125 reasons to believe in God
https://reasonandscience.catsboard.com/t1276-125-reasons-to-believe-in-god
Nature cannot be self-manifesting.
The universe could not have been the product of self-manifestation, since, if that were the case, it would have to have existed prior to its own self and have knowledge of itself to have created itself. Only minds can create something from nothing, without any preconditions. The universe had to have its form, space, and matter, its stability, orderliness, and predictability imposed and secured by something else from the outside, otherwise, it would be chaotic. The right fine-tuned parameters had to be selected, and once the life-permitting conditions on earth were created, the creation of life depended on the instantiation of the specific building blocks which had to be selected, the creation of energy that could be used in the cell to drive its operations, information stored in genes that would direct the assembly and operation of complex proteins which are molecular machines, metabolic pathways which are robotic production lines, and cells which are chemical factories. Based on the cumulative teleological evidence in the physical world, it is plausible to infer that an intelligent designer created, instantiated the laws of physics, fine-tuned the universe, selected the building materials for life, instantiated the information systems, and irreducible and specified cell factories, which permit the existence of embodied physical life.
“The most reasonable inference from the evidence of improbability, irreducibility, and specificity is that our world is the product of intelligent design.”
―J. Warner Wallace
There are really only 2 options: 1) God did it or 2) God didn't do it. 2. If God didn't do it, then there are two options. a) Nothing created the universe, or b) the universe is uncreated and had no beginning, but always existed. Nothing has no causal powers, and the universe cannot be eternal. That leaves only option 1.
Many atheists believe in multiverses, abiogenesis, and macroevolution (from a Last Universal Common Ancestor to man) despite it can't be observed. But disbelieve in God because he cannot be seen. Double standard much? Claiming that there is no evidence for God's existence, doesn't mean there isn't. It just says about an atheist's mindset.
If there is no creator, then all physical reality, everything, our universe, governed by the physical laws and adjusted to host life with unfathomable precision, life, conscious beings like us, and advanced civilization, is the most astounding miracle ever. A colossal, universal accident. What are the odds? That's like looking at an AI robot and concluding that all that metal and plastic formed spontaneously first into functional subparts, and suddenly a program coming from nowhere directed its entire assemblage and jumped together to make an AI robot. Ha!!
There is no evidence of Gods existence. Really?
1. The universe and biological systems appear designed. Therefore, most likely, they were designed.
2. The universe is like a wind-up clock, winding down as if at one point it was fully wound up and has been winding down ever since. That means, it had a beginning, therefore a cause.
3. Laws and rules of mathematics and physics are imprinted in the universe, which obeys them. The fundamental physical constants, the universe, and the earth are finely tuned to permit life. Hundreds, if not thousands of constants must be just right. Who/what finely adjusted these parameters to permit life?
4. Cells ARE literally factories. Biological cells ARE an industrial park of millions of interconnected complex factories, full of machines, production lines, computers, energy turbines, etc.
5. Cell factories have a codified description of themselves in digital form stored in genes and have the machinery to process that information through transcription and translation into an identical representation in analog 3D form, the physical 'reality' of that description.
6. DNA has the highest storage density known, stores the blueprint of life, has information encoding, transmission, and decoding, and translation machinery.
7. Humans are moral beings, and have conscious intelligent minds, able to communicate, use language, and objective logic. Morals, the mind, information, and logic, are non-material, non-physical entities.
If all these things seem designed, why is it not plausible, probable, possible, and the best rational explanation to infer that injecting energy, implementing rules based on math, fine-tuning, creating blueprints, and upon these, machines and factories, information storage, encoding, transmission, decoding, translation, languages and codes, consciousness, intelligence, languages, and logic are caused and created by a superintelligent, eternal, powerful conscious mind?
Something cannot come from nothing. Energy cannot come from non-energy. Instructional assembly information cannot come from unguided random events. Life cannot come from non-life. Order cannot come from disorder. Consciousness cannot come from non-consciousness. Intelligence cannot come from non-intelligence. The Personal cannot come from the impersonal. Matter cannot start comprehending math, calculus, language, using the laws of logic. Morality cannot come from matter. Since all above things exist in the universe, there must be a being, that is powerful, living, orderly, conscious, intelligent, personal, and moral, which created all those things. Since that being is eternal, non-created, we can call it: I AM.
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Claim: You have no evidence. You have precisely zero evidence FOR intelligent design. NONE. You have a tiny bit of evidence CONSISTENT with ID. That's it. You have weak correlation and zero causation. All that's left is saying naturalism doesn't have a complete explanation. But we have a hell of a lot more explained than YOU do, so what gives?
Response: Evidence refers to "what is," in the sense that it consists of observable, measurable, or recorded facts that represent reality. Evidence is what exists in the physical world or in documented form, serving as the foundation for understanding, testing, or proving something. It serves as the basis for forming conclusions. This means that evidence is available for both sides, theists, and atheists — to those who infer and believe that random chance without any guiding agency explains our existence, and those who infer an eternal, intelligent creator as the creator of the physical world. What you, and atheists in general mean, when they say that there is no evidence for a creator, is that the available evidence does not logically, and plausibly point to God. This is a philosophical stance, that is personal, and often, if not all the time influenced by someones bias and personal preference. But to answer your claim:
We have
- Millions of witnesses through all ages and all around the world that have experienced God. Here an example.
- Teleological arguments based on Scientific evidence that point to God. See here
- Mathematical Beauty and Order: The laws of mathematics and physics exhibit an extraordinary degree of order and elegance, reflecting the intelligence of the creator. See here
- A fine-tuned universe for the existence of life. The odds of such conditions happening purely by chance are astronomically low. Considering 466 parameters, in the order of 1 in 10^^1577. See here.
- Odds to have a minimal bacterial population not subject to Mullers ratchet and extincion: One in 10^trillion See here
- Scriptural Revelation: The coherence, historical accuracy, ethical teachings, and transformative power are evidence of their divine origin.
- Fullfilled prophecies. Odds to have all 356 prophecies related to the messiah fullfilled in Jesus: 1 in 10^262 See here
- Historical evidence like the resurrection of Jesus: Odds that the Shroud of Turin is not authentic: 1 to 10^23 See here
- Consciousness and free will that is difficult, if not impossible to explain by claiming that it comes from matter
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Movement and change require a prime mover, beginning a cause, existence, a necessary eternally existent being, creation a creator, power, a powerful source, design, a designer, laws, a lawgiver, mathematics a mathematician, fine-tuning a fine-tuner, codes a coder, selection, a selector, translation a translator, preprogrammed operations based on logic, a cause that understands the nature and how to implement operations based on logic and their outcomes, consciousness, a conscious source, setting up prescriptive information, an agency with intent, will, foresight, and know-how, machine blueprints, a machine-designer, architecture, an architect, coordination a coordinator, recruiting a recruiter, regulation, a regulator, controlling, a controller, factories a engineers, and construction workers, engineering, engineers, orchestration a director, the organization of things an organizer, elaborating strategies, a strategist, setting up programming languages - programmers, translation programs - translators, logistics - logistics managers, creating a language - intelligence that comprehends language, and the laws of lotic.
Actions like engineering, architecting, orchestrating, organizing, programming, translating, setting up communication channels, electric networks, logistic networks, organizing modular systems, recycling systems, making power plants in nanoscale dimensions, product planning and control, establishing product quality and variant flexibility, setting up waste disposal and management systems, creating languages and instructional information, coordinating, setting up strategies, regulating, controlling, recruiting, interpreting and responding, setting up switch mechanisms based on logic gates, setting up transport highways and GPS systems, and controlled factory implosion, are ALWAYS and EXCLUSIVELY assigned to the action of intelligent agents. No exceptions
Communication systems require network engineers. Electrical networks - electrical engineers. Modular organization - modular project managers. Setting up recycling systems - recycling technicians. Setting up power plant systems various sorts of specialized engineers and construction workers. Nanoscale technology and nano processes, development engineers. Product planning and controlling production - Engineers, mechanics, supervisors, coordinators. product quantity and variant flexibility control, product management engineers. Waste disposal and management - Waste disposal engineers and system implementers. Interpretation, and response, intelligence which creates an interpretation and translation program. Setting up switch mechanisms based on logic gates, electric engineers, and specialists. Setting up transport highways, transportation development engineers. Controlled factory implosion, and explosion safety specialists.
The origin of life depends on most things mentioned above. Does life require no creator of life? To create and instantiate the things above requires intelligent planning, know-how, foresight, intention, and will. The obviousness of creation is hidden from those who reject a creator. There is no evidence that we can exist without a creator, and that unguided, blind, random stochastic events can bring forward all these things.
God, or no God. That's the question
To explain the origin of life, which then would produce consciousness, and then the comprehension that math drives the universe, and data life, and using advanced language and logic to describe those states of affairs, with matter as the starting point, as the origin of that directionality, is irrational to the extreme. A predating step is missing. Instructed specified values set the right forces and masses from the selection of an infinite set of possibilities, creating atoms, and upholding their stability through the laws of physics.
All historical, observational, testable, and repeatable examples PROVE information and operational functionality come from intelligent sources.
Life only comes from life. Consciousness, from consciousness. The ability to use language and logic, from genitors with the same ability. It has never been demonstrated otherwise. Therefore, it is rational to conclude that at the bottom of the chain, there is a rational agent with volition, that set all in motion. The universe, the laws that govern it, the right forces and masses that make up atoms and matter, life, consciousness, language, the recognition of the laws of logic, and comprehension.
There is also no physical principle that should give us the notion that our lives have purpose, meaning, value, and that we ought to live following certain moral standards and behaviors. Molecules simply don't care about such things. Then why should we, if we are the product of molecular accidents, and swirling electrons?
Origin of the universe: Every beginning, requires a cause
Setting up the right forces and masses to create atoms, matter, a life-permitting universe: Specifying functional outcomes requires a mind
Setting up the laws that permit the universe to be predictable, and stable: Requires someone that secures, an upholder of the fundamental laws and forces
Origin of life: Life only has been shown to come from pre-existing life
Consciousness: Consciousness comes from consciousness
Comprehension: Matter cannot comprehend anything
Language: Only minds can use language
Recognition of the laws of logic and math: Only minds can recognize and use math, and logic
Teleonomy, values, and meaning: Only if an eternal God exists, that gives to his creatures eternity, life has meaning
Moral values: Only a moral God can enforce moral laws to his creatures.
