"Ten Questions Every Intelligent Atheist Should Answer"

[omfgzmariah]

[youtube:2nzlsyqu]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HN93ruChnJM[/youtube:2nzlsyqu]

I tried to type out the questions he asks, because it's slightly hard to follow.
But my rewording was for me to understand, so I guess they might be hard to follow too.


1. If there is no god, why is there anything at all? Where did the universe come from?

2. Where is the evidence that life could have begun without intelligent interference?

3. How can evolution explain features like wings?

4. How can the evolutionary model be true since the fossil records emerge from the same time?

5. If there is no objective standard of right or wrong? how can anything be wrong?

6. Which is the logically defensible answer? Simple to complex OR creationism?

7. Natural selection - what came first? The code in the dna or the organism that depends on it for life?

8. ET intelligence ?

9. What if god is real? and you had to stand before him and answer questions?

10. Would you recognize god as your creator?
"Your objections are just a smokescreen, if you say no, your real problem is that you don't want to submit or be accountable to given rules."
He also compared God to Luke Skywalker. That's some z.



I just wanted to see some different intelligent responses.

[Martin TK]

[youtube:2106sfq6]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HN93ruChnJM[/youtube:2106sfq6]

I tried to type out the questions he asks, because it's slightly hard to follow.
But my rewording was for me to understand, so I guess they might be hard to follow too.


1. If there is no god, why is there anything at all? Where did the universe come from?  God doesn't explain anything, he's more of a "god of the gaps" as far as I am concerned.  I usually refer people to read Hawking if they really want to understand the universe a bit better.  I noticed that the gentleman began his rant/video by immediately putting a stipulation on the response.  He essentially said to answer his question, but don't bring up the question of how god came into existence.  If everything has a first cause, and god is the first cause of the universe, god must himself have had to have a first cause.

2. Where is the evidence that life could have begun without intelligent interference?All around us?  The better question is where is the evidence that life began because of intelligent interference?

3. How can evolution explain features like wings?The same way it explains features like eyes, ears, and tails.  I think this question is common among people because the idea of expansive amounts of time is a very hard concept to grasp.  Billions of years of evolution, changing minutely over eons of time, can created nearly anything.  Again, the "god of the gaps" understanding of that which needs an answer comes to mind.

4. How can the evolutionary model be true since the fossil records emerge from the same time?I'm sorry, I'm not following this... probably just my inability to comprehend.

5. If there is no objective standard of right or wrong? how can anything be wrong? There are plenty of models for the standard of right and wrong, MOST of them are NOT religious.  The determination of wrong is made by how something affects the individual, the family/clan, and ultimately the society lived in.

6. Which is the logically defensible answer? Simple to complex OR creationism? See Occam's Razor.

7. Natural selection - what came first? The code in the dna or the organism that depends on it for life?This is the Chicken or the Egg argument.  I believe that DNA is itself a product of evolution, the origin for DNA was RNA and evolved as organisms became more and more complex.

8. ET intelligence ?There is statistically a very good chance that life exists outside our solar system, perhaps even inside, but the distance makes it virtually impossible at this time to communicate.  We are more likely to find microbial life, sooner.

9. What if god is real? and you had to stand before him and answer questions? IF, and that's a big IF god is real, he certainly has a better understanding of how man's mind works, he would have created it afterall, and he surely understands our need to find evidences of the existance of a supreme being.  IF he is both omniscient and omnipotent, he would know I didn't believe in him, so trying to fool him would be impossible.  Either way, I have no real defense other than my search for him turned up nothing, so if he was trying to hide from me, he did a GREAT job.

