I consider myself to be an open minded person. I can accept the fact that people are different than myself, that they have different belief systems, etc. I don't mind religious people IF they support their beliefs with a convincing argument, or IF they acknowledge the notion that science and religion occupy different realms (or magisteria as Stephen Jay Gould might say. By the way, I don't personally believe this, I tend to side with Richard Dawkins in that "the universe with a supernatural presence would be a fundamentally and qualitatively different kind of universe from one without. [...] Religions make existence claims, and this means scientific claims."). However, every once and a while I explode, typically when they don't support their argument or support it with a mixture of logical fallacies, misinformation, or just flat out sloppy thinking. Here's one of those instances of me exploding on the Off-Topic forum:
| thequietguy wrote: |
| Oh God isn't believable, but it's absolutely reasonable that something imploded upon itself, the universe was created, the sun was created, as well as everything in the Universe, including the Earth, which ended up having the perfect temperature, perfect amount of oxygen, and the perfect amount of water to sustain life. Then, in water, bacteria evolved from water or something that's not life (WTF, impossible if there's no God), then human beings, who can destroy and hate and love and communicate with language, evolved from bacteria? Also, how can only one planet out of the trillions and trillions of planets have life (or if you believe that there could be extraterrestrial life SOMEWHERE, out of millions or billions)? Are you saying a planet like Earth is one in a billion? There HAS to be a God for something as amazing as LIFE to exist. Think about it. LIFE. that didn't come naturally. Also, if the universe was just created at some point, when did time begin? Is that when everything began? The beginning of the story? The Big Bang? God has existed forever, which is the only explanation for the beginning of the universe and time. There is no natural explanation for when time began. Forever is not natural. Anyway, all this is what I believe. You can believe what you want, but remember, you're just one of the millions in this world taking the easy way. God DOES exist. You'll find out after you die. |
The following is my response:
I see a number of flaws with your argument. Where should I begin?
First off, the big bang theory actually is well supported by evidence: http://xkcd.com/54/ That's the COBE mission data by the way, which matches up almost perfectly with expected values. A huge triumph for science to say the least.
Second, science is far from perfect and it does not pretend to be omniscient. There are things even theoretical physicists can't explain. Here's one of my favorite quotes: "The fact that life evolved out of nearly nothing, some 10 billion years after the universe evolved out of literally nothing, is a fact so staggering that I would be mad to attempt words to do it justice."~Richard Dawkins
Third, ever heard of Miller and Urey? Read up.
Fourth, who's to say that we didn't just "win the lottery" so to speak, ergo we are inherently biased and can draw no conclusions about the likelihood of life. Also, the universe may operate under Darwinian principles so that certain seemingly unlikely events are actually statistically favored.
Fifth, coincidences are real people! Why should we jump to making supernatural assumptions? Remember, Occam's razor.
Finally, I don't know when time began. Ask an astronomer/theoretical physicist, they can probably tell you a guesstimate. It might be wrong, but that's the beauty of science: it acknowledges the fact that it's not always right and changes as a result!
Do you guys have any advice on how I can prevent these paroxysms? I really need to work on it before I get out of hand.
Comments
@The_PC_Gamer: I don't know. I think I've been thinking about philosophy and religion waaaaaaay too much.
Foolz3h