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Eric Metaxas:'Science Is Pushing Away Atheism'
"If you want to go with the logic: It is, on a scale, a billion pounds on one side ( in favor of God) and a grain of sand on the other ( For atheism). There's no contest"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnS68Q0rpOE
Syllogistic - Arguments of Gods existence based on positive evidence
https://reasonandscience.catsboard.com/t2895-syllogistic-arguments-of-gods-existence-based-on-positive-evidence
Arguments for Gods existence in in short sentences
https://reasonandscience.catsboard.com/t3026-evidence-of-god-in-short-sentences
Presuppositionalism
https://reasonandscience.catsboard.com/t3116-presuppositionalism
The obviousness of Creation is hidden from those who reject God. There is no evidence that we can exist without a creator.
Since there is being, being has always been. Beginning requires a cause. Movement and change a prime mover. Contingent beings depend on a necessary cause. Creation requires a creator. Design requires a designer. Laws require a lawmaker. Mathematics requires a mathematician. Fine-tuning requires a fine-tuner, Codes require a coder. Information requires an Informer. Translation requires a translator. Life has only been observed to come from life. Logic comes from logic, Consciousness comes from consciousness, machines require a machine-maker. Factories require a factory-maker. Objective moral values come from a moral giver. The "God of the gaps" is an invalid refutation of arguments for the existence of God. And so, that there is no evidence for God(s).
To be ultimate and singular means to be the source of all possibilities. How can you establish what is possible and impossible without referencing God? If there is no God, then how can the laws of physics which are imported on the physical universe be stable, and continuous, and be secured? Atheists cannot ground fundamentally anything, that is: 1. Existence itself
2. The meaning of life 3. The value of human life 4. Moral values 5. Knowing what is objectively ( ontologically) true in regards to reality 6. Sound reasoning 7. Logic 8. Intelligibility 9. Mind and consciousness 10. Uniformity in nature.
Scientists, most of them not believing in God, had to acknowledge and admit the overwhelming evidence pointing to the overwhelming appearance of design in the natural world:
https://reasonandscience.catsboard.com/t1276p25-125-reasons-to-believe-in-god#8282
Following a list of positive evidence of God's existence, not depending on gaps or lack of knowledge.
1. Existence of the universe. The universe had a beginning, therefore a cause
2. The universe obeys the laws and rules of mathematics and physics. Its implementation depends on the action of an intelligent rational agency.
3. The physical universe and the laws of physics are interdependent and irreducible. There would not be one without the other.
4. Fine-Tuning. The fundamental physical constants, the universe, and the earth are finely tuned for life. Over 100 constants must be just right.
5. Formation of life. Life comes only from life. Abiogenesis has never been demonstrated to be possible despite over half a century of intensive scientific research.
6. Cells ARE literally factories. Biological cells ARE an industrial park of millions of interconnected complex factories, full of machines. Factories are always designed.
7. A minimal free-living Cell requires 1300 proteins with an average size of 400 amino acids. That requires to select 1 out of 10^722.000!
8. Irreducible complexity. Biological cells require a minimal number of parts, which have no use by themselves, and would never accumulate on a prebiotic earth
9. The appearance of design. The universe and biological systems appear designed. Therefore, most probably, they are designed.
10. Codified Information. DNA has the highest storage density known, and stores the blueprint of life. Blueprints can always be traced back to intelligence
11. The Fossil Record. The Fossil record, and in special the Cambrian explosion, demonstrates the sudden appearance of lifeforms, without intermediates.
12. Consciousness and language. Conscience, mental reality, language, logic, free will, moral values, are immaterial entities, and cannot emerge from physical matter.
13. Objective moral values exist. They are "ought to be"s, imprinted in our conscience.
14. Human objective logic depends and can only derive from a pre-existing necessary first mind with objective logic.
15. Theology and philosophy. Both lead to an eternal, self-existent, omnipresent transcendent, conscious, intelligent, personal and moral Creator.
16. The Bible. The Old Testament is a catalog of fulfilled prophecies of Jesus Christ, and his mission, death, and resurrection foretold with specificity.
17. Archaeology. Demonstrates that all events described in the Bible are historical facts.
18. History. Historical evidence reveals that Jesus Christ really did come to this earth, and really did physically rise from the dead
19. The Bible's witnesses. There are many testimonies of Jesus doing miracles still today, and Jesus appearing to people all over the globe, still today.
20. End times. The signs of the end times that were foretold in the Bible are occurring in front of our eyes. New world order, Israel as a nation, microchip implant, etc.
21. After-life experiences. Credible witnesses have seen the afterlife and have come back and reported to us that the afterlife is real.
How do you explain:
1. The existence of the universe. The universe had a beginning. What was the cause?
2. The universe obeys the laws and rules of mathematics and physics. What does its implementation depend on?
3. The physical universe and the laws of physics are interdependent and irreducible. There would not be one without the other. How was that instantiated?
4. Fine-Tuning: The Laws of physics, physical constants, the initial conditions of the universe, the Big Bang, the subatomic particles, atoms, Carbon nucleosynthesis, the basis of all life on earth, the Milky Way, our Galaxy, the Solar System, the sun, the earth, the moon, water, the electromagnetic spectrum, and biochemistry are fine-tuned to permit life. Over 100 constants must be just right. How do you explain that?
5. Formation of life. How did life start, if abiogenesis research has failed, and never been able to demonstrate to be possible despite over half a century of intensive scientific research?
6. Cells ARE literally factories. Biological cells ARE an industrial park of millions of interconnected complex factories, full of machines. How do you explain their origin?
7. A minimal free-living Cell requires 1350 proteins with an average size of 400 amino acids. That requires selecting 1 out of 10^722.000! How do you have such enormous faith in lucky accidents?
8. Irreducible complexity. Biological cells require a minimal number of parts, which have no use by themselves, and would never accumulate on the prebiotic earth. Evidence rather shows that molecules randomize and devolve into asphalts.
9. The appearance of design. The universe and biological systems appear designed. Therefore, most probably, they are designed. If not, why not?
10. Codified Information. DNA has the highest storage density known, and stores the blueprint of life. Blueprints can always be traced back to intelligence. If now, what is your alternative explanation, and do you have evidence?
11. The Fossil Record. The Fossil record, and in special the Cambrian explosion, demonstrates the sudden appearance of lifeforms, without intermediates. How can evolution therefore still be true?
12. Consciousness and language. Conscience, mental reality, language, logic, free will, moral values, are immaterial entities, and cannot emerge from physical matter. Or can they? And if so, how do you know?
13. Objective moral values exist. They are "ought to be"s, imprinted in our conscience. How comes?
14. Human objective logic depends and can only derive from a pre-existing necessary first mind with objective logic. Prove me wrong.
10 Syllogistic arguments for Gods existence
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUr8yXeX4Lw
A syllogism is a kind of logical argument that applies deductive reasoning to arrive at a conclusion based on two or more propositions that are asserted or assumed to be true. None of the ten arguments presented here, are based on lack of knowledge or gaps, but scientific evidence, which leads logically to a creator as the best explanation of origins.
1. Being cannot come from non-being 0:11
2. Who created the creator 0:37
3. The laws of physics point to a creator 1:33
4. Fine-tuning of the universe points to a fine-tuner 2:11
5. Abiogenesis research has failed 3:06
6. The factory maker argument 4:14
7. Cells are irreducibly complex 5:44
8. Where do complex organisms come from? 7:05
9. Gene regulatory networks (dGRN's) point to design 8:12
10. The tasks performed by the dGRN point to intelligent setup 9:24
Gravity is inferred by observing an apple falling to the floor, so the existence of a non-physical non-created creator is inferred by observing the existence of a finite universe.
Christianity is a “lack of belief” that there is no God! The claim that atheism is a lack of belief in God is just an escape from the underlying problem.
“No truth is relative” is an absolute truth claim. Actually, all truth is absolute.
I don't choose to be a theist, I just can not force my brain to accept the claim that Biological cells which are a factory park of unparalleled gigantic complexity and purposeful adaptive design of interlinked high-tech fabrics, fully automated and self-replicating, directed by genes and epigenetic languages and signaling networks, could emerge by no guiding intelligence, but random unguided lucky accidents.
The Bible presupposes God’s existence. To deny God’s existence is to deny the obvious. God made Himself known. When he says that the universe is designed, but it’s not.” the unbeliever is rejecting the obvious. To deny God’s existence means to reject that the evidence points evidently to God.
Being cannot come from non-being. Contingent existence is evidence of a necessary Creator. But not everybody ( is willing ) to see it.
Romans 1.19 - 23 What may be known about God is plain to them because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.
“I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting station, through which God speaks to us every hour if we will only tune in.”
George Washington Carver
If God is not the metaphysical, supernatural, primary ultimate essential eternal necessary irreducible personal being upon which all other temporal natural things, humans with personality, consciousness, and rationality causally derive and depend, what is, and why? If there was not an eternal being, an agency with a will, that caused all physical and contingent mental conscient beings, the cosmos and/or our universe into existence, how could an alternative substance without qualia be an explanation, and on top of that, a better explanation? That, in special, in light of the fact that consciousness, an irreducible, fundamental property of mind cannot, even in principle, be reduced to known physical principles? To ascribe to the electrons in our brain the property to generate consciousness, and not to ascribe the same property to the electrons moving in a bulb, is in contradiction with quantum physics, which establishes that all electrons are equal and indistinguishable, that is they have all exactly the same properties.
We recognize that the natural processes were designed because there is purposeful use of information and matter to perform specific functions in a consistent manner under various sets of conditions.
The first 40 minutes are well worth watching.
Demonstration of the existence of God and the Christian reasons for believing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySvTws--7f8
There is PLENTY of evidence of God's existence.
Does God exist?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0rDZByvvMc&t=32s
My YouTube channel: Intelligent Design Academy
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4XQQoUnNM3TEvrrcUd1VuQ
The Watchmaker argument, refuted by evolution?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdjjqBI_EzI&t=3304s
The factory maker argument
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8oGda1JxKw&t=252s
Is photosynthesis irreducibly complex?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktXnLnUA8XA&t=203s
Fine-tuning of the electromagnetic forces, evidence of design?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhwCazIoVC4&t=787s
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C.S.Lewis: One absolutely central inconsistency ruins [the naturalistic worldview].... The whole picture professes to depend on inferences from observed facts. Unless inference is valid, the whole picture disappears.... unless Reason is an absolute--all is in ruins. Yet those who ask me to believe this world picture also ask me to believe that Reason is simply the unforeseen and unintended by-product of mindless matter at one stage of its endless and aimless becoming. Here is flat contradiction. They ask me at the same moment to accept a conclusion and to discredit the only testimony on which that conclusion can be based.
