• Starting today August 7th, 2024, in order to post in the Married Couples, Courting Couples, or Singles forums, you will not be allowed to post if you have your Marital status designated as private. Announcements will be made in the respective forums as well but please note that if yours is currently listed as Private, you will need to submit a ticket in the Support Area to have yours changed.

The Teleological Argument (p4)

Status
Not open for further replies.

quatona

"God"? What do you mean??
May 15, 2005
37,512
4,301
✟182,792.00
Faith
Seeker
P3 and p4 are built as a result of considering of the options given in p2. Therefore, they may or may not be the same if different attributes are selected in p1.
So for the "the nature of the universe" there are more or different options than "due to chance, natural necessity or design" while for the "fine-tuning of the universe"?
That´s interesting. Which options would that be, for example?
 
Upvote 0

Arythmael

Member
Jul 3, 2006
223
27
60
✟23,011.00
Faith
Baptist

Okay. Although I am tempted to argue the way you are slicing and dicing some of the semantics here, I think it is more beneficial to move on with your own last summary.

Given your own restatement of the physical necessity option, is this suggesting that it is "impossible" because it breaks the known laws of physics, or because it is somehow logically or mathematically impossible?
 
Upvote 0

Arythmael

Member
Jul 3, 2006
223
27
60
✟23,011.00
Faith
Baptist

quatona, in some cases I am just sharing ideas (like the "trust me" thing). This type of speech is meant to be less formal, and most people realize that.

On the other hand, when someone presents a more formal argument, it is perfectly okay to make ones claim first, and then wait for any opponents to challenge that by requiring examples or specific evidence. That's how debate usually roles.
 
Upvote 0

Arythmael

Member
Jul 3, 2006
223
27
60
✟23,011.00
Faith
Baptist
How can a gallon be proved within a quart?

I think this brings up an important point about what we think constitutes proof, and exactly how limited the role of proof is in this "quart" context of ours.

When people discuss things like this, they need to understand that in some contexts, we have to settle for believing whatever is the most reasonable thing, and give up making deductive proofs based on rules we can only imagine might be true.

For example, in my view, an inductive approach is most reasonable here because we have (in my opinion) evidence of design patterns in the universe, as well as the basic repeated evidence of more intelligent entities creating generally more complex designs from the elements in their surroundings. Such repeated observations and occurrences constitute a kind of proof by induction that the universe, being perhaps the most complex and intricately designed system (not even including the life-based systems that it encompasses), was in fact designed by the most intelligent entity imaginable.
 
Upvote 0

quatona

"God"? What do you mean??
May 15, 2005
37,512
4,301
✟182,792.00
Faith
Seeker
quatona, in some cases I am just sharing ideas (like the "trust me" thing). This type of speech is meant to be less formal, and most people realize that.
That´s kind of a relief to me. I was fearing that your judgement of the intentions of your conversation partners was meant to have some nutritional value.
Glad to learn I can simply file it under "off-topic irrelevant rant" now.
 
Upvote 0

Arythmael

Member
Jul 3, 2006
223
27
60
✟23,011.00
Faith
Baptist
That´s kind of a relief to me. I was fearing that your judgement of the intentions of your conversation partners was meant to have some nutritional value.
Glad to learn I can simply file it under "off-topic irrelevant rant" now.
That's pretty rude and uncalled for, although perhaps you know that and fancy it as a part of your personality that you think makes you look clever in other people's eyes. Whatever.
 
Upvote 0

Joshua260

Well-Known Member
Oct 30, 2012
1,448
42
North Carolina
✟17,004.00
Gender
Male
Faith
Baptist
Marital Status
Married
Politics
US-Republican
If there is other life in the universe either equal to us in intelligence or far more intelligent, we're not "special" anymore.
So you think God would stop caring about us because there's someone else smarter out there? That doesn't sound like the god of the Bible.
 
Upvote 0

quatona

"God"? What do you mean??
May 15, 2005
37,512
4,301
✟182,792.00
Faith
Seeker
although perhaps you know that and fancy it as a part of your personality that you think makes you look clever in other people's eyes.

I guess this is just another case of what you prefer to call "sharing [your] ideas [...,]meant to be less formal" (see: once you have explained it to me I spotted it right away ), and which I would call, err, something else.
 
