Quote:
Originally Posted by ZHereford  There is no question in my mind, however, that there is some sort of intelligence running the show. Logic and reason dictate as much. |
What logic do you use to arrive at that conclusion?
To make it fair I'll state why I believe logic and reason do not necessarily require an intelligent creator of the universe.
The First Cause argument, that there must have been something that created the universe, is logically false because it assumes God (or whatever we call it) is not subject to the same requirement for existence that everything else is. There's no logic in the statement that God doesn't require a creator because He's God.
The same applies to the design argument. If the complexity of the universe requires an intelligent designer, then that designer requires something even more intelligent to have designed it. And the turtles keep on coming...
Sunnybayes: Most of the references were references to the Bible. And the way they used the scientific knowledge was exactly the same way they, and many people, use statement in the bible. By choosing to interpret what was said in a way that supports their message, completely ignoring the context and limitations of the original statement.
For example this line comes from the Hebrew Bible, "The universe was formed at God's command, so that what was seen was not made out of what was visible." They used that line to conclude that "God created the universe out of some of the dimensions of space and time which are not visible to us."
They state that particle physics and relativity say that at least ten dimensions of space exist. It's actually String Theory that makes that claim (and gaining support as M-Theory, currently incomplete), though I assume they just wanted to use recognisable terms. Their logic falls apart when they fail to realise that all those dimensions are considered part of the universe, and that
everything in the universe exists in
all those dimensions, where the extra dimensions are compacted into the four visible spacetime dimensions. Therefore, God of four spacetime dimensions is no different, no more limited as they claim, than God of ten spacetime dimensions. And if He created the universe out of invisible spacetime dimensions, then He created the universe out of
part of the universe.
Re:
Infinite Monkeys. While Shamou is right, ZHereford is also right in that it's improbable. But Shamou's point is valid, evolution does explain the complexity and variety of living things in this world. Including monkeys.