Richard David Yannopoulos-Ruquist,

You wrote:

> I do not think your point is proven. Can you
> argue rationally about it rather than just
> stating the conclusion.

I'll concede that my point has not been proven. I'm not even convinced yet of it myself. I'm hoping that intelligent discussion will either help justify my opinions or encourage me to modify them.

Can you put yourself in the shoes of the atheist believing there is no God and try to imagine what the world should be like if there were a God? This is difficult for the theist because he believes the universe requires the existence of God and he's come up with beliefs about the attributes and actions of God that seem to match his worldview.

What is there about life that indicates there needs to be a God? The order in the universe? There's order in city planning, but few people ignore that it was men who did the planning. There's order in the sediment layers, but few people assume the scientific explanation for the formation of the geologic column is wrong because they believe that God put the rock layers there as a challenge to faith. Evidently some difficult-to-understand levels of organization such as circular-like orbits are seen as evidence of God, but more understandable levels of organization like successive layers of sedimentary rock are not.

On the other hand, what is there about life that should be different if God were the kind of being religious people claim exists? Do you think God is the kind, benevolent, all-knowing, etc. being that most religions believe in?

• Re: My point not proven. - yanniru - February 21, 2001 - 13:37 UTC