don't even get it that people can have the cognitive dissonance it takes to say, "god did it", and ignore the obvious question, "how did said god come about?"

:welcome4 Character Assassin
 
Of course I think everything the most articulate skeptics say about this is best, and God did not do anything since there is none. Unfortunately, though, only the apostate choir will hear the sermon, because a belief in God carries with it implicitly a belief that some things cannot be explained, and that this is not only all right but necessary. God only knows what God only knows. The mere idea of a God short circuits rational explanation for almost everything important. Those who prefer explanations for things find "God did it" a copout, but for those who actually believe, it's the only explanation, and it's complete. Not only can't you know how or why, but you shouldn't. When addressing the great mysteries of the universe, God is a great saver of steps. Hallelujah.
 
to the op, no, it doesn't explain things any better than "it's magic" or "god did it".

Think of it like when grandpa pulls a coin out of a kid's ear and the kid asks "how did you do it?" and he says "it's magic".
Why is the kid just accepting that and not investigate the truth?
1)He doesn't care
2)He doesn't know better
3)He thinks the magical stuff is cooler

ynot said:
Don’t some theists claim that evolution is all part of God’s perfect design and that God lit the wick of the Big Bang?
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If by "some theists" you count the pope, then yes.
 
"God did it" is technically an explanation -- it's wrong, but technically it is an explanation -- but it's the most useless explanation even if it weren't wrong.

See, the reason we like explanations like quantum mechanics or relativity, is that they make predictions that allow you to do new stuff. E.g., you can take relativity, do the maths, and come up with something like GPS. Or you can use QM directly or indirectly to design a Zener diode. Heck, even stuff like why we have electricity at all, is because we have a more complex stuff of what happens when you pass a wire by a magnet, than "God did it."

Even for such stuff outside hi-tech labs like when an airplane crashes, it may sound like "God did it" is all you need to calm down those mourning relatives, but knowing it's something like a flameout, or like a long time ago, that the square windows caused it to tear apart, you can make a prediction and build your next airplanes so they don't have the same problem.

By comparison "God did it" allows no such predictions and no designs. What are even the units for divine grace, if you were to measure it? How many units of divine grace would it take for a turbo-jet to function reliably? How many for the autopilot to not crap itself? How would you design a circuit around divine grace? What components produce or amplify it, and what components are sinks of divine grace? Or really, WTH can one use that kind of divine explanation for? What does it allow you to build?

It doesn't even allow you to build a frikken cathedral, for crying out loud. God didn't prevent the Seville cathedral's dome from collapsing in an earthquake, although there were tens of thousands of people praying there. Nor did God prevent it from collapsing AGAIN later. The only reason we're confident it won't come down a third time is because people applied physics to it and figured out which pillars are overloaded and subject to extra shearing stress. The science explanation can make the predictions needed to keep the grand cathedral upright. Crediting God can't.
 
What one means when they speak of "god" is obviously relevant here, but to assume "god did it" for that which cannot currently be explained, for no logical reason, is an appeal to ignorance fallacy.
 
"God did IT" is a reasonable explanation.
"Midget Pygmy gypsies" is a reasonable explanation, also.
They are incorrect, but they are explanations.
 
rwguinn said:
"God did IT" is a reasonable explanation.
"Midget Pygmy gypsies" is a reasonable explanation, also.
They are incorrect, but they are explanations.
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How is "incorrect" also "reasonable" in this case?

A reasonable but incorrect explanation was assuming planetary orbits around the Sun were circular, and plate tectonics theory doubtful before data confirmed otherwise.

It was unreasonable for medical doctors at the time to reject Snow's very comprehensive detailed and convincing work showing the London cholera epidemic was focused on the Broad St. pump.

"God did it" is neither a rational nor reasonable explanation. That millions of people might believe it is reasonable and rational, does not make it so. :)
 
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jaydeehess said:
If "god did it" is sufficient to explain such things, would not "the devil made me do it" be sufficient to absolve one from guilt?
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"God made me do it" is used more often. That changes an evil act into a positive duty.
 
Abdul Alhazred said:
If there were a God, it would be an explanation.
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Would it? God has to operate by some mechanism. You can't conjure complex things into existence without some kind of computation or massive framework of physical capacity behind it (like some kind of fancy printing machine.)

You can't get there from here, where here is the non-existence of a particular item, without doing some kind of work. How does God do this?

I submit "God did it" is therefore not an actual answer to how something came to be. "An engineer" did it. Ya...and? How did he do it?
 
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Skeptic Ginger said:
How is "incorrect" also "reasonable" in this case?

A reasonable but incorrect explanation was assuming planetary orbits around the Sun were circular, and plate tectonics theory doubtful before data confirmed otherwise.

It was unreasonable for medical doctors at the time to reject Snow's very comprehensive detailed and convincing work showing the London cholera epidemic was focused on the Broad St. pump.

"God did it" is neither a rational nor reasonable explanation. That millions of people might believe it is reasonable and rational, does not make it so. :)
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I would contend that it is reasonable, even when dead wrong, because IF there were a god and if that god had the characteristics of the biblical god so many believe in, this is the only permissible explanation.
 
Goddidit is a take on the childrens song "How Do I Know". The Bible Tells Me So". Its supposed to be the bottom line of an argument between a pious person and a not so pious person. It aggravating when they say that because they have nothing to offer as proof just the blind faith.
 
Cainkane1 said:
Goddidit is a take on the childrens song "How Do I Know". The Bible Tells Me So". Its supposed to be the bottom line of an argument between a pious person and a not so pious person. It aggravating when they say that because they have nothing to offer as proof just the blind faith.
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Which is extactly why the only real response to someone who says "God did it" is a knowing smile.

;)
 
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