"Is Theology Poetry?", The Weight of Glory and Other Addresses
http://mirror1.booksdescr.org/ads.php?md5=9BFA0EA873D6877852A258BE06FC0A5E
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What might be a Cell’s minimal requirement of parts?
https://reasonandscience.catsboard.com/t2110-what-might-be-a-protocells-minimal-requirement-of-parts
Proteins are the result of the DNA blueprint, which specifies the complex sequence necessary to produce functional 3D folds of proteins. Both improbability and specification are required in order to justify an inference of design.
1. According to the latest estimation of a minimal protein set for the first living organism, the requirement would be about 560 proteins, this would be the absolute minimum to keep the basic functions of a cell alive.
2. According to the Protein-length distributions for the three domains of life, there is an average between prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells of about 400 amino acids per protein. 8
3. Each of the 400 positions in the amino acid polypeptide chains could be occupied by anyone of the 20 amino acids used in cells, so if we suppose that proteins emerged randomly on prebiotic earth, then the total possible arrangements or odds to get one which would fold into a functional 3D protein would be 1 to 20^400 or 1 to 10^520. A truly enormous, super astronomical number.
4. Since we need 560 proteins total to make a first living cell, we would have to repeat the shuffle 560 times, to get all proteins required for life. The probability would be therefore 560/10^520. We arrive at a probability far beyond of 1 in 10^200.000 ( A proteome set with 239 proteins yields odds of approximately 1/10^119.614 ) 7
Granted, the calculation does not take into consideration nor give information on the probabilistic resources available. But the sheer gigantic number os possibilities throw any reasonable possibility out of the window.
If we sum up the total number of amino acids for a minimal Cell, there would have to be 560 proteins x 400 amino acids = 224.000 amino acids, which would have to be bonded in the right sequence, choosing for each position amongst 20 different amino acids, and selecting only the left-handed, while sorting out the right-handed ones. That means each position would have to be selected correctly from 40 variants !! that is 1 right selection out of 40^224.000 possibilities !! Obviously, a gigantic number far above any realistic probability to occur by unguided events. Even a trillion universes, each hosting a trillion planets, and each shuffling a trillion times in a trillionth of a second, continuously for a trillion years, would not be enough. Such astronomically unimaginably gigantic odds are in the realm of the utmost extremely impossible.
Biological Cells are equal to a complex of millions of interlinked factories
https://reasonandscience.catsboard.com/t2245-biological-cells-are-like-an-industry-complex-full-of-interlinked-factories
1. Blueprints and buildings made upon its instructions are always sourced back to an intelligent cause.
2. The instructional information stored in DNA directs the making of biological cells and organisms.
3. DNA, biological Cells and organisms are therefore most probably the result of intelligent design.
1. Intelligent minds make factory plants full of machines with specific functions, set up for specific purposes. Each fabric can be full of robotic production lines where the product of one factory is handed over to the next for further processing until the end product is made. Each of the intermediate steps is essential. If any is mal or non-functioning, like energy supply, or supply of the raw materials, the factory as a whole ceases its production.
2. Biological cells are a factory complex of interlinked high-tech fabrics, fully automated and self-replicating, hosting up to over 2 billion molecular fabrics like Ribosomes & chemical production lines, full of proteins that act like robots, each with a specific task, function or goal, and completing each other, the whole system has the purpose to survive and perpetuate life. At least 560 proteins and a fully setup metabolome and genome is required, and they are interdependent. If even one of these proteins were missing, life could not kick-start. For example, without helicase, DNA replication would not be possible, and life could not perpetuate. The probability, that such complex nano-factory plant could have emerged by unguided chemical reactions, no matter in what primordial environment, is beyond the chance of one to 10^200.000. The universe hosts about 10^80 atoms.
3. Biological Cells are of unparalleled gigantic complexity and purposeful adaptive design, vastly more complex and sophisticated than any man-made factory plant. Self-replicating cells demonstrate, therefore extremely strong indicators that the deliberate action of a conscious intelligent designer was involved in creating living cells.
Factories, full of machines and production lines and computers, originate from intelligent minds. No exception.
Biological cells are factories.
Factory is from Latin, and means fabricare, or make. Produce, manufacture. And that's PRECISELY what cells do. They produce other cells through self-replication, through complex machine processing, computing etc.
Therefore, they had a mind as a causal agency.
The claim is falsified, once someone can demonstrate a factory that can self-assemble, without the requirement of intelligence.
The Cell is a Factory
https://reasonandscience.catsboard.com/t2245-the-cell-is-a-factory
There are millions of protein factories in every cell. Surprise, they’re not all the same
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/06/there-are-millions-protein-factories-every-cell-surprise-they-re-not-all-same
Cells are very similar to factories. To stay alive and function properly, cells have a division of labor similar to that found in factories.
https://www.slcschools.org/departments/curriculum/science/Grade-7-to-8/Grade-7/documents/s3-o2-lesson-cell-as-a-factory-website-pdf.pdf
Comparing a Cell to a Factory: Answer Key
Science NetLinks is a project of the Directorate for Education and Human Resources Programs of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
http://sciencenetlinks.com/student-teacher-sheets/comparing-cell-factory-answer-key/
Rough ER is also a membrane factory for the cell; it grows in place by adding membrane proteins and phospholipids to its own membrane.
https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Cell_Biology/Print_version
https://reasonandscience.catsboard.com/t1659-confirmation-of-intelligent-design-predictions
Astronomy
What comes first, mind or matter?
http://reasonandscience.heavenforum.org/t1380-what-comes-first-mind-or-matter
Laws of Physics, where did they come from?
https://reasonandscience.catsboard.com/t1336-laws-of-physics-where-did-they-come-from
The universe most probably had a beginning
https://reasonandscience.catsboard.com/t1297-the-universe-most-probabaly-had-a-beginning
Fine-tuning of the universe
https://reasonandscience.catsboard.com/t1277-fine-tuning-of-the-universe
Origin of stars and planets
https://reasonandscience.catsboard.com/t2461-origin-of-stars-and-planets
Origin of life
Abiogenesis is impossible
https://reasonandscience.catsboard.com/t1279-abiogenesis-is-impossible
Biodiversity & Evolution
Principal Meanings of Evolution in Biology Textbooks
https://reasonandscience.catsboard.com/t2358-principal-meanings-of-evolution-in-biology-textbooks
Primary, and secondary speciation
https://reasonandscience.catsboard.com/t2360-primary-and-secondary-speciation
Is there evidence for natural selection?
https://reasonandscience.catsboard.com/t2458-is-there-evidence-for-natural-selection
Eukaryotes evolved from Prokaryotes. Really ?
https://reasonandscience.catsboard.com/t1568-eukaryotes-evolved-from-prokaryotes-really
On the Origin of Mitochondria: Reasons for Skepticism on the Endosymbiotic Story
https://reasonandscience.catsboard.com/t1303-challenges-to-endosymbiotic-theory
Unicellular and multicellular Organisms are best explained through design
https://reasonandscience.catsboard.com/t2010-unicellular-and-multicellular-organisms-are-best-explained-through-design
"Tetrapods evolved" . Really ?
https://reasonandscience.catsboard.com/t2219-the-evolution-of-tetrapods
What are the mechanisms that drive adaptation to the environment, microevolution, and secondary speciation?
https://reasonandscience.catsboard.com/t2460-what-are-the-mechanisms-that-drive-adaptation-to-the-environment-microevolution-and-secondary-speciation
Macroevolution. Fact, or fantasy?
https://reasonandscience.catsboard.com/t1390-macroevolution#1982
Where Do Complex Organisms Come From?
https://reasonandscience.catsboard.com/t2316-where-do-complex-organisms-come-from
The tree of life, common descent, common ancestry, a failed hypothesis
https://reasonandscience.catsboard.com/t2239-the-tree-of-life-common-descent-common-ancestry-a-failed-hypothesis
Photosynthesis
https://reasonandscience.catsboard.com/t1555-photosynthesis
Bible evidence
Evidence of Noah's flood
https://reasonandscience.catsboard.com/t1635-evidence-of-noah-s-flood
A cumulative case for the God of the bible
https://reasonandscience.catsboard.com/t1753-a-cumulative-case-for-theism
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1) Conservation of Energy.
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Textbooks say "Energy can be neither created nor destroyed". Correct would be: "Energy cannot be created or destroyed by any Physical Entity". If Energy cannot be created at all, the physical universe could NOT have been created in the first place. The Cause of the Universe has to be a non-physical entity (not matter energy space-time) that has the ability to create energy (to create the universe).
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2) Entropy
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Like a Clock that is wound-up. And then it winds down. Similarly, the universe was created with a certain amount of starting energy ( The universe is a closed system ). That energy is constant. However, over time, more of that energy becomes non-usable. Entropy increases until one day the universe will have completely wound down. So, this points to some entity that wound up the universe in the first place.
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3) The Big Bang (BB)
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The science indicates that all matter-energy, space and time came into being at the BB. Before this there was no matter-energy, space, time. So the cause of the BB has to be Supernatural (since by definition everything that is nature or natural is composed of matter-energy, space and time).
5 Easy Steps to refute naturalism
http://reasonandscience.heavenforum.org/t1877-easy-steps-to-refute-naturalism
Either the cosmos
(1) had no beginning, or
(2) it had a beginning.
(1) If the cosmos had no beginning, then there must be an infinite series of past events. However, it is impossible to traverse an actual infinite. Therefore, the universe cannot be infinitely old. Besides that, If the cosmos was infinitely old, it would have reached maximum entropy a long, long, time ago. Since it has not reached maximum entropy, it cannot be infinitely old without violating the second law of thermodynamics.
(2) If the cosmos had a beginning, then it must have come from (A) nothing or (B) something.
2.A. Although physicists such as Krauss and Hawking talk about "the universe creating itself from nothing," they are using the word "nothing" to mean the vacuum energy, which is not a true nothing. To be more precise, being cannot emerge from non-being.
2.B. If the entire cosmos came from something, that thing must transcend our cosmos, that is, it must exist beyond the limits of our space/time continuum. We may call it the First Cause.
P1) If we exist in the present moment time had a beginning (an infinite amount of time cannot be traversed, if there is no first moment the process of traversing moments cannot begin, the present moment could never arrive)
P2) If time began to exist, space, matter/energy also began to exist simultaneously since they are co-relational. (General Theory of Relativity)
P3) If time, space, matter/energy began to exist they (the natural order) require a sufficient cause. (Principle of Causality - First Principles of Logic)
P4) The natural order (time, space, matter/energy) cannot have caused itself to begin to exist.
