Sand wrote:
Why not leave it as an unknown until we have better information?
QFT
Awesomelyglorious did a great job of covering this, but I feel I must give it a shot as well.
1. God uniquely accounts for the physical universe's beginning.
God does not uniquely account for the start of the universe. I've heard some ideas about causality being different at the infinitesimal level. Perhaps the universe started itself, because the laws of causality function differently on different levels. Or, just to bring up this point that's been bothering me, the Flying Spaghetti Monster created the universe. Look, another account of creation, that can fit just as well as God. I think Chuck Norris fits even better. As has been said, this is a God in the Gaps idea. We don't know for sure how the universe started, therefore it was God. I refuse to label my ignorance 'God.' That would make me a bad scientist, and a bad theist.
2. God uniquely accounts for the order, complexity, and design evident in the universe.
A) Design evident in the universe? You're kidding, right? I don't understand why people see it as the universe being perfectly made for us. We are perfectly made for the universe. If the laws of the universe were different, we'd be sitting here as totally different species, adapted to that environment. Or we wouldn't be here at all, life just may not have evolved here.
B) The universe does have amazing order, that is actually evident. But order does not imply design. We just live in an ordered universe. If I want to know why the laws of physics work, I'd go learn some theoretical physics. As it is, I don't care so much about why the world is ordered, I care more about how the world is ordered, and learning the laws of the universe to understand it better.
C) Complexity is ironically very simple. Evolution accounts for biodiversity and complexity marvelously. That, and it's been proven, which makes it a little more credible than God. Life became complex because it was advantageous. It worked, so it survived, and reproduced. Another mutation came along, it was adaptive, and that gene thrived in the pool. Evolution is a fascinating subject, and a small blurb on a forum will never do it justice.
So no design. Evolution.
3. God uniquely accounts for the reality of objective ethical values.
No really, you must be joking this time. This must be sarcasm, right? Objective morals? Morals vary hugely from time periods and cultures. Getting people to agree on morals is nigh impossible. Common morals, like not killing people in the streets, are likely found because anyone without a predisposition to not kill people in the streets (we are a social species, we depend on each other) would not survive to reproduce. Although, sometimes we do find these people. They are psychopaths. This argument is nonsense. Unless you can find me a moral held by all humans, this argument has no legs.
4. God uniquely accounts for the enigma of man.
Enigma of man? Really? Unless it can be shown that good and evil exist, this argument is at the very least borderline nonsensical. How can humans create such beauty and wonder, yet reap such vast devastation? Causality. If you just look at the causality, you'll find the answer. That sort of question can be answered by psychology. Lucifer effect anyone?
5. God uniquely accounts for the claims, character, and credentials of Jesus Christ.
No. Just no. The claims, character, and credentials of Jesus Christ aren't verified, so we need not account for them. But, even if we take the stories for true, God is not the only answer, or even the best answer. Primitive peoples didn't understand how the world works, and shrouded events in mysticism and mystery unnecessarily. The stories are figurative. The authors were delusional. It's a work of fiction. See, there's plenty of answers that could be.
However, one thing I noticed about this that
uniquely annoyed me was the video's insistence that God uniquely answers these questions. They did this without even exploring the atheist side. Leaving alone for a moment the fact that the video sets up a false dichotomy between atheists and Christians (there's many more than two ideas, and there's no such thing as 'atheist doctrine,' so getting every atheist to agree on something is harder than getting every Asian to agree on something, because they don't really have much in common, just disbelief/lack of belief in deities) they don't even explore the other side! "Here's the Christian side, it makes sense, moving on." Is that really reasonable? To make a conclusion on who's right without even looking at the opposing arguments? I think not.