10. Would you recognize god as your creator?I would recognize god as my creator, when and if, he provides some empirical evidences of his existence.  Even IF he created me, that doesn't make it necessary that I worship him, as his actions do not warrant such obedience.  He does not respond to prayer, he does NOTHING to directly affect the lives of his "creations" and he remains a hidden and narcisistic deity, not worthy of my worship.
"Your objections are just a smokescreen, if you say no, your real problem is that you don't want to submit or be accountable to given rules."
He also compared God to Luke Skywalker. That's some

[Asmodean]

Oh, why not... I'm cold and bored and snappish, so here we go:


1. If there is no god, why is there anything at all? Where did the universe come from?
We have no effing idea where the Universe came from regardless of belief (If you believe god created it, the question of WHERE still applies. Was it god's pocket? His beard..? Somewhere else?)
"Anything at all" is there because there was a bang and a cloud of gas and the whole university level physics book. Why that happened, we do not know.

2. Where is the evidence that life could have begun without intelligent interference?
The evidence for that is very complex and not quite complete. It would take a long time to touch all points, but here are some: Life forms adapt and change without apparent interference of intelligent beings. Single celled organisms manage to survive and multiply without apparent intelligent interference, as do viruses.  Viruses are somewhere inbetween being living organisms and not. They can replicate, however, they do not meet some other common criteria of "living". Chemistry shows that under certain conditions, certain elements react in certain ways. Combined with physics and cybernetics/material engineering, some materials respond to stimuli like electricity in certain ways. Life, broken down to its most basic building blocks, is little more than a number of chemical reactions in a (variably) complex soup of organic substances (willingly simplifying. Don't kling to the word soup). This in itself does not offer conclusive evidence that there is no intelligent first-life creator, however, the evidence for life happening without apparent intelligent interference is far greater than the evidence to support intelligent interference (Anything at all is greater than zero, after all)

3. How can evolution explain features like wings?
Evolved from features like fins.

4. How can the evolutionary model be true since the fossil records emerge from the same time?
Evolution is corroborated by not only bones and old dust, but among others DNA, geography and the like. Evolution is one of the best supported scientific facts and theories among those that are constantly challenged (And usually so poorly that I start to doubt the existence of intelligent life on this planet...)

5. If there is no objective standard of right or wrong? how can anything be wrong?
A lack of an objective standard does not equate to the lack of subjective ones.

6. Which is the logically defensible answer? Simple to complex OR creationism?
Creation myth is not an argument. It is a myth. Logically, it is very poorly defensible since it actually contradicts logic when you start involving complex intelligent beings in it.

7. Natural selection - what came first? The code in the dna or the organism that depends on it for life?
DNA molecules came before DNA-directed life forms. We know they can survive for reasonable amounts of time in protein capsules or in the right conditions.

8. ET intelligence ?
Probably.

9. What if god is real? and you had to stand before him and answer questions?
Why would I want to answer some asshole god's questions even if it WAS real, created the world and ultimately me..? I never asked to be created, thus, being so is a gift and thus, that gift is mine to do with what I will. (It's not really a good, complete response, but it was a thoroughly stupid question)

10. Would you recognize god as your creator?
If it could prove that it was, I would. That wouldn't anywhere near mean that I'd accept god as my lord and master.

[Thumpalumpacus]

Adam Lee, over at Daylight Atheism, has this riposte.

[notself]

1. If there is no god, why is there anything at all? Where did the universe come from?

It appears that the universe came from nothing.

"Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing. Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist," Hawking writes.

"It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going." --- Stephen Hawking

If I met the god of the bible, I would kick his butt for being such a jerk.  If I met Gitche Manito, the great spirit of the Native Americans, well, I would be pleased to know him.

[Squid]

I'm going to sit down and write my answer to these questions, however, I'm afraid they won't be short. I may be done by tomorrow...maybe.  Maybe we should find this guy's e-mail and send him the answers.

[Asmodean]

I'm going to sit down and write my answer to these questions, however, I'm afraid they won't be short. I may be done by tomorrow...maybe.  Maybe we should find this guy's e-mail and send him the answers.

Yeah... I was going to, but the tomorrow-factor combined with the maybe-factor scared me away.

Glad you're going for it though - will be an interesting read.  :hmm:

[philosoraptor]

I'd like to answer these, but graduate work must come first.  

