IDoNotGetIt

13. How could the complexity of human life possibly evolve on its own accord out of mindless cells?

As you would expect, the evolution of single celled organism to the more complex multi-cellular organism was an incredibly complex and time consuming process.  Although evolution isn’t as difficult to comprehend as its detractors would like to believe, it is much more involved than anything I want to explain in a blog post.

The TalkOrgins Archive is the best source for answers to questions about evolution.

Additionally, this “argument” is another nasty fallacy.  It is known as the Appeal to Ignorance.  Essentially, she is saying “I don’t know how it could have happened so god did it.”

12. Improbability is not the same as impossibility. You only have to look at life itself for that backup of proof.

Absolutely true.  If I didn’t know better, I’d say that this was an argument against god rather than an argument for god.

I guess all I’ve got to say with regard to this point is that we don’t require absolute proof of something to believe it.  That is a straw man that theist like to build so they can tear it down.  The reason I’ve rejected every single lame reason anyone has ever given for belief in god isn’t because they can’t prove it with some kind of mathematical proof that can’t be denied.  It’s because no one has ever given a good reason that a god must exist.  There is nothing about this universe that can’t be explained without this ridiculous god hypothesis.  God isn’t just improbable, it isn’t even necessary.  God also isn’t impossible.  However, neither are the monsters under our beds, and I don’t believe in them either.

11. What created God? What came first, the chicken or the egg? I am not going to deny the existence of the chicken or the egg, merely because I don’t understand or know what came first. I don’t care – they both exist!

I repeat, there is no way anyone could possibly take this person seriously.  Here, she is attempting to explain why she doesn’t like the response to a common theist argument.  The argument from the theist is that the universe was created and therefore there must have been a creator, a la god.  This argument creates an infinite regression situation because then you are left with the question of who created god.  The theist will say that “god is eternal”.  However, if you have no problem accepting that god can be eternal why is it so hard to accept that the universe could be eternal?  We know the universe exist, we know it is made of stuff that, as far as we can tell, can’t be created or destroyed.  It seems like it would make much more since to stop there rather than invent, without evidence, another complicated hypothesis about an invisible transcendental intelligent being to create the universe.

10. Why do many atheists shake their fists & spend so much time ranting & raving about something they don’t believe in? If they are no more than a fizzled out battery at the end of the day, then why don’t they spend their lives partying, or getting a hobby?! Why don’t they leave this ‘God nonsense’ alone?

In spite of the obvious hyperbole, this is, actually, a really good question.  And, I think it is important to put it in context.  Why do we feel compelled to speak out against the rampant idiocy constantly oozing out of the mouths of theists (see, I can do hyperbole also)?

Ok, so let’s say my next door neighbor goes outside everyday and dances in his front yard making strange chants and then stops and walks back on to his porch.  Just as he steps on his front porch, water comes out of the ground and starts watering his grass.  I talk to him about his antics and he explains that he must do this “water dance” to get his lawn watered.  I explain to him that he is incorrect, that he has an automatic sprinkler system and that it will engage whether or not he does his water dance.  I might even be willing to spend a decent amount of time to try to convince my neighbor that his dancing is pointless.  However, if after thoroughly explaining the situation to him, he refuses to accept my reasoning, I would happily give up and go about my business.  It is very unlikely that his antics would ever get any more of a reaction from me other than, perhaps, a chuckle.  However, let’s say that he is also the president of the local home owners association and attempts to create a rule that would make his water dance mandatory for everyone in the neighborhood.  Now, at this point, I’m going to have to start getting more active.  I am ok with him doing whatever crazy nonsense he wants to do but when he tries to impose his crazy nonsense on me, it’s not funny anymore.

This is what is happening with religion.  I don’t care if you go to church every Sunday and pray to a nonexistent magical being.  I don’t care if you want to tell stories that are obviously fiction and pretend that they are true and teach crazy theories that have no evidence backing them up.  None of that matters to me.  However, when you try to instigate legislation and push your craziness into the reality based educational system that we prefer, you have gone too far.  Our government was deliberately created as a secular system of government.  It was created that way specifically because this neutrality is necessary to protect the rights of everyone to be as free as possible to believe whatever they want.  The religious kooks, almost entirely Christian in the United States, are attempting to erase this neutrality.  That isn’t right, and I’m not going to stand by and watch it happen without speaking out against it.

Just because this imaginary god is harmless, doesn’t mean the people who believe it are harmless.

9. How much of the atheist’s faith relies on anger with God as opposed to genuine disbelief in God?

Wow, this one is too easy.  I’ve already explained yesterday that atheism doesn’t require faith so I need only address the last part.  Let me be clear and unambiguous about this…

Atheists, genuinely, do not believe in god. Period… see it?  It’s that little dot right at the end of that sentence.

So lets review.  No faith and no belief in god.  Have I cleared that up now?

8. Atheism is a faith in that which has not been proved. The disbelievers have not witnessed anything to not believe in, whereas the believers believe because they have witnessed. There is no ‘good news’ to preach in atheism.

I like this one.  I once misused the word faith this way also.  Faith is the belief in something without reason.  It does not mean belief in something without absolute proof.  No one, even theists, believes in everything that they can’t disprove.  It is often impossible to disprove outrageous claims.  I can make any kind of ridiculous claim and ask you if you believe it.  You don’t need faith in anything to say “no, I don’t believe you.”

That is what atheism is.  People have said “blah blah god did it”, and we have said, prove it or I don’t believe you.  There is no faith, disbelief is the default position and it is the most rational position to hold until sufficient reason is given to believe.

“There is no ‘good news’ to preach in atheism.”  I’m not sure what her point is with that last sentence.  Just more noise I guess.

7. Evolution has never been proved, which is why we call it the ‘theory of evolution’. It’s a fairy tale for grown ups!

The irony in this “proof” is really off the charts. Think about it, this person believes, as true, stories about talking snakes, giant boats that can carry two of every animal on the planet, virgin births, etc. and has the audacity to call the theory of evolution a fairy tale!  How could anyone take this person seriously?

I sure don’t take her seriously.  This particular proof doesn’t just show the authors ignorance of evolution itself, more importantly it shows her ignorance of science in general.  The word theory is used two different ways.  Most people use it to express an idea that they have but that they can’t or haven’t bothered to prove.  In science, that would be closer to a hypothesis and that is not what the theory of evolution is.  Here is the definition of a theory according to the National Academy of Sciences:

“A well-substantiated explanation of some aspect of the natural world that can incorporate facts, laws, inferences, and tested hypotheses.”

Evolution is a fact, it happens; we’ve observed it directly in labs as well as nature.  When you say “it hasn’t been proved” or “it’s just a theory”, you only end up making yourself look stupid to anyone who has a clue.

6. Science can only be the detector of certain things. You cannot scientifically detect emotion, memory, thoughts etc., though scientifically we must.. These things which do not consist of matter are beyond the detection of science.

Wow, wrong much?  “You cannot scientifically detect emotion…” I think neurologist would be interested in knowing this.  They do it all the time.  We have mapped out the parts of the brain that specialize in all of these things.  Emotion, memory and thoughts are processes of the brain.  We can detect the brain and we know that these things don’t exist without a brain.

Even if this were true, how the hell would it PROVE GOD?!  Since when is “you can’t detect X therefore god exist” a valid argument?

P.S. I cheated a little with this post, it is actually 37 minutes late.  I’ll try not to let it happen again. ;-D

5. Mindless nothing cannot be responsible for complex something.

This is pretty much the same as proof number 1.  It’s another common tactic of intelligent design nuts to repackage their arguments to try to slip them by people not paying attention.

But even more importantly, it isn’t true.  Many complex things are created entirely without intelligence.  Snowflakes are a good example.