Continuing the debunkment of EveryStudent.com's article by Marilyn Adamson "Is There a God?" (Part 1 is here.)2. Does God exist? The universe had a start - what caused it?Big Bang, okay gotcha. (For scientific information on this for non-scientists, I recommend TalkOrigins.org.)
Scientists are convinced that our universe began with one enormous explosion of energy and light, which we now call the Big Bang. This was the singular start to everything that exists: the beginning of the universe, the start of space, and even the initial start of time itself.
Astrophysicist Robert Jastrow, a self-described agnostic, stated, "The seed of everything that has happened in the Universe was planted in that first instant; every star, every planet and every living creature in the Universe came into being as a result of events that were set in motion in the moment of the cosmic explosion...The Universe flashed into being, and we cannot find out what caused that to happen."I smell quote-mining. Oh look - Jastrow has been quote-mined by creationists before. Also, you can't get from "we cannot find out" what was before the BB to "We know what caused it. Magic Man done it." "I don't know" doesn't mean "Here's the answer." It just simply doesn't.
Steven Weinberg, a Nobel laureate in Physics, said at the moment of this explosion, "the universe was about a hundred thousands million degrees Centigrade...and the universe was filled with light."Ha, nice try. Marilyn are you suggesting that was a "Let there be light" moment?
The universe has not always existed. It had a start...what caused that? Scientists have no explanation for the sudden explosion of light and matter.So what makes you think you do have an explanation? Oh, arrogance and an anonymously written book of dubious origins, I see. Well then, that trumps evidence and reason every time, doesn't it? Oh wait, it doesn't. We figured that out with Scopes back in 1926 or much, much earlier, when spectral evidence was determined invalid in a court of law, following the Salem witch trials in the 1600s.
3. Does God exist? The universe operates by uniform laws of nature. Why does it?I don't personally know, although I would say the uniform rigidity of the universe to these laws of nature (named laws by us) points to a universe which has no supernatural being violating the laws of nature to perform miracles.
Much of life may seem uncertain, but look at what we can count on day after day: gravity remains consistent, a hot cup of coffee left on a counter will get cold, the earth rotates in the same 24 hours, and the speed of light doesn't change -- on earth or in galaxies far from us.Notice also that those are all things we can measure and verify, which is how we know that they are consistent over time. God, on the other hand, can't be measured or verified. To one person god is loving, to another harsh, and to another he is sleeping. There is no objective data supporting the claim that a god exists, much less that such a god is immutable.
How is it that we can identify laws of nature that never change? Why is the universe so orderly, so reliable?Well, we can identify them because a whole lot of biologists, geologists, astophysicists, naturalists, and botanists have made observations, recorded them, and learned from the data, over hundreds of years. And I don't know how reliable Marilyn requires something to be to call it "reliable". Does the varied intensity of gravity on different planetary bodies concern her, or is this part of her "orderly" unchanging (actually expanding) universe?
"The greatest scientists have been struck by how strange this is. There is no logical necessity for a universe that obeys rules, let alone one that abides by the rules of mathematics. This astonishment springs from the recognition that the universe doesn't have to behave this way. It is easy to imagine a universe in which conditions change unpredictably from instant to instant, or even a universe in which things pop in and out of existence."And just who is Marilyn quoting? None other than Dinesh D'Souza, who is in no way a scientist or expert on the rules of mathematics or nature, but rather a Christian apologist. (That would be why his quote has no in text citation, just a footnote.)
Richard Feynman, a Nobel Prize winner for quantum electrodynamics, said, "Why nature is mathematical is a mystery...The fact that there are rules at all is a kind of miracle."That (mined) quote seems to suggest Feynman believes in miracles of the supernatural variety, doesn't it? Here's another Feynman quote, more in line with his clearly stated atheist position: "God was invented to explain mystery. God is always invented to explain those things that you do not understand" (I'll see your quote, and raise with blasphemy.)
4. Does God exist? The DNA code informs, programs a cell's behavior.So far, so good. Two true sentences in a row.
All instruction, all teaching, all training comes with intent. Someone who writes an instruction manual does so with purpose.
Did you know that in every cell of our bodies there exists a very detailed instruction code, much like a miniature computer program? As you may know, a computer program is made up of ones and zeros, like this: