Friday, April 28, 2017

10 not-so-tough questions to atheists: My answers to J. Warner Wallace


 Bob Seidensticker posted 10 "tough" questions for atheists over at patheos.com

Here is my point-by-point answer:
No one can demand a proof that God does (or doesn’t) exist, 
 That's not biblical.  Nothing could be more obvious than the fact that story characters in the bible were given plenty of "proof" for God's existence, such as the parting of the Red Sea,
  22 The sons of Israel went through the midst of the sea on the dry land, and the waters were like a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. (Exod. 14:22 NAU)
 Elijah's bout with the prophets at Mt. Carmel:
   37 "Answer me, O LORD, answer me, that this people may know that You, O LORD, are God, and that You have turned their heart back again."
 38 Then the fire of the LORD fell and consumed the burnt offering and the wood and the stones and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. (1 Ki. 18:37-38 NAU)
  Isaiah inviting King Ahaz to demand a sign from God:

 10 Then the LORD spoke again to Ahaz, saying,
 11 "Ask a sign for yourself from the LORD your God; make it deep as Sheol or high as heaven."
 (Isa. 7:10-11 NAU)
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but where does the evidence point? Following the evidence without bias is the best we can hope to do.
Without trying to sound pretentious, being without bias is an impossible state of mind.  The best we can hope to do is suppress our biases to the point that they do not taint our evaluation of the evidence.  But at the same time, some biases are good.  Your bias against the possibility of levitation by mental power alone will serve you well when you need to decide whether to believe such a report from a stranger on a bus. 
A number of apologists defend Christianity with the thinking of a courtroom lawyer or detective.
 Which is not a good idea since the canonical gospel manuscripts we still have, come from unknown provenance, and thus fail element # 3 of the admissibility test of the "ancient documents rule"
 One of these is J. Warner Wallace. In his essay “The Christian Worldview is the Best Explanation”* he gives ten tough questions to which he claims Christianity has the better answer. Let’s take a look.
1. How Did the Universe Come Into Being?
Our universe had a beginning, but what caused it? Why is there something instead of nothing?
  Then apparently he doesn't approach Christian defense like a courtroom lawyer, since what he said justifies the hearer to respond "Objection, compound question", and "Objection, states facts not in evidence."
Wallace is blindly presuming the universe had a beginning and touts the Big Bang.  I am one of those atheists who believe the universe is infinite in size and scope, and the process of starts beginning and ending stretches back into the infinite past.  The Big Bang is easily falsifiable on its merits.  It has the Andromeda Galaxy during a full u-turn, and the BB needs the utterly ad hoc and unproven "dark matter" to keep it alive.
 2. Why Does There Appear to Be Design (Fine Tuning) in the Universe?
The constants that govern our universe appear to be remarkably fine-tuned to allow life. What explains that if not a supernatural intelligence?
 I disagree that fine-tuning exists.  It's no coincidence that we only find oxygen-based life forms living where there's oxygen.  Damp attics were not "fine-tuned" for mold, mold is just the natural result, given the physical conditions, if an attic in normal conditions remains damp for several days.
 If someone is closed minded to the evidence, I agree that that’s a problem. However, I’m happy to follow the evidence where it leads. 
 Christians are forbidden by the bible to do anything with oppositions of science "falsely so-called", beyond "avoiding" them.  1st Timothy 6:20 destroys millions of tons of Christian works in the last 2,000 years that attempted to deal with such oppositions of science.  All creationists who busy themselves "refuting evolution" are violating their own bible.
 3. How Did Life Originate?
  Since God is infinitely complex, Occam's Razor would require that any naturalistic explanation is going to be infinitely more likely true than "god-did-it".  That entails that supernatural explanations for origin of life must be demonstrated to be infinitely better than naturalistic explanations, before they can rationally obligate the hearer. 

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