Upvote 0

KCfromNC

Regular Member
Apr 18, 2007
30,256
17,181
✟545,630.00
Faith
Atheist
Marital Status
Private

I'm guessing c. because it leads to the predetermined conclusion the argument was invented for.
 
Upvote 0

KCfromNC

Regular Member
Apr 18, 2007
30,256
17,181
✟545,630.00
Faith
Atheist
Marital Status
Private

Who themselves had to be designed by even more intelligent entities, at least if you consistently apply the reasonable inductive argument.

Or we could use induction to prove that humans designed the universe : the most complex designs we see are from humans, the universe is a very complex design, therefore humans must have done it.

Sometimes there's a fine line between induction and hasty generalization. I think questions about the design of the universe are way past that line, off in the next county somewhere.
 
Upvote 0

paulm50

Well-Known Member
Feb 5, 2014
1,253
110
✟2,061.00
Gender
Male
Faith
Humanist
Marital Status
Married
So you think God would stop caring about us because there's someone else smarter out there? That doesn't sound like the god of the Bible.
It sounds precisely like the bible. According to the bible, the Jews were the chosen people. And they were a pretty insignificant tribe at the time.

And I'm sure Christians sects are telling people today they are loved by god more than the others.

This debate is silly. Either Genesis is right and wrong.
 
Upvote 0

Arythmael

Member
Jul 3, 2006
223
27
60
✟23,011.00
Faith
Baptist
Or we could use induction to prove that humans designed the universe : the most complex designs we see are from humans, the universe is a very complex design, therefore humans must have done it.

No, you can't use induction to prove that because we don't have examples of things creating other things that are as complex or more complex than themselves.
 
Reactions: Joshua260
Upvote 0

Arythmael

Member
Jul 3, 2006
223
27
60
✟23,011.00
Faith
Baptist
Who themselves had to be designed by even more intelligent entities, at least if you consistently apply the reasonable inductive argument.

Possibly. But the argument of design is not intended to prove who designed the designer. Only that the universe was designed, right? So how is the above statement relevant?
 
Reactions: Joshua260
Upvote 0

bhsmte

Newbie
Apr 26, 2013
52,761
11,792
✟254,941.00
Faith
Atheist
Marital Status
Single
Politics
US-Others
Possibly. But the argument of design is not intended to prove who designed the designer. Only that the universe was designed, right? So how is the above statement relevant?

Can you provide a definition of what design is, that is workable?

Can you provide a test to determine when design is present, that is falsifiable?
 
Upvote 0

Belk

Senior Member
Site Supporter
Dec 21, 2005
30,697
15,160
Seattle
✟1,173,518.00
Gender
Male
Faith
Agnostic
Marital Status
Married
No, you can't use induction to prove that because we don't have examples of things creating other things that are as complex or more complex than themselves.

What are you using to measure complexity?
 
Upvote 0

Arythmael

Member
Jul 3, 2006
223
27
60
✟23,011.00
Faith
Baptist
I'm guessing c. because it leads to the predetermined conclusion the argument was invented for.
Dude, not only is this a pointless and snarky remark, it shows you're not even paying attention. If setting the constants is impossible, then physical necessity is an option, and according to his teleological argument, then he wouldn't be able to rule it out and claim that it is due to design. Please don't waste our time and forum space like this.
 
Reactions: Joshua260
Upvote 0

Arythmael

Member
Jul 3, 2006
223
27
60
✟23,011.00
Faith
Baptist
What are you using to measure complexity?

In this case, I'm basing it on the presumption that whatever complexity something has, any system that contains that thing plus any identifiable complexity at all in addition to that thing must be at least as complex as the thing itself.
 
Upvote 0

KCfromNC

Regular Member
Apr 18, 2007
30,256
17,181
✟545,630.00
Faith
Atheist
Marital Status
Private
No, you can't use induction to prove that because we don't have examples of things creating other things that are as complex or more complex than themselves.

Depends on how you define complexity.

But yeah, if you read the rest of my post you'd see that I didn't think this was a serious approach, just showing how talking about designs which might not even be designs implying a designer unlike anything we've ever experienced is stretching inductive logic beyond any relationship to reality.
 
Upvote 0
Status
Not open for further replies.