Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Quote of the Day: "This Very Old Argument Against The Existence Of An Intelligent First Cause""

Portrait of Charles Robert Darwin (1809-1882),...Image by Smithsonian Institution via Flickr
“A being so powerful and so full of knowledge as a God who could create the universe, is to our finite minds omnipotent and omniscient, and it revolts our understanding to suppose that his benevolence is not unbounded, for what advantage can there be in the sufferings of millions of the lower animals throughout almost endless time? This very old argument from the existence of suffering against the existence of an intelligent first cause seems to me a strong one; whereas….the presence of much suffering agrees well with the view that all organic beings have been developed through variation and natural selection.” -- Charles Darwin.

Darwinism -- theology, philosophy, science, or, combo plate?

You decide.

* * *

 Implicit in Darwin's view of nature is the notion that variation and natural selection are unplanned, purposeless processes. Darwin's nature requires at most a deist God -- uninvolved in the outworking of life. This underlying philosophical assumption sits on the border between science and theology.

Darwinists continue to make theological arguments in science articles and textbooks similar to this one made by Darwin. Which brings into question the alleged neutrality of science and scientists in matters of theology and philosophy.

Unlike the low-rent-God of the deist, or the no-rent god of the atheistic scientist, the theist looks beyond the merely empirical to empiricism's sufficient cause -- why there should be a universe at all, why there should be this particular universe -- orderly, structured, empirical and fine-tuned for life, one that submits itself to orderly, structured empirical inspection, and why there should be purposeful, rational, morally oriented creatures uniquely capable of performing such inspection, i.e., "us". The only sufficient answer for the Christian is "because God, and man created in God's image".
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5 comments:

Unknown said...

So if God exists and man is created in his image my fairies must also be true! This is fantastic news as I can now rub this in the noses of all of the fairy non-believers!

BallBounces said...

Do your fairies provide explanatory justification for rationality, morality, a stable universe subject to empirical investigation, and the longings of the human heart?

If so, they are just a mutated, false version of "God", and you are an idolator.

If not, they say something about your fevered brain!

BallBounces said...

Don't miss today's post in your honor.

Unknown said...

"Do your fairies provide explanatory justification for rationality, morality, a stable universe subject to empirical investigation, and the longings of the human heart?"

Well of course they do silly! They tell me this in my head all of the time. They tell me that their justification for rationality is so that we as humans (in their image of course) will think logically before we destroy our earth, which is also their home; although they do live in a multi-dimensional realm and are eternal they really only use earth as a vacation spot. They also tell me that morality is the result of a bet between two fairies after drinking star juice; I know, I know, they totally sound like alcoholics but they're really not. As for the stable universe, well that took a little more prodding on my part. They finally told me that our stable universe was totally an accident. They had tried multiple times to make a stable universe but failed every single time. It wasn't till one of the fairies, who was very sleep deprived and hadn't rested properly, tripped over another fairy, who hadn't slept either, which subsequently caused the tripping fairy to accidentally drop all of the universal ingredients into the universal caudron and BLAMO; a stable universe. When they were asked by the other fairies how they did it they said it took the combination of both of their genius to come up with a stable combination, rather than them saying "I tripped over Greg"; the former explanation, and their only explaination, of course got them many pats on the back. The fairies also told me that the longings of the human heart are a human artifact, that they didn't create it and it may be only a human concept, and for us to stop pointing the finger at them.

"If so, they are just a mutated, false version of "God", and you are an idolator.

If not, they say something about your fevered brain!"

How can they be a false version of "God"? They tell me they are the only eternal powers. So you really can't say that I'm an idolator when it seems to me that you are equating all of this beauty in the world to one God, instead of the paying homage to the fairies, which would make you an idolator; seriously, only one God!? And my brain is not fevered. I am extremely healthy. This is because I ask the fairies all of the time to keep me healthy.

BallBounces said...

Ha!

Well done!

The Great Smoked Rib™ salutes you.

"... nothing intellectually compelling or challenging.. bald assertions coupled to superstition... woefully pathetic"