Wednesday, February 06, 2008

God of the gaps


I don’t normally make a habit of commenting on fundie blogs, but beaj (The Atheist Jew) lured me over to Apparently So. Here is Craig H’s "Seven Arguments for Intelligent Design". Craig and his fundie friends provide an excellent example of how to use the God of the gaps. When they don’t know something, or can’t explain something, they simply say “God did it”.

God of the gaps means:
* There is a gap in scientific knowledge.
* The gap is filled with acts of a god (and therefore also proves, or helps to prove, the existence of said god).

I will leave this here for you to pick over.

Craig writes:

1. The Big Bang has been proven by astronomers. The five proofs spell the word SURGE: S – The Second Law of Thermodynamics proves energy had to have a beginning because there is not an infinite supply. U – The universe is expanding. If so, it had to begin somewhere (and at some point in time). R – Radiation from the Big Bang itself can be observed. This was discovered in 1965. G – Great galaxy seeds. Think of ripples on a pond, radiating out from a stone’s splash. Scientists can measure this in our universe. E – Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity. Einstein proved that time, space and matter are co-relative. In other words, you can’t have one without the others. From this, the mathematical equation shows a beginning point. The Big Bang proves God exists because the universe had to have a cause. God is that cause. God, on the other hand, is uncaused. (He is outside the time, matter and space of the universe.) That is difficult to grasp, but it means God is eternal. Our choices are either an uncaused universe (which is impossible), or an uncaused creator outside of it. (Which is difficult to understand, but not an impossibility.) God spoke the cosmos into existence and we call that the Big Bang.

2. There are fossils that demonstrate transitional features, but there is not one undisputed fossil in the record that proves macro-evolution. There should be thousands if Darwinian Evolution is true and Darwin himself said so.

3. A mouse trap will not work if you take any of its parts away. Cells function the same way. Someone took a mouse trap and modified it to work without one of its parts to prove this wrong, but it only worked because of intelligent intervention, which is exactly what I believe in the first place. The point here is that lesser parts could not have joined together to form cells. Therefore, cells were designed.

4. Darwin knew nothing of the DNA code when he wrote his theory. We now know that every one of the trillion cells in our bodies has a DNA strand containing a code more complex than an encyclopedia. Never has a complex computer code ever written itself. Only intelligence can write complex code. To me, this is an open and shut case for an intelligent designer.

5. Darwinian Evolutionists basically believe lightning struck the mud and made life. Scientist tried to duplicate this empirically in a lab, but they had to manipulate the atmosphere to the point that life could have never begun to get any results. You don’t hear much about this anymore. Now, some actually say aliens must have brought life here, because they simply have no natural explanation for how life began.

6. Life is so incredibly diverse and complex, the only logical explanation is a remarkable creator. The fine-tuning of the cosmos, the symbiotic relationship of all living things – it boggles the mind to think it is all a freak of nature, or even that natural selection caused it all.

7. Only humans can write songs, books, blogs, stories, and fairy tales. Some monkeys and elephants can express themselves in art, but it pales next to my ability to write this column. Only humans can express their questions about the meaning of life. Only humans can invent complex machinery and technology. Our self-awareness cannot be explained by natural selection or any other natural cause. Clearly, we were created and designed to seek our maker.

So, which designer? Because of the evidences for the resurrection of Jesus, the God of the Bible is the clear choice. We can have a faith that is supported by the evidence, not only of the scripture, but also the world around us.

As maggie, a seemingly more educated and open-minded Christian at Craig’s site wrote:

“I will say that I think intelligent design is philosophy masquerading as science”

ID is a belief, a theological philosophy not a science. The lack of scientific knowledge about an unexplained phenomenon does not mean that it is an act of God, but rather that scientific research has not yet found an answer.

And for your amusement, here is episode #7 of The Atheist Experience - Tina on Evolution

12 comments:

Spirula said...

Stardust
I posted a respones to some of his tripe over at GifS.