P5) The universe began, is using its available energy, and will eventually reach a state of the total entropy.
2nd Law of Thermodynamics.
P6) A non-naturalistic cause for the only universe of which we have empirical knowledge is an unavoidable consequence of P2, P3, P4,P5)
C1) A logically necessary First Cause exists which is timeless, non-spatial, immaterial, and sufficient to the existence of the physical universe.
(from P2, P3, P4, P5)
C2) A causal agency which possesses the traditional attributes of God may be reasonably assumed to be God.
(from P2,P3, P4, P5)
God exists.
This is why I think the Big Bang is in perfect accord with what we would logically expect.
Is attributing eternity to God special pleading?
https://reasonandscience.catsboard.com/t1539-is-attributing-eternity-to-god-special-pleading
Fine-tuning of the universe
https://reasonandscience.catsboard.com/t1277-fine-tuning-of-the-universe
1. If our universe is random, then it is very unlikely that it permits life.
2. Our universe permits life.
3. Therefore, the existence of our universe is very likely due to something other than chance.
“The really amazing thing is not that life on Earth is balanced on a knife-edge, but that the entire universe is balanced on a knife-edge, and would be total chaos if any of the natural ‘constants’ were off even slightly. You see,” Davies adds, “even if you dismiss the an as a chance happening, the fact remains that the universe seems unreasonably suited to the existence of life — almost contrived — you might say a ‘put-up job’.”
Dr. Paul Davies, noted author and professor of theoretical physics at Adelaide University
Abiogenesis is impossible
https://reasonandscience.catsboard.com/t1279-abiogenesis-is-impossible
The Logic of Chance: The Nature and Origin of Biological Evolution, Eugene V. Koonin, page 351:
The origin of life is the most difficult problem that faces evolutionary biology and, arguably, biology in general. Indeed, the problem is so hard and the current state of the art seems so frustrating that some researchers prefer to dismiss the entire issue as being outside the scientific domain altogether, on the grounds that unique events are not conducive to scientific study.
Would you say that it is plausible that a tornado over a junkyard could produce a self-replicating machine, like John von Neumann's Universal Constructor ?
Would you say that it is plausible that mindless random chance can write a book?
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Question: Can someone use both, presupositional, and evidentialist/probabilistic arguments for the existence of God?
Answer: One can use various angles/approaches to make a positive case for God's existence, and they are cumulative, rather than mutually exclusive.
Particularly, I do not like the presuppositional approach, because one starts from the conclusion, and then tries to work from there. While I believe it's true that God reveals himself through the natural world, and special revelation (The Bible), therefore all people know that God exists ( Romans 1.19 -22), it is also true that the Christian faith can be acquired/solidified by doing duly diligence ( Acts 17.1) The Christian faith is essentially a rational faith Romans 12.1 KJV)
One can presuppose Gods existence by using the Thomistic argument that God is necessary:
1. Since we exist, something has always been.
2. If there ever had been an ontological state of absolutely nothing, then that state would never change, because nothing cannot cause something. Change is never simply a brute fact.
3. It is true that an infinite regress is not possible. If the past is infinite without a beginning, then arriving at the present would be like attempting to climb to the surface of the earth from an infinitely deep, bottomless pit.
4. The natural world cannot exist in and through itself. It is dependent on something else. That something must be necessary, unchanging, without a beginning, and everlasting.
5. Change without preconditions can only be instantiated by a mind, which wills something into existence without depending on something else.
6. Mass in the physical world seems to be miraculous. God created energy/mass, space, and time through his eternal power, and he stretched out the universe. The universe is a manifestation of his power
7. God's mind is the ultimate necessary eternal self-existing creator, which instantiated creation and sustains it, and which depends on him.
And one can reinforce an argument for God's existence by using eliminative induction.
God does exist or does not exist. This is a true dichotomy. Eliminative inductions argue for the truth of a proposition by arguing that competitors to that proposition are false. Eliminating the No-God option entails that the God option is true. As Sherlock Holmes's famous dictum says: when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however not fully comprehensible, but logically possible, must be the truth. Eliminative inductions, in fact, become deductions. If it could be argued, that the universe is not contingent, but could exist without a cause, the problem would be, that unguided natural events have too many options and without design couldn’t sort through the life-permitting options. The problem is that natural mechanisms are too unspecific to determine any particular outcome. Natural processes could theoretically be hypothesized to be able to form the right physical laws and initial conditions to create a life-permitting universe, the right building blocks of life, molecular machines, and cell factories, but also compatible, one would expect the formation of a plethora of physical laws that would not lead to a universe, or a non-life permitting universe, and also when the quest is the origin of life, all kind of molecular assemblages, most of which have no biological significance. And rather than going the route of complexification, these molecules would be unpure and disintegrate. Nature allows full freedom of arrangements. Yet it’s precisely that freedom that makes nature unable to account for specified outcomes of small probability. Nature, in this case, rather than being intent on doing only one thing, is open to doing any number of things; in the grand majority, non-meaningful. Yet when one of those things is a highly improbable specified event, design becomes the more compelling, better inference.
Professor Ulrich Becker** (High energy particle physics, MIT):
"How can I exist without a creator? I am not aware of any answer ever given."
1) https://reasonandscience.catsboard.com/t2024-the-rna-world-and-the-origins-of-life#3415
2) https://reasonandscience.catsboard.com/t2062-proteins-how-they-provide-striking-evidence-of-design?highlight=proteins
3) https://reasonandscience.catsboard.com/t2110-what-might-be-a-protocells-minimal-requirement-of-parts
4) https://reasonandscience.catsboard.com/t1362-panspermia?highlight=panspermia
http://god-proofs.blogspot.com.br/2014/05/theological-and-scientific-proofs.html
https://www.slideshare.net/kenboa/is-there-really-a-god-does-god-exist
'Science Is Pushing Away Atheism' | Eric Metaxas
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnS68Q0rpOE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQVm8RokoBA&t=4s
Scientists' belief in the existence of a metaphysical entity commonly referred to as "God" may appear perplexing at first. However, the question itself is somewhat invalid because science has, in a sense, discovered God. Even staunch atheists, if engaged in conversation, might acknowledge that science seems to have found evidence pointing toward the existence of God.
To understand this perspective, let's consider the WMAP (Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe) satellite initiative. If you visit the web and search for WMAP, you will come across a diagram illustrating the evolution of the universe from its creation to the present. This diagram, based on the collective knowledge of the scientific community, represents a timeline spanning billions of years. Starting from an initial burst of energy on the left side, it progresses towards the right with an oval indicating expansion in all directions.
The intriguing aspect is that on the far left edge of the diagram, it demonstrates the universe's beginning. Just under 50 years ago, suggesting the existence of a universe with a starting point could have been a controversial notion, even risking one's tenure as a professor. Back then, the prevailing scientific consensus leaned towards an eternal universe without a beginning, contradicting the Bible's account. However, the discovery of the echo of the Big Bang by Arnold Penzias and Robert Wilson at Bell Labs in the U.S. changed the narrative. They detected the energy residue predicted by George Gamow six decades earlier, indicating that if the universe originated from a hot and small state, it would have exploded, leaving behind this energy that gradually diluted over time. Overnight, the Bible appeared to be vindicated with its assertion of a universe with a starting point.
Now, let's address the concept of "nothing." The black space surrounding the diagram represents nothingness, not vacuum or empty space within the universe. Our human brains struggle to comprehend nothingness because our thinking is confined within the boundaries of time, space, and matter/energy. We can use words to describe nothingness, but it remains beyond our cognitive grasp.
This brings us to the idea of God. The creation force alluded to here is not the traditional three-letter word "God." Instead, it is closely linked to quantum fluctuations. The notion of creating something from nothing was introduced by Ed Tryon in the prestigious scientific journal Nature around four decades ago. The universe, governed by the laws of nature and quantum physics, allows for the emergence of something from absolute nothingness.
Consider what science has uncovered: the ability to create a universe from absolute nothingness, provided the laws of nature are in place. These laws of nature, or forces, are not physical entities themselves but act upon the physical realm. They precede the universe, indicating that they exist outside of time and our understanding of it. In essence, we have a set of forces, the laws of nature, that are non-physical, capable of creating the physical universe from nothing, and preexisting our concept of time. This bears a striking resemblance to the biblical definition of God.
In the biblical text, the only name for God mentioned in the opening chapter of Genesis is "Elohim," which represents God as manifested in the universe. Hence, science seems to have discovered the essence of the biblical God—a non-physical force that predates time and creates the universe.
SELECT RESOURCES ON MISCELLANEOUS TOPICS OF INTEREST TO CHRISTIANS Ashby Camp
http://theoutlet.us/SelectResourcesonMiscellaneousTopicsofInteresttoChristians.pdf
Miracles of Naturalism & the New Atheists: The Cosmic Comedy of Random Chance
The Spontaneous Universe: Out of utter nothingness, the universe decides to burst into existence, entirely on its own, without a hint of cause, reason, or a magic wand. Pure cosmic spontaneity!
Multiverse Lottery Winner: Our universe, just one lucky draw in an eternal cosmic lottery with an infinite number of tickets. The odds? Don't bother calculating, it's the ultimate jackpot!
Precision Without a Precisionist: The universe, fine-tuning its own parameters with the meticulousness of a Swiss watchmaker. Who needs a fine-tuner when you have cosmic coincidence?
The Lucky Cell: One cell, billions of years ago, hit the biological jackpot, assembling itself from a cosmic soup with odds that make lottery winning seem like a sure bet.
Random Code Generator: The genetic code, a marvel of complexity, just happened to assemble itself. Who knew that random chance was such an adept coder?
Self-Writing Genetic Saga: The first living cell's genetic information just magically appeared, like a story writing itself without an author. A natural masterpiece!
Molecular Morse Code: The translation from genetic information to proteins, a complex process that just decided to evolve by itself. No translator needed, it's all naturally coded!
DIY Molecular Factories: Molecules and cells, in their spare time, figured out how to assemble themselves into complex structures and factories. The ultimate in self-service!
Epigenetic Evolution's Encore: Over 20 epigenetic codes, popping up naturally, orchestrating the symphony of life's complexity and diversity. No conductor, just the music of the genes!
Consciousness from Stardust: From mere atoms to conscious minds, a leap that defies the gap between the physical and the metaphysical. Who knew matter was so introspective?
Moral Matter: Atoms and brains, dabbling in moral philosophy, developing a sense of right and wrong. Apparently, particles can ponder ethics too!
https://reasonandscience.catsboard.com/t1276-125-reasons-to-believe-in-god
Nature cannot be self-manifesting.
