"Johnny Rea" <matziq@airmail.net> wrote:
> But, I tell you what, anybody that deals with chance on a day
> to day basis...such as gambling...can tell you that results
> are pretty predictable and nothing 'amazing' ever happens.
Such a lie. Do you know what the odds against winning the Lotto 649 are?
It is simply *amazing* when one person happens to guess that many right
numbers!
As with evolution, the reason that it is possible at all is that the world
is a big place, and even incredibly improbable events happen from time to
time.
That, and evolution selects such improbabilities (if they are beneficial)
and keeps storing them up from generation to generation...
Give me 1024 men and I can give you a man who has just won *10*
*consecutive* coin tosses. Give me slightly over a million, and I can give
you a man who just won *20* such tosses in a row... give me all the men on
earth, and I can give you a man who just won *32* coin tosses in a row...
the luckiest man on earth? No. It's just a property of nature of
gambling.
And what is evolution by natural selection if not the power to pick such
"winners" out of the huge field of living beings? Just think about this:
you are the product of the successful mating of your parents. Each of them
is the product of the successful mating of their parents. Each of them are
the successful product of the mating of their parents... and so, back for
literally MILLIONS of generations. YOU are the product of a chain of
VICTORIOUS COIN TOSSES literally MILLIONS of iterations long!
Does it make you feel lucky?
It shouldn't. Every other living creature on the planet has been
similairly lucky.
People wonder why the critters on this earth are so well adapted to staying
alive... let them think about how "luck" might not have so much to do with
that successful chain of coin tosses...
> How did all the physics of the universe come into play.
Again, I recommend you research cosmology... many very interesting
hypothesis have been advanced, and not one of them is "god", simply becuase
"god" DOES NOT SOLVE THE PROBLEM. If you want to explain the existence of
complexity, you cannot do it by positing the existence of complexity... I
think this is pretty obvious, but then... theists aren't known for their
reasoning abilities.
> Did anyone ever stop to think that He created all of these wonders so
> that you HAD to have faith? That is the whole plan of salvation.
And a silly plan it is. If I was a god, I wouldn't mess around with these
mind games. What would I stand to gain from them?
Basically, your theology is that god somehow gets his gollies by making
humans jump through hoops. Such stupidity.
What is the meaning of GOD's life?
> Nobody has faith anymore.
Thus Neitzsche's "god is dead" doctrine is born anew in the mind of a
theist...
> People say "if there is a God then show me proof!" But
> woudn't that defeat the purpose of His plan?
Proof would defeat the purpose of god's plan? Nothing like a little ad-hoc
argument right when it's needed to cover your insecurities, eh?
"I refuse to prove that I exist" says God, "for proof denies faith,
and without faith, I am nothing." "Oh," says man, "but the Babel
Fish is a dead give-away, isn't it? It proves You exist, and so
therefore You don't. Q.E.D." "Oh, I hadn't thought of that." says
God, who promptly vanishes in a puff of logic.
-- Douglas Adams, "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"
> If everyone would spend just a fraction of the time they
> spend attacking religion on learning more about God's plan,
> we would have a much better world to live in.
As you well know, atheists and free-thinkers are usually much more educated
in world-religions than any group of beleivers you could name. Not only do
they usually come from a religious background -- giving them quite an
understanding of that one in particular -- they almost always go out and
study the other major world religions as well. If god has a plan, if god
does exist, he has hidden it from the eyes which are looking the hardest.
As an interesting aside, the bible contradicts itself about whether god is
to be found by those who seek him.
Prov.8:17 says "Those that seek me early shall find me."
while Prov.1:28 says "Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer;
they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me." and Isa.1:15 says
"And when you spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you; yea,
when ye make many prayers, I will not hear." and Ps.18:41 says "They cried,
but there was none to save them; even unto the LORD, but he answered them
not."
So, as usual, not much is to be learned about god by reading the bible...
ERiC