Coincidence to the Atheist?

[Cantuar]

How does "I KNOW God did it" count as being more logical than trying to understand the way things work? There's no proof of intelligent design to anyone who hasn't presupposed an intelligent designer, so you're using a circular argument. And if you're sure there's proof, then what's the point of faith?

 

[chickenman]

god could have designed trees a lot better, we have to chop them down, why didn't he design them with a button that, when pressed, conveniently turns the tree into useful sized lumber

 

[RufusAtticus]

Originally posted by GraftMeIn
There are many types of trees, each one serving it's own purpose. therefore it seems as if each one was specifially designed for a reason.

What about all the trees that don't have a purpose? Like the ones that can't be harvested for fuel, lumber, or food. Or the ones that don't even look pretty?

Do only certain trees show intellegent design?

Are there any reasons that evolution couldn't account for all these uses and nonuses?

 

[Lanakila]

You guys making these statements are forgetting the fall and curse. Adam was cursed to have to work by the sweat of his brow (cut the tree down, duh).

 

[Joe V.]

You guys making these statements are forgetting the fall and curse. Adam was cursed to have to work by the sweat of his brow (cut the tree down, duh).

Cutting up trees by hand is a terrific way to get a good work out, especially since Adam probably didn't have a gym to go to. Why would this be considered a curse? And now I'm curious, what did Adam use to cut down trees?

- Joe

 

[Jerry Smith]

Lanakila, I hope you will read and consider in depth the thread that was started by chickenman: "unintelligent design". Creation + Fall just doesn't account for the evidence the way Descent + Modification + Natural Selection does.

 

[Lanakila]

I read the thread Jerry, I was just adding to, where it has gone. My comments were in addition to and not on the original topic of the thread. Which commonly happens on these boards. (hijacking) Sorry, if I was responsible for hijacking the thread, but I was just commenting on the tree statements.

 

[Jerry Smith]

I didn't detect any "hi-jacking". I just thought that would be some good background for perspective. Thanks.

 

[bonobo]

So some people think the main purpose of a tree is to get chopped down and be used by humans for building something or be burned? I guess if you could ask a tree it would probably disagree...

 

[Cantuar]

Yes, but that depends whether other living things were created with a view to humans being the ultimate purpose of creation or not. In the former case, the tree's opinion would be pretty irrelevant.

 

[Brimshack]

I am reminded of an old comment (I believe it was from Voltaire) about how one's nose is perfectly designed to fit spectacles.

 

[Stormy]

I am reminded of an old comment (I believe it was from Voltaire) about how one's nose is perfectly designed to fit spectacles.

Brim: Think man! You forgot about the ears that help to keep the glasses in place. For if they had been placed a little lower or higher the glasses would be on the floor. Proof that all our parts are constructed by design and in harmony!

Thank you Brim! You always make me laugh.

 

[Brimshack]

Your welcome Stormy. There is of course an argument in that quote, but maybe the laugh is more important anyway.

Take care.

 

[alexgb00]

Originally posted by Morat
  Um, Stormy...burning wood, burning coal and oil, and using electricity (electricity isn't fuel..it's a form of energy. Fuel can make electricity) isn't anything more than chemistry.

   So, um...chemistry exists, therefore God? Organics combust, and electrons flow, therefore God?

   I'm not seeing the connection here.

Man, what she means is wood, everything was made by God in a way that it fits in this world. Had the atmosphere been mostly oxygen gas, everything would've burned up a long time ago. There's the right amount of each gas in the atmosphere.

Water is most dense at a temperature around 3 degrees Celsius. This isn't common to substances. Had it been densest below freezing temperature, ice would sink. That would kill the fish and other things underwater. And water is the most abundant of liquids on earth.

These two things alone point to a wise and magnificent creator. Anyone who ignores this is willingly ignorant. Not that anybody here is.

 

 

[Jerry Smith]

These two things alone point to a wise and magnificent creator. Anyone who ignores this is willingly ignorant. Not that anybody here is.

Ignorant? Yes - I confess. Wilfully so? No.

If everything had burned up long ago, or if ice sunk instead of floated and killed all the fish then neither of us would be here discussing this. On the other hand, there might be two intelligent Ghzritz here discussing how lucky they are that the oxygen fire burned off all those nasty, poisonous organic chemicals and that ice doesn't float on water so that the Mgrhiz'f that live on the lake beds have a nice crystalline substrate to stick to without de-pressurizing...

The point is that it is not a big suprise to find ourselves in a universe that is compatible or conducive to our kind of life. Without knowing how many options there are - both for kinds of universes and for kinds of life - it is merely an argument from ignorance to pretend that the fact that we can exist by itself proves any particular philosophical or theological theory (apart from the one that says we exist...)

 

[alexgb00]

OK. I don't know what to say.

By the way, what is an okry?

 

[Jerry Smith]

By the way, what is an okry?

An okry is a kind of vittles that has little spines on 'em that hurt your fingers when you pick 'em. Only yankees eat them boiled. Boiled, they are goopy and squishy. Fried in corn meal with some green t'maters, they will make you wanna slap your momma.

 

[Joe V.]

Jerry, that has to be one of the most unappetizing-sounding of dishes that I have ever heard. Right next to caviar.

- Joe

 

[Jerry Smith]

Yankee

 

[sampo]

Fried okry and fried squash! Throw in a cold meatloaf sandwich, some sweet tea and some corn bread and I am there!

By the way, I have enjoyed your posts jerry.