Anyway, have you seen these? They are very good, and it doesn't hurt that the narrator sounds like Alan Rickman.

Stardust said...

Thanks for those links spirula...no I hadn't seen those before. I plan to watch them this evening.

I saw your responses at GifS...if he does come back to comment he will ignore your argument and throw out some insults and say that he doesn't have to prove any brainwashed propaganda he spews forth.

Spirula said...

Yeah,

I'm not holding my breath, or expecting any reasoned response if he does come back. Those kind of arrogant assertions are a giveaway.

Still, everone is doing a dandy job of tearing him a new one. (And considering the amount of shit he's dropping, he should feel some relief.)

Andrea said...

I saw his comment there at gifs...I kinda feel embarrassed for him, despite it all, as he doesn't come across as terribly bright.

I wonder how he would squirm his way out of explaining birth defects, the rate of miscarriage, junk dna, vestial organs, etc. The cognitive dissonance has to be gnawing away at his brain.

And like someone there mentioned, why attribute all existence to *your* deity? Why not Shiva, Thor, Allah, or Ra?

jhbowden said...

Christian radicals are working for more than just filling in unknowns with God. Specifically, they want a literal interpretation of Genesis taught as an alternative point of view.

What they don't realize is that science has a method. In other words, science intrinsically is **closed-minded**-- the goal is to weed out false propositions and replace them with true propositions by applying reasoning, finding evidence though observation, discovering regularities, and so forth. While knowing all points of view is essential in a liberal education regarding the humanities, the same is not applicable for the sciences, engineering, medicine, law, and so forth.

Being the good reactionary that I am, I would even argue against diversity in the humanities! When some Pacific island produces a Dante or a Goethe, then we can argue they aren't being represented.

Diversity is not the same thing as excellence. It is clever Christian radicals are using it to advance their agenda, but that shouldn't change a damn thing among level-headed citizens.

Stardust said...

maggie wrote: “I will say that I think intelligent design is philosophy masquerading as science”"

Captain Howdy made a correction to this statement that I agree with more, "No, I don't think so. What Intelligent Design is, IMHO, is religious apologetics masquerading as science"

Stardust said...

JHB wrote:Christian radicals are working for more than just filling in unknowns with God. Specifically, they want a literal interpretation of Genesis taught as an alternative point of view.

And what is a bit disturbing is that academia is starting to make accommodations and exceptions for religious views when it comes to science questions. I score academic achievement tests for science and math in grades 5, 8 and high school. Whenever I run across a response that says "god did it" or "your science will not help you", do we mark it a big fat ZERO like we do other wrong answers? Nope...we must pass it on to a supervisor who gives the paper "special consideration". This is going on in many school districts in many states across the nation.

If the Departments of Education keep making allowances for religious belief, what is going to happen to the field of Science in this country?

Anonymous said...

OMG OMG!!
How DUMB can these creationists get?
I read just one paragraph of Craig's response and started laughing and had to stop reading his ludicrous ideas!

And that video - OMG - that wasn't staged? You mean there is a kid out there that dumb?

Its time we elect an atheist before the religious freaks destroy the world!

Stardust said...

HI greg, you missed the troll I had to delete on my latest post. One thing I really hate is when I write posts like this one and they fail to read it, but go to the latest post to tell me god luvs me and start preaching their mythology book at me. And then tell me they are going to pray for me on a post where I am bitching about people who say they will pray for me! The troll wasted his/her time on that lengthy piece of garbage comment.

Stardust said...

And that video - OMG - that wasn't staged?

Nope..that was a real radio interview. You should go watch all the other Atheist Experience videos at YouTube...it will show you why we need to keep our doors locked.

Truthspew said...

The level of cognitive disonance in that screed is stunning.

A lot of circular reasoning of course. I just love when idiots try to sound intelligent.

Brings to mind one of my favorite sayings.

People who think they know it all are very annoying to those that do.

Stardust said...

Truthspew, I love that saying! Thanks for stopping by to comment.