Proof: God makes you stupid

[Ben Kenobi]

What?

That is what Dawkins believes.

Aliens came to earth and seeded it with life.

[Lorizael]

Originally posted by Ben Kenobi
That is what Dawkins believes.

Aliens came to earth and seeded it with life.

1) Who cares what Dawkins believes; he's a raving loon.

2) I doubt he believes that. If he's a decent scientist, that's probably just one of the ideas he thinks may be reasonable given the current evidence.

3) Believing that aliens seeded Earth with life is far easier to accept than believing in God, because believing in God requires acceptance of a supernatural entity which it is logically impossible to prove the existence of.

[Richelieu]

Originally posted by Ben Kenobi
So believing that Aliens came to earth and seeded it with life is less stupid then believing in God?

Not that i believe that that's the way it happened, but to answer your question: yes.

[Garth Vader]

Originally posted by Japher
Einstein believed in God.

Or at least that he doesn't play dice.

[Japher]

Originally posted by Richelieu


Not that i believe that that's the way it happened, but to answer your question: yes.

God sent the aliens.

[Jon Miller]

Originally posted by Garth Vader


Or at least that he doesn't play dice.

If you include the type of deistic God that Einstien believed in, the majority of scientists believe in God.

I personally beleive in a personal God, but can completely understand people beleiving in a deistic God.

JM

[Ben Kenobi]

3) Believing that aliens seeded Earth with life is far easier to accept than believing in God, because believing in God requires acceptance of a supernatural entity which it is logically impossible to prove the existence of.

So because something is logically impossible to prove that means that things beyond logic cannot exist?

The problem with the Dawkins' explanation is who made the aliens?

[BeBMan]

Originally posted by Ben Kenobi


So because something is logically impossible to prove that means that things beyond logic cannot exist?

Well, we have your posts Ben

[SlowwHand]

Sometime I'm curious which is worse, that atheists have no faith, or that I don't care what happens to them.
With my luck, I'll probably go to Hell with them.

[Lorizael]

Originally posted by Ben Kenobi
So because something is logically impossible to prove that means that things beyond logic cannot exist?

Didn't say that. Just said that there is no way to prove God's existence. And because of that, there's also no way to assign any degree of probability to his existence.

Given the proper variables, we could figure out how likely it is that aliens seeded the Earth.

The problem with the Dawkins' explanation is who made the aliens?

Bigger debate. Not worth getting into.

[Ben Kenobi]

Didn't say that. Just said that there is no way to prove God's existence. And because of that, there's also no way to assign any degree of probability to his existence.

Neglects the point I was making about epistemology. Logic is not the only means by which we derive knowledge. If it is possible for things beyond logic to exist, then it is possible for God to exist even if logic cannot define him.

Given the proper variables, we could figure out how likely it is that aliens seeded the Earth.

We lack any observational evidence of aliens whatsoever. A true skeptic would understand that unless of course they were a true believer in aliens, which still doesn't answer the question as to why believing in aliens is less stupid then believing in God.

Bigger debate. Not worth getting into.

At best Dawkins explanation doesn't really explain anything, nor does it solve the problem, whereas with God, it does.

[Jon Miller]

atheist physicists (Weinberg) are so much more reasonable than atheist biologists (Dawkins)

http://www.newsweek.com/id/128877

JM

[Lorizael]

Originally posted by Ben Kenobi
Neglects the point I was making about epistemology. Logic is not the only means by which we derive knowledge. If it is possible for things beyond logic to exist, then it is possible for God to exist even if logic cannot define him.

Yes, but we're talking about how reasonable it is to believe something. If you can show me a way outside of logic that can help us determine how likely it is for a particular explanation to be true, please do so.

We lack any observational evidence of aliens whatsoever. A true skeptic would understand that unless of course they were a true believer in aliens, which still doesn't answer the question as to why believing in aliens is less stupid then believing in God.

It is perfectly reasonable to think that aliens could exist because we have already observed life existing on a planet. Attempting to define or describe any potential aliens, however, is pretty silly because, yes, we haven't observed any.

At best Dawkins explanation doesn't really explain anything, nor does it solve the problem, whereas with God, it does.

Of course it explains something; it answers the question, "How did life arise on Earth?" It doesn't answer the question, "How did life arise?" But that's okay. Scientists don't generally attempt to answer all the questions at once. They focus on what they can given the evidence at hand.

Also, the word "God" does not explain how life came about. Yes, you can have a mythological story about the origin of life based on God, but that's not an explanation. It's not a theory. It can't be proven. It's just accepting that you do not understand how life arose, because you're relying on something that cannot be proven in order to explain it.

Now, accepting that you don't understand how life came about is perfectly fine, because we don't really know yet. But I'm okay with not knowing. I don't need to jump to "God did it!" just because I don't know right now.

I trust that as time goes on, scientists will gather more evidence and come up with even more compelling theories. But that's where I stop. To trust that scientists will do any more than that would be to put faith in them - something I will not do.

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Lynn pointed out that most children do believe in God, but as their intelligence develops they tend to have doubts or reject religion. Similarly, as average IQ in Western societies increased throught the 20th century, so did rates of atheism, he said.

Wow this guy is stupid.

a) Intelligence in children as measured how?

b) All the first statement speaks to is a general and well known trend that as people go through adolescence into young adulthood they tend to become less involved in religion and matters of faith. He doesn't speak to any further trends as maturity sets in whether or not a return to faith occurrs. Are we to assume that the conflation of intelligence and experience is merely happenstance.

c) IQ increased through the 20th century??? Really??? IQ by definition is a normalized function wherein 100 is the average.

Methinks Dr. Lynn (thus showing doctorates have much less value than they did once upon a time) would be best suited writing for The Onion.

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by Japher
Einstein believed in God.

No, God was his word for the universe.