The universe could not have been the product of self-manifestation, since, if that were the case, it would have to have existed prior to its own self and have knowledge of itself to have created itself. Only minds can create something from nothing, without any preconditions. The universe had to have its form, space, and matter, its stability, orderliness, and predictability imposed and secured by something else from the outside, otherwise, it would be chaotic. The right fine-tuned parameters had to be selected, and once the life-permitting conditions on earth were created, the creation of life depended on the instantiation of the specific building blocks which had to be selected, the creation of energy that could be used in the cell to drive its operations, information stored in genes that would direct the assembly and operation of complex proteins which are molecular machines, metabolic pathways which are robotic production lines, and cells which are chemical factories. Based on the cumulative teleological evidence in the physical world, it is plausible to infer that an intelligent designer created, instantiated the laws of physics, fine-tuned the universe, selected the building materials for life, instantiated the information systems, and irreducible and specified cell factories, which permit the existence of embodied physical life.
“The most reasonable inference from the evidence of improbability, irreducibility, and specificity is that our world is the product of intelligent design.”
―J. Warner Wallace
There are really only 2 options: 1) God did it or 2) God didn't do it. 2. If God didn't do it, then there are two options. a) Nothing created the universe, or b) the universe is uncreated and had no beginning, but always existed. Nothing has no causal powers, and the universe cannot be eternal. That leaves only option 1.
Many atheists believe in multiverses, abiogenesis, and macroevolution (from a Last Universal Common Ancestor to man) despite it can't be observed. But disbelieve in God because he cannot be seen. Double standard much? Claiming that there is no evidence for God's existence, doesn't mean there isn't. It just says about an atheist's mindset.
If there is no creator, then all physical reality, everything, our universe, governed by the physical laws and adjusted to host life with unfathomable precision, life, conscious beings like us, and advanced civilization, is the most astounding miracle ever. A colossal, universal accident. What are the odds? That's like looking at an AI robot and concluding that all that metal and plastic formed spontaneously first into functional subparts, and suddenly a program coming from nowhere directed its entire assemblage and jumped together to make an AI robot. Ha!!
There is no evidence of Gods existence. Really?
1. The universe and biological systems appear designed. Therefore, most likely, they were designed.
2. The universe is like a wind-up clock, winding down as if at one point it was fully wound up and has been winding down ever since. That means, it had a beginning, therefore a cause.
3. Laws and rules of mathematics and physics are imprinted in the universe, which obeys them. The fundamental physical constants, the universe, and the earth are finely tuned to permit life. Hundreds, if not thousands of constants must be just right. Who/what finely adjusted these parameters to permit life?
4. Cells ARE literally factories. Biological cells ARE an industrial park of millions of interconnected complex factories, full of machines, production lines, computers, energy turbines, etc.
5. Cell factories have a codified description of themselves in digital form stored in genes and have the machinery to process that information through transcription and translation into an identical representation in analog 3D form, the physical 'reality' of that description.
6. DNA has the highest storage density known, stores the blueprint of life, has information encoding, transmission, and decoding, and translation machinery.
7. Humans are moral beings, and have conscious intelligent minds, able to communicate, use language, and objective logic. Morals, the mind, information, and logic, are non-material, non-physical entities.
If all these things seem designed, why is it not plausible, probable, possible, and the best rational explanation to infer that injecting energy, implementing rules based on math, fine-tuning, creating blueprints, and upon these, machines and factories, information storage, encoding, transmission, decoding, translation, languages and codes, consciousness, intelligence, languages, and logic are caused and created by a superintelligent, eternal, powerful conscious mind?
Something cannot come from nothing. Energy cannot come from non-energy. Instructional assembly information cannot come from unguided random events. Life cannot come from non-life. Order cannot come from disorder. Consciousness cannot come from non-consciousness. Intelligence cannot come from non-intelligence. The Personal cannot come from the impersonal. Matter cannot start comprehending math, calculus, language, using the laws of logic. Morality cannot come from matter. Since all above things exist in the universe, there must be a being, that is powerful, living, orderly, conscious, intelligent, personal, and moral, which created all those things. Since that being is eternal, non-created, we can call it: I AM.
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Claim: You have no evidence. You have precisely zero evidence FOR intelligent design. NONE. You have a tiny bit of evidence CONSISTENT with ID. That's it. You have weak correlation and zero causation. All that's left is saying naturalism doesn't have a complete explanation. But we have a hell of a lot more explained than YOU do, so what gives?
Response: Evidence refers to "what is," in the sense that it consists of observable, measurable, or recorded facts that represent reality. Evidence is what exists in the physical world or in documented form, serving as the foundation for understanding, testing, or proving something. It serves as the basis for forming conclusions. This means that evidence is available for both sides, theists, and atheists — to those who infer and believe that random chance without any guiding agency explains our existence, and those who infer an eternal, intelligent creator as the creator of the physical world. What you, and atheists in general mean, when they say that there is no evidence for a creator, is that the available evidence does not logically, and plausibly point to God. This is a philosophical stance, that is personal, and often, if not all the time influenced by someones bias and personal preference. But to answer your claim:
We have
- Millions of witnesses through all ages and all around the world that have experienced God. Here an example.
- Teleological arguments based on Scientific evidence that point to God. See here
- Mathematical Beauty and Order: The laws of mathematics and physics exhibit an extraordinary degree of order and elegance, reflecting the intelligence of the creator. See here
- A fine-tuned universe for the existence of life. The odds of such conditions happening purely by chance are astronomically low. Considering 466 parameters, in the order of 1 in 10^^1577. See here.
- Odds to have a minimal bacterial population not subject to Mullers ratchet and extincion: One in 10^trillion See here
- Scriptural Revelation: The coherence, historical accuracy, ethical teachings, and transformative power are evidence of their divine origin.
- Fullfilled prophecies. Odds to have all 356 prophecies related to the messiah fullfilled in Jesus: 1 in 10^262 See here
- Historical evidence like the resurrection of Jesus: Odds that the Shroud of Turin is not authentic: 1 to 10^23 See here
- Consciousness and free will that is difficult, if not impossible to explain by claiming that it comes from matter
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Movement and change require a prime mover, beginning a cause, existence, a necessary eternally existent being, creation a creator, power, a powerful source, design, a designer, laws, a lawgiver, mathematics a mathematician, fine-tuning a fine-tuner, codes a coder, selection, a selector, translation a translator, preprogrammed operations based on logic, a cause that understands the nature and how to implement operations based on logic and their outcomes, consciousness, a conscious source, setting up prescriptive information, an agency with intent, will, foresight, and know-how, machine blueprints, a machine-designer, architecture, an architect, coordination a coordinator, recruiting a recruiter, regulation, a regulator, controlling, a controller, factories a engineers, and construction workers, engineering, engineers, orchestration a director, the organization of things an organizer, elaborating strategies, a strategist, setting up programming languages - programmers, translation programs - translators, logistics - logistics managers, creating a language - intelligence that comprehends language, and the laws of lotic.
Actions like engineering, architecting, orchestrating, organizing, programming, translating, setting up communication channels, electric networks, logistic networks, organizing modular systems, recycling systems, making power plants in nanoscale dimensions, product planning and control, establishing product quality and variant flexibility, setting up waste disposal and management systems, creating languages and instructional information, coordinating, setting up strategies, regulating, controlling, recruiting, interpreting and responding, setting up switch mechanisms based on logic gates, setting up transport highways and GPS systems, and controlled factory implosion, are ALWAYS and EXCLUSIVELY assigned to the action of intelligent agents. No exceptions
Communication systems require network engineers. Electrical networks - electrical engineers. Modular organization - modular project managers. Setting up recycling systems - recycling technicians. Setting up power plant systems various sorts of specialized engineers and construction workers. Nanoscale technology and nano processes, development engineers. Product planning and controlling production - Engineers, mechanics, supervisors, coordinators. product quantity and variant flexibility control, product management engineers. Waste disposal and management - Waste disposal engineers and system implementers. Interpretation, and response, intelligence which creates an interpretation and translation program. Setting up switch mechanisms based on logic gates, electric engineers, and specialists. Setting up transport highways, transportation development engineers. Controlled factory implosion, and explosion safety specialists.
The origin of life depends on most things mentioned above. Does life require no creator of life? To create and instantiate the things above requires intelligent planning, know-how, foresight, intention, and will. The obviousness of creation is hidden from those who reject a creator. There is no evidence that we can exist without a creator, and that unguided, blind, random stochastic events can bring forward all these things.
God, or no God. That's the question
To explain the origin of life, which then would produce consciousness, and then the comprehension that math drives the universe, and data life, and using advanced language and logic to describe those states of affairs, with matter as the starting point, as the origin of that directionality, is irrational to the extreme. A predating step is missing. Instructed specified values set the right forces and masses from the selection of an infinite set of possibilities, creating atoms, and upholding their stability through the laws of physics.
All historical, observational, testable, and repeatable examples PROVE information and operational functionality come from intelligent sources.
Life only comes from life. Consciousness, from consciousness. The ability to use language and logic, from genitors with the same ability. It has never been demonstrated otherwise. Therefore, it is rational to conclude that at the bottom of the chain, there is a rational agent with volition, that set all in motion. The universe, the laws that govern it, the right forces and masses that make up atoms and matter, life, consciousness, language, the recognition of the laws of logic, and comprehension.
There is also no physical principle that should give us the notion that our lives have purpose, meaning, value, and that we ought to live following certain moral standards and behaviors. Molecules simply don't care about such things. Then why should we, if we are the product of molecular accidents, and swirling electrons?
Origin of the universe: Every beginning, requires a cause
Setting up the right forces and masses to create atoms, matter, a life-permitting universe: Specifying functional outcomes requires a mind
Setting up the laws that permit the universe to be predictable, and stable: Requires someone that secures, an upholder of the fundamental laws and forces
Origin of life: Life only has been shown to come from pre-existing life
Consciousness: Consciousness comes from consciousness
Comprehension: Matter cannot comprehend anything
Language: Only minds can use language
Recognition of the laws of logic and math: Only minds can recognize and use math, and logic
Teleonomy, values, and meaning: Only if an eternal God exists, that gives to his creatures eternity, life has meaning
Moral values: Only a moral God can enforce moral laws to his creatures.