[i_am_i]

1. If there is no god, why is there anything at all? Where did the universe come from?

That doesn't matter. What matters is that we're here and we need to be doing our best to help each other through all this, whatever it is.

2. Where is the evidence that life could have begun without intelligent interference?

To the best of my knowledge there isn't any, but that doesn't matter. What matters is that we're here and we need to be doing our best to help each other through all this, whatever it is.

3. How can evolution explain features like wings?

I don't know enough about evolution to answer that. Have you tried ?

4. How can the evolutionary model be true since the fossil records emerge from the same time?

See my answer to question 3.

5. If there is no objective standard of right or wrong? how can anything be wrong?

Not using a capital H in "how" in the above sentence is wrong.

6. Which is the logically defensible answer? Simple to complex OR creationism?

That doesn't matter. What matters is that we're here and we need to be doing our best to help each other through all this, whatever it is.

7. Natural selection - what came first? The code in the dna or the organism that depends on it for life?

See my answer to question 3.

8. ET intelligence ?

Is that a question?

9. What if god is real? and you had to stand before him and answer questions?

I'd tell god that what matters to me is that we're here and we need to be doing our best to help each other through all this, whatever it is. Then I'd probably ask god what all this is.

10. Would you recognize god as your creator?

That would depend on which god you're talking about. There have, after all, been thousands of them!

[Sophus]

1. If there is no god, why is there anything at all? Where did the universe come from?
Wouldn't the existence of a God be mysterious in and of itself? Why does he exist instead of nothing at all? Where did he come from?
I don't know where this universe came from although I have my guesses (see Stephen Hawking and Lawrence Krauss) which are based on reason and science. That's better than making answers up and calling it God.

2. Where is the evidence that life could have begun without intelligent interference?
Where is the evidence life began with intelligent interference? There is none.

3. How can evolution explain features like wings?
Squid's response will be better but basically, 10% of a wing is better than no wing at all. Likely, before evolving into wings the creatures arms resembled something closer to a wing than a regular old arm.

4. How can the evolutionary model be true since the fossil records emerge from the same time?
They don't.

5. If there is no objective standard of right or wrong? how can anything be wrong?
It can't. Not absolutely. It means the universe doesn't care about human moral affairs and humans are left to decide it for themselves.

6. Which is the logically defensible answer? Simple to complex OR creationism?
Simple to complex. Evolution is a fact and I'm not going to spend a bunch of time trying to prove when others have already done so.

7. Natural selection - what came first? The code in the dna or the organism that depends on it for life?
Don't know. That's abiogenesis. Not evolution.

8. ET intelligence ?
Most likely.

9. What if god is real? and you had to stand before him and answer questions?
What if the Flying Spaghetti Monster is real? What if Zeus is real? Daydreaming is fun.

10. Would you recognize god as your creator?
If he were real,yes. Doesn't mean I would worship him if it's the ghastly Yahweh.

[Asmodean]

ghastly Yahweh.

I'm SO calling my next band that!  

[Squid]

EDIT: BTW, was it not 80..? The Book of House..? Your sig..?  

It's been a while so I checked it against IMDB and it says "90".  I guess I could always go back and watch the pilot episode and find out for sure.

Also: I find it funny that the dude in the video implies that we haven't thought about these questions before.

[Asmodean]

It's been a while so I checked it against IMDB and it says "90".  I guess I could always go back and watch the pilot episode and find out for sure.

Oh, it can easily be ninety. I just seem to remember it being eighty... Happened before. Claim no surety here  

[karadan]

I'm going to sit down and write my answer to these questions, however, I'm afraid they won't be short. I may be done by tomorrow...maybe.  Maybe we should find this guy's e-mail and send him the answers.

 

[Parsifal]

Who is this guy?

Ever since I fled the clutches of religion, I'm so happy not to have to put up with people like this in real life.  I almost can't believe I spent 10 minutes watching his arrogant questions, in which he makes it clear that he will only accept the answers he wants to hear.

The part about comparing believing Luke Skywalker to God is classic.  But what about a guy like me that doesn't even take Star Wars seriously?