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Eric Metaxas:'Science Is Pushing Away Atheism'
"If you want to go with the logic: It is, on a scale, a billion pounds on one side ( in favor of God) and a grain of sand on the other ( For atheism). There's no contest"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnS68Q0rpOE
Syllogistic - Arguments of Gods existence based on positive evidence
https://reasonandscience.catsboard.com/t2895-syllogistic-arguments-of-gods-existence-based-on-positive-evidence
Arguments for Gods existence in in short sentences
https://reasonandscience.catsboard.com/t3026-evidence-of-god-in-short-sentences
Presuppositionalism
https://reasonandscience.catsboard.com/t3116-presuppositionalism
The obviousness of Creation is hidden from those who reject God. There is no evidence that we can exist without a creator.
Since there is being, being has always been. Beginning requires a cause. Movement and change a prime mover. Contingent beings depend on a necessary cause. Creation requires a creator. Design requires a designer. Laws require a lawmaker. Mathematics requires a mathematician. Fine-tuning requires a fine-tuner, Codes require a coder. Information requires an Informer. Translation requires a translator. Life has only been observed to come from life. Logic comes from logic, Consciousness comes from consciousness, machines require a machine-maker. Factories require a factory-maker. Objective moral values come from a moral giver. The "God of the gaps" is an invalid refutation of arguments for the existence of God. And so, that there is no evidence for God(s).
To be ultimate and singular means to be the source of all possibilities. How can you establish what is possible and impossible without referencing God? If there is no God, then how can the laws of physics which are imported on the physical universe be stable, and continuous, and be secured? Atheists cannot ground fundamentally anything, that is: 1. Existence itself
2. The meaning of life 3. The value of human life 4. Moral values 5. Knowing what is objectively ( ontologically) true in regards to reality 6. Sound reasoning 7. Logic 8. Intelligibility 9. Mind and consciousness 10. Uniformity in nature.
Scientists, most of them not believing in God, had to acknowledge and admit the overwhelming evidence pointing to the overwhelming appearance of design in the natural world:
https://reasonandscience.catsboard.com/t1276p25-125-reasons-to-believe-in-god#8282
Following a list of positive evidence of God's existence, not depending on gaps or lack of knowledge.
1. Existence of the universe. The universe had a beginning, therefore a cause
2. The universe obeys the laws and rules of mathematics and physics. Its implementation depends on the action of an intelligent rational agency.
3. The physical universe and the laws of physics are interdependent and irreducible. There would not be one without the other.
4. Fine-Tuning. The fundamental physical constants, the universe, and the earth are finely tuned for life. Over 100 constants must be just right.
5. Formation of life. Life comes only from life. Abiogenesis has never been demonstrated to be possible despite over half a century of intensive scientific research.
6. Cells ARE literally factories. Biological cells ARE an industrial park of millions of interconnected complex factories, full of machines. Factories are always designed.
7. A minimal free-living Cell requires 1300 proteins with an average size of 400 amino acids. That requires to select 1 out of 10^722.000!
8. Irreducible complexity. Biological cells require a minimal number of parts, which have no use by themselves, and would never accumulate on a prebiotic earth
9. The appearance of design. The universe and biological systems appear designed. Therefore, most probably, they are designed.
10. Codified Information. DNA has the highest storage density known, and stores the blueprint of life. Blueprints can always be traced back to intelligence
11. The Fossil Record. The Fossil record, and in special the Cambrian explosion, demonstrates the sudden appearance of lifeforms, without intermediates.
12. Consciousness and language. Conscience, mental reality, language, logic, free will, moral values, are immaterial entities, and cannot emerge from physical matter.
13. Objective moral values exist. They are "ought to be"s, imprinted in our conscience.
14. Human objective logic depends and can only derive from a pre-existing necessary first mind with objective logic.
15. Theology and philosophy. Both lead to an eternal, self-existent, omnipresent transcendent, conscious, intelligent, personal and moral Creator.
16. The Bible. The Old Testament is a catalog of fulfilled prophecies of Jesus Christ, and his mission, death, and resurrection foretold with specificity.
17. Archaeology. Demonstrates that all events described in the Bible are historical facts.
18. History. Historical evidence reveals that Jesus Christ really did come to this earth, and really did physically rise from the dead
19. The Bible's witnesses. There are many testimonies of Jesus doing miracles still today, and Jesus appearing to people all over the globe, still today.
20. End times. The signs of the end times that were foretold in the Bible are occurring in front of our eyes. New world order, Israel as a nation, microchip implant, etc.
21. After-life experiences. Credible witnesses have seen the afterlife and have come back and reported to us that the afterlife is real.
How do you explain:
1. The existence of the universe. The universe had a beginning. What was the cause?
2. The universe obeys the laws and rules of mathematics and physics. What does its implementation depend on?
3. The physical universe and the laws of physics are interdependent and irreducible. There would not be one without the other. How was that instantiated?
4. Fine-Tuning: The Laws of physics, physical constants, the initial conditions of the universe, the Big Bang, the subatomic particles, atoms, Carbon nucleosynthesis, the basis of all life on earth, the Milky Way, our Galaxy, the Solar System, the sun, the earth, the moon, water, the electromagnetic spectrum, and biochemistry are fine-tuned to permit life. Over 100 constants must be just right. How do you explain that?
5. Formation of life. How did life start, if abiogenesis research has failed, and never been able to demonstrate to be possible despite over half a century of intensive scientific research?
6. Cells ARE literally factories. Biological cells ARE an industrial park of millions of interconnected complex factories, full of machines. How do you explain their origin?
7. A minimal free-living Cell requires 1350 proteins with an average size of 400 amino acids. That requires selecting 1 out of 10^722.000! How do you have such enormous faith in lucky accidents?
8. Irreducible complexity. Biological cells require a minimal number of parts, which have no use by themselves, and would never accumulate on the prebiotic earth. Evidence rather shows that molecules randomize and devolve into asphalts.
9. The appearance of design. The universe and biological systems appear designed. Therefore, most probably, they are designed. If not, why not?
10. Codified Information. DNA has the highest storage density known, and stores the blueprint of life. Blueprints can always be traced back to intelligence. If now, what is your alternative explanation, and do you have evidence?
11. The Fossil Record. The Fossil record, and in special the Cambrian explosion, demonstrates the sudden appearance of lifeforms, without intermediates. How can evolution therefore still be true?
12. Consciousness and language. Conscience, mental reality, language, logic, free will, moral values, are immaterial entities, and cannot emerge from physical matter. Or can they? And if so, how do you know?
13. Objective moral values exist. They are "ought to be"s, imprinted in our conscience. How comes?
14. Human objective logic depends and can only derive from a pre-existing necessary first mind with objective logic. Prove me wrong.
10 Syllogistic arguments for Gods existence
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUr8yXeX4Lw
A syllogism is a kind of logical argument that applies deductive reasoning to arrive at a conclusion based on two or more propositions that are asserted or assumed to be true. None of the ten arguments presented here, are based on lack of knowledge or gaps, but scientific evidence, which leads logically to a creator as the best explanation of origins.
1. Being cannot come from non-being 0:11
2. Who created the creator 0:37
3. The laws of physics point to a creator 1:33
4. Fine-tuning of the universe points to a fine-tuner 2:11
5. Abiogenesis research has failed 3:06
6. The factory maker argument 4:14
7. Cells are irreducibly complex 5:44
8. Where do complex organisms come from? 7:05
9. Gene regulatory networks (dGRN's) point to design 8:12
10. The tasks performed by the dGRN point to intelligent setup 9:24
Gravity is inferred by observing an apple falling to the floor, so the existence of a non-physical non-created creator is inferred by observing the existence of a finite universe.
Christianity is a “lack of belief” that there is no God! The claim that atheism is a lack of belief in God is just an escape from the underlying problem.
“No truth is relative” is an absolute truth claim. Actually, all truth is absolute.
I don't choose to be a theist, I just can not force my brain to accept the claim that Biological cells which are a factory park of unparalleled gigantic complexity and purposeful adaptive design of interlinked high-tech fabrics, fully automated and self-replicating, directed by genes and epigenetic languages and signaling networks, could emerge by no guiding intelligence, but random unguided lucky accidents.
The Bible presupposes God’s existence. To deny God’s existence is to deny the obvious. God made Himself known. When he says that the universe is designed, but it’s not.” the unbeliever is rejecting the obvious. To deny God’s existence means to reject that the evidence points evidently to God.
Being cannot come from non-being. Contingent existence is evidence of a necessary Creator. But not everybody ( is willing ) to see it.
Romans 1.19 - 23 What may be known about God is plain to them because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.
“I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting station, through which God speaks to us every hour if we will only tune in.”
George Washington Carver
If God is not the metaphysical, supernatural, primary ultimate essential eternal necessary irreducible personal being upon which all other temporal natural things, humans with personality, consciousness, and rationality causally derive and depend, what is, and why? If there was not an eternal being, an agency with a will, that caused all physical and contingent mental conscient beings, the cosmos and/or our universe into existence, how could an alternative substance without qualia be an explanation, and on top of that, a better explanation? That, in special, in light of the fact that consciousness, an irreducible, fundamental property of mind cannot, even in principle, be reduced to known physical principles? To ascribe to the electrons in our brain the property to generate consciousness, and not to ascribe the same property to the electrons moving in a bulb, is in contradiction with quantum physics, which establishes that all electrons are equal and indistinguishable, that is they have all exactly the same properties.
We recognize that the natural processes were designed because there is purposeful use of information and matter to perform specific functions in a consistent manner under various sets of conditions.
The first 40 minutes are well worth watching.
Demonstration of the existence of God and the Christian reasons for believing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySvTws--7f8
There is PLENTY of evidence of God's existence.
Does God exist?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0rDZByvvMc&t=32s
My YouTube channel: Intelligent Design Academy
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4XQQoUnNM3TEvrrcUd1VuQ
The Watchmaker argument, refuted by evolution?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdjjqBI_EzI&t=3304s
The factory maker argument
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8oGda1JxKw&t=252s
Is photosynthesis irreducibly complex?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktXnLnUA8XA&t=203s
Fine-tuning of the electromagnetic forces, evidence of design?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhwCazIoVC4&t=787s
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C.S.Lewis: One absolutely central inconsistency ruins [the naturalistic worldview].... The whole picture professes to depend on inferences from observed facts. Unless inference is valid, the whole picture disappears.... unless Reason is an absolute--all is in ruins. Yet those who ask me to believe this world picture also ask me to believe that Reason is simply the unforeseen and unintended by-product of mindless matter at one stage of its endless and aimless becoming. Here is flat contradiction. They ask me at the same moment to accept a conclusion and to discredit the only testimony on which that conclusion can be based.
"Is Theology Poetry?", The Weight of Glory and Other Addresses
http://mirror1.booksdescr.org/ads.php?md5=9BFA0EA873D6877852A258BE06FC0A5E
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What might be a Cell’s minimal requirement of parts?
https://reasonandscience.catsboard.com/t2110-what-might-be-a-protocells-minimal-requirement-of-parts
Proteins are the result of the DNA blueprint, which specifies the complex sequence necessary to produce functional 3D folds of proteins. Both improbability and specification are required in order to justify an inference of design.
1. According to the latest estimation of a minimal protein set for the first living organism, the requirement would be about 560 proteins, this would be the absolute minimum to keep the basic functions of a cell alive.
2. According to the Protein-length distributions for the three domains of life, there is an average between prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells of about 400 amino acids per protein. 8
3. Each of the 400 positions in the amino acid polypeptide chains could be occupied by anyone of the 20 amino acids used in cells, so if we suppose that proteins emerged randomly on prebiotic earth, then the total possible arrangements or odds to get one which would fold into a functional 3D protein would be 1 to 20^400 or 1 to 10^520. A truly enormous, super astronomical number.
4. Since we need 560 proteins total to make a first living cell, we would have to repeat the shuffle 560 times, to get all proteins required for life. The probability would be therefore 560/10^520. We arrive at a probability far beyond of 1 in 10^200.000 ( A proteome set with 239 proteins yields odds of approximately 1/10^119.614 ) 7
Granted, the calculation does not take into consideration nor give information on the probabilistic resources available. But the sheer gigantic number os possibilities throw any reasonable possibility out of the window.
If we sum up the total number of amino acids for a minimal Cell, there would have to be 560 proteins x 400 amino acids = 224.000 amino acids, which would have to be bonded in the right sequence, choosing for each position amongst 20 different amino acids, and selecting only the left-handed, while sorting out the right-handed ones. That means each position would have to be selected correctly from 40 variants !! that is 1 right selection out of 40^224.000 possibilities !! Obviously, a gigantic number far above any realistic probability to occur by unguided events. Even a trillion universes, each hosting a trillion planets, and each shuffling a trillion times in a trillionth of a second, continuously for a trillion years, would not be enough. Such astronomically unimaginably gigantic odds are in the realm of the utmost extremely impossible.
Biological Cells are equal to a complex of millions of interlinked factories
https://reasonandscience.catsboard.com/t2245-biological-cells-are-like-an-industry-complex-full-of-interlinked-factories
1. Blueprints and buildings made upon its instructions are always sourced back to an intelligent cause.
2. The instructional information stored in DNA directs the making of biological cells and organisms.
3. DNA, biological Cells and organisms are therefore most probably the result of intelligent design.
1. Intelligent minds make factory plants full of machines with specific functions, set up for specific purposes. Each fabric can be full of robotic production lines where the product of one factory is handed over to the next for further processing until the end product is made. Each of the intermediate steps is essential. If any is mal or non-functioning, like energy supply, or supply of the raw materials, the factory as a whole ceases its production.
2. Biological cells are a factory complex of interlinked high-tech fabrics, fully automated and self-replicating, hosting up to over 2 billion molecular fabrics like Ribosomes & chemical production lines, full of proteins that act like robots, each with a specific task, function or goal, and completing each other, the whole system has the purpose to survive and perpetuate life. At least 560 proteins and a fully setup metabolome and genome is required, and they are interdependent. If even one of these proteins were missing, life could not kick-start. For example, without helicase, DNA replication would not be possible, and life could not perpetuate. The probability, that such complex nano-factory plant could have emerged by unguided chemical reactions, no matter in what primordial environment, is beyond the chance of one to 10^200.000. The universe hosts about 10^80 atoms.
3. Biological Cells are of unparalleled gigantic complexity and purposeful adaptive design, vastly more complex and sophisticated than any man-made factory plant. Self-replicating cells demonstrate, therefore extremely strong indicators that the deliberate action of a conscious intelligent designer was involved in creating living cells.
Factories, full of machines and production lines and computers, originate from intelligent minds. No exception.
Biological cells are factories.
Factory is from Latin, and means fabricare, or make. Produce, manufacture. And that's PRECISELY what cells do. They produce other cells through self-replication, through complex machine processing, computing etc.
Therefore, they had a mind as a causal agency.
The claim is falsified, once someone can demonstrate a factory that can self-assemble, without the requirement of intelligence.
The Cell is a Factory
https://reasonandscience.catsboard.com/t2245-the-cell-is-a-factory
There are millions of protein factories in every cell. Surprise, they’re not all the same
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/06/there-are-millions-protein-factories-every-cell-surprise-they-re-not-all-same
Cells are very similar to factories. To stay alive and function properly, cells have a division of labor similar to that found in factories.
https://www.slcschools.org/departments/curriculum/science/Grade-7-to-8/Grade-7/documents/s3-o2-lesson-cell-as-a-factory-website-pdf.pdf
Comparing a Cell to a Factory: Answer Key
Science NetLinks is a project of the Directorate for Education and Human Resources Programs of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
http://sciencenetlinks.com/student-teacher-sheets/comparing-cell-factory-answer-key/
Rough ER is also a membrane factory for the cell; it grows in place by adding membrane proteins and phospholipids to its own membrane.
https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Cell_Biology/Print_version
https://reasonandscience.catsboard.com/t1659-confirmation-of-intelligent-design-predictions
Astronomy
What comes first, mind or matter?
http://reasonandscience.heavenforum.org/t1380-what-comes-first-mind-or-matter
Laws of Physics, where did they come from?
https://reasonandscience.catsboard.com/t1336-laws-of-physics-where-did-they-come-from
The universe most probably had a beginning
https://reasonandscience.catsboard.com/t1297-the-universe-most-probabaly-had-a-beginning
Fine-tuning of the universe
https://reasonandscience.catsboard.com/t1277-fine-tuning-of-the-universe
Origin of stars and planets
https://reasonandscience.catsboard.com/t2461-origin-of-stars-and-planets
Origin of life
Abiogenesis is impossible
https://reasonandscience.catsboard.com/t1279-abiogenesis-is-impossible
Biodiversity & Evolution
Principal Meanings of Evolution in Biology Textbooks
https://reasonandscience.catsboard.com/t2358-principal-meanings-of-evolution-in-biology-textbooks
Primary, and secondary speciation
https://reasonandscience.catsboard.com/t2360-primary-and-secondary-speciation
Is there evidence for natural selection?
https://reasonandscience.catsboard.com/t2458-is-there-evidence-for-natural-selection
Eukaryotes evolved from Prokaryotes. Really ?
https://reasonandscience.catsboard.com/t1568-eukaryotes-evolved-from-prokaryotes-really
On the Origin of Mitochondria: Reasons for Skepticism on the Endosymbiotic Story
https://reasonandscience.catsboard.com/t1303-challenges-to-endosymbiotic-theory
Unicellular and multicellular Organisms are best explained through design
https://reasonandscience.catsboard.com/t2010-unicellular-and-multicellular-organisms-are-best-explained-through-design
"Tetrapods evolved" . Really ?
https://reasonandscience.catsboard.com/t2219-the-evolution-of-tetrapods
What are the mechanisms that drive adaptation to the environment, microevolution, and secondary speciation?
https://reasonandscience.catsboard.com/t2460-what-are-the-mechanisms-that-drive-adaptation-to-the-environment-microevolution-and-secondary-speciation
Macroevolution. Fact, or fantasy?
https://reasonandscience.catsboard.com/t1390-macroevolution#1982
Where Do Complex Organisms Come From?
https://reasonandscience.catsboard.com/t2316-where-do-complex-organisms-come-from
The tree of life, common descent, common ancestry, a failed hypothesis
https://reasonandscience.catsboard.com/t2239-the-tree-of-life-common-descent-common-ancestry-a-failed-hypothesis
Photosynthesis
https://reasonandscience.catsboard.com/t1555-photosynthesis
Bible evidence
Evidence of Noah's flood
https://reasonandscience.catsboard.com/t1635-evidence-of-noah-s-flood
A cumulative case for the God of the bible
https://reasonandscience.catsboard.com/t1753-a-cumulative-case-for-theism
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1) Conservation of Energy.
..............................................
Textbooks say "Energy can be neither created nor destroyed". Correct would be: "Energy cannot be created or destroyed by any Physical Entity". If Energy cannot be created at all, the physical universe could NOT have been created in the first place. The Cause of the Universe has to be a non-physical entity (not matter energy space-time) that has the ability to create energy (to create the universe).
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2) Entropy
..............................................
Like a Clock that is wound-up. And then it winds down. Similarly, the universe was created with a certain amount of starting energy ( The universe is a closed system ). That energy is constant. However, over time, more of that energy becomes non-usable. Entropy increases until one day the universe will have completely wound down. So, this points to some entity that wound up the universe in the first place.
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3) The Big Bang (BB)
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The science indicates that all matter-energy, space and time came into being at the BB. Before this there was no matter-energy, space, time. So the cause of the BB has to be Supernatural (since by definition everything that is nature or natural is composed of matter-energy, space and time).
5 Easy Steps to refute naturalism
http://reasonandscience.heavenforum.org/t1877-easy-steps-to-refute-naturalism
Either the cosmos
(1) had no beginning, or
(2) it had a beginning.
(1) If the cosmos had no beginning, then there must be an infinite series of past events. However, it is impossible to traverse an actual infinite. Therefore, the universe cannot be infinitely old. Besides that, If the cosmos was infinitely old, it would have reached maximum entropy a long, long, time ago. Since it has not reached maximum entropy, it cannot be infinitely old without violating the second law of thermodynamics.
(2) If the cosmos had a beginning, then it must have come from (A) nothing or (B) something.
2.A. Although physicists such as Krauss and Hawking talk about "the universe creating itself from nothing," they are using the word "nothing" to mean the vacuum energy, which is not a true nothing. To be more precise, being cannot emerge from non-being.
2.B. If the entire cosmos came from something, that thing must transcend our cosmos, that is, it must exist beyond the limits of our space/time continuum. We may call it the First Cause.
P1) If we exist in the present moment time had a beginning (an infinite amount of time cannot be traversed, if there is no first moment the process of traversing moments cannot begin, the present moment could never arrive)
P2) If time began to exist, space, matter/energy also began to exist simultaneously since they are co-relational. (General Theory of Relativity)
P3) If time, space, matter/energy began to exist they (the natural order) require a sufficient cause. (Principle of Causality - First Principles of Logic)
P4) The natural order (time, space, matter/energy) cannot have caused itself to begin to exist.
P5) The universe began, is using its available energy, and will eventually reach a state of the total entropy.
2nd Law of Thermodynamics.
P6) A non-naturalistic cause for the only universe of which we have empirical knowledge is an unavoidable consequence of P2, P3, P4,P5)
C1) A logically necessary First Cause exists which is timeless, non-spatial, immaterial, and sufficient to the existence of the physical universe.
(from P2, P3, P4, P5)
C2) A causal agency which possesses the traditional attributes of God may be reasonably assumed to be God.
(from P2,P3, P4, P5)
God exists.
This is why I think the Big Bang is in perfect accord with what we would logically expect.
Is attributing eternity to God special pleading?
https://reasonandscience.catsboard.com/t1539-is-attributing-eternity-to-god-special-pleading
Fine-tuning of the universe
https://reasonandscience.catsboard.com/t1277-fine-tuning-of-the-universe
1. If our universe is random, then it is very unlikely that it permits life.
2. Our universe permits life.
3. Therefore, the existence of our universe is very likely due to something other than chance.
“The really amazing thing is not that life on Earth is balanced on a knife-edge, but that the entire universe is balanced on a knife-edge, and would be total chaos if any of the natural ‘constants’ were off even slightly. You see,” Davies adds, “even if you dismiss the an as a chance happening, the fact remains that the universe seems unreasonably suited to the existence of life — almost contrived — you might say a ‘put-up job’.”
Dr. Paul Davies, noted author and professor of theoretical physics at Adelaide University
Abiogenesis is impossible
https://reasonandscience.catsboard.com/t1279-abiogenesis-is-impossible
The Logic of Chance: The Nature and Origin of Biological Evolution, Eugene V. Koonin, page 351:
The origin of life is the most difficult problem that faces evolutionary biology and, arguably, biology in general. Indeed, the problem is so hard and the current state of the art seems so frustrating that some researchers prefer to dismiss the entire issue as being outside the scientific domain altogether, on the grounds that unique events are not conducive to scientific study.
Would you say that it is plausible that a tornado over a junkyard could produce a self-replicating machine, like John von Neumann's Universal Constructor ?
Would you say that it is plausible that mindless random chance can write a book?
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Question: Can someone use both, presupositional, and evidentialist/probabilistic arguments for the existence of God?
Answer: One can use various angles/approaches to make a positive case for God's existence, and they are cumulative, rather than mutually exclusive.
Particularly, I do not like the presuppositional approach, because one starts from the conclusion, and then tries to work from there. While I believe it's true that God reveals himself through the natural world, and special revelation (The Bible), therefore all people know that God exists ( Romans 1.19 -22), it is also true that the Christian faith can be acquired/solidified by doing duly diligence ( Acts 17.1) The Christian faith is essentially a rational faith Romans 12.1 KJV)
One can presuppose Gods existence by using the Thomistic argument that God is necessary:
1. Since we exist, something has always been.
2. If there ever had been an ontological state of absolutely nothing, then that state would never change, because nothing cannot cause something. Change is never simply a brute fact.
3. It is true that an infinite regress is not possible. If the past is infinite without a beginning, then arriving at the present would be like attempting to climb to the surface of the earth from an infinitely deep, bottomless pit.
4. The natural world cannot exist in and through itself. It is dependent on something else. That something must be necessary, unchanging, without a beginning, and everlasting.
5. Change without preconditions can only be instantiated by a mind, which wills something into existence without depending on something else.
6. Mass in the physical world seems to be miraculous. God created energy/mass, space, and time through his eternal power, and he stretched out the universe. The universe is a manifestation of his power
7. God's mind is the ultimate necessary eternal self-existing creator, which instantiated creation and sustains it, and which depends on him.
And one can reinforce an argument for God's existence by using eliminative induction.
God does exist or does not exist. This is a true dichotomy. Eliminative inductions argue for the truth of a proposition by arguing that competitors to that proposition are false. Eliminating the No-God option entails that the God option is true. As Sherlock Holmes's famous dictum says: when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however not fully comprehensible, but logically possible, must be the truth. Eliminative inductions, in fact, become deductions. If it could be argued, that the universe is not contingent, but could exist without a cause, the problem would be, that unguided natural events have too many options and without design couldn’t sort through the life-permitting options. The problem is that natural mechanisms are too unspecific to determine any particular outcome. Natural processes could theoretically be hypothesized to be able to form the right physical laws and initial conditions to create a life-permitting universe, the right building blocks of life, molecular machines, and cell factories, but also compatible, one would expect the formation of a plethora of physical laws that would not lead to a universe, or a non-life permitting universe, and also when the quest is the origin of life, all kind of molecular assemblages, most of which have no biological significance. And rather than going the route of complexification, these molecules would be unpure and disintegrate. Nature allows full freedom of arrangements. Yet it’s precisely that freedom that makes nature unable to account for specified outcomes of small probability. Nature, in this case, rather than being intent on doing only one thing, is open to doing any number of things; in the grand majority, non-meaningful. Yet when one of those things is a highly improbable specified event, design becomes the more compelling, better inference.
Professor Ulrich Becker** (High energy particle physics, MIT):
"How can I exist without a creator? I am not aware of any answer ever given."
1) https://reasonandscience.catsboard.com/t2024-the-rna-world-and-the-origins-of-life#3415
2) https://reasonandscience.catsboard.com/t2062-proteins-how-they-provide-striking-evidence-of-design?highlight=proteins
3) https://reasonandscience.catsboard.com/t2110-what-might-be-a-protocells-minimal-requirement-of-parts
4) https://reasonandscience.catsboard.com/t1362-panspermia?highlight=panspermia
http://god-proofs.blogspot.com.br/2014/05/theological-and-scientific-proofs.html
https://www.slideshare.net/kenboa/is-there-really-a-god-does-god-exist
'Science Is Pushing Away Atheism' | Eric Metaxas
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnS68Q0rpOE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQVm8RokoBA&t=4s
Scientists' belief in the existence of a metaphysical entity commonly referred to as "God" may appear perplexing at first. However, the question itself is somewhat invalid because science has, in a sense, discovered God. Even staunch atheists, if engaged in conversation, might acknowledge that science seems to have found evidence pointing toward the existence of God.
To understand this perspective, let's consider the WMAP (Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe) satellite initiative. If you visit the web and search for WMAP, you will come across a diagram illustrating the evolution of the universe from its creation to the present. This diagram, based on the collective knowledge of the scientific community, represents a timeline spanning billions of years. Starting from an initial burst of energy on the left side, it progresses towards the right with an oval indicating expansion in all directions.
The intriguing aspect is that on the far left edge of the diagram, it demonstrates the universe's beginning. Just under 50 years ago, suggesting the existence of a universe with a starting point could have been a controversial notion, even risking one's tenure as a professor. Back then, the prevailing scientific consensus leaned towards an eternal universe without a beginning, contradicting the Bible's account. However, the discovery of the echo of the Big Bang by Arnold Penzias and Robert Wilson at Bell Labs in the U.S. changed the narrative. They detected the energy residue predicted by George Gamow six decades earlier, indicating that if the universe originated from a hot and small state, it would have exploded, leaving behind this energy that gradually diluted over time. Overnight, the Bible appeared to be vindicated with its assertion of a universe with a starting point.
Now, let's address the concept of "nothing." The black space surrounding the diagram represents nothingness, not vacuum or empty space within the universe. Our human brains struggle to comprehend nothingness because our thinking is confined within the boundaries of time, space, and matter/energy. We can use words to describe nothingness, but it remains beyond our cognitive grasp.
This brings us to the idea of God. The creation force alluded to here is not the traditional three-letter word "God." Instead, it is closely linked to quantum fluctuations. The notion of creating something from nothing was introduced by Ed Tryon in the prestigious scientific journal Nature around four decades ago. The universe, governed by the laws of nature and quantum physics, allows for the emergence of something from absolute nothingness.
Consider what science has uncovered: the ability to create a universe from absolute nothingness, provided the laws of nature are in place. These laws of nature, or forces, are not physical entities themselves but act upon the physical realm. They precede the universe, indicating that they exist outside of time and our understanding of it. In essence, we have a set of forces, the laws of nature, that are non-physical, capable of creating the physical universe from nothing, and preexisting our concept of time. This bears a striking resemblance to the biblical definition of God.
In the biblical text, the only name for God mentioned in the opening chapter of Genesis is "Elohim," which represents God as manifested in the universe. Hence, science seems to have discovered the essence of the biblical God—a non-physical force that predates time and creates the universe.
SELECT RESOURCES ON MISCELLANEOUS TOPICS OF INTEREST TO CHRISTIANS Ashby Camp
http://theoutlet.us/SelectResourcesonMiscellaneousTopicsofInteresttoChristians.pdf
Miracles of Naturalism & the New Atheists: The Cosmic Comedy of Random Chance
The Spontaneous Universe: Out of utter nothingness, the universe decides to burst into existence, entirely on its own, without a hint of cause, reason, or a magic wand. Pure cosmic spontaneity!
Multiverse Lottery Winner: Our universe, just one lucky draw in an eternal cosmic lottery with an infinite number of tickets. The odds? Don't bother calculating, it's the ultimate jackpot!
Precision Without a Precisionist: The universe, fine-tuning its own parameters with the meticulousness of a Swiss watchmaker. Who needs a fine-tuner when you have cosmic coincidence?
The Lucky Cell: One cell, billions of years ago, hit the biological jackpot, assembling itself from a cosmic soup with odds that make lottery winning seem like a sure bet.
Random Code Generator: The genetic code, a marvel of complexity, just happened to assemble itself. Who knew that random chance was such an adept coder?
Self-Writing Genetic Saga: The first living cell's genetic information just magically appeared, like a story writing itself without an author. A natural masterpiece!
Molecular Morse Code: The translation from genetic information to proteins, a complex process that just decided to evolve by itself. No translator needed, it's all naturally coded!
DIY Molecular Factories: Molecules and cells, in their spare time, figured out how to assemble themselves into complex structures and factories. The ultimate in self-service!
Epigenetic Evolution's Encore: Over 20 epigenetic codes, popping up naturally, orchestrating the symphony of life's complexity and diversity. No conductor, just the music of the genes!
Consciousness from Stardust: From mere atoms to conscious minds, a leap that defies the gap between the physical and the metaphysical. Who knew matter was so introspective?
Moral Matter: Atoms and brains, dabbling in moral philosophy, developing a sense of right and wrong. Apparently, particles can ponder ethics too!
Last edited by Otangelo on Sat Sep 28, 2024 8:49 am; edited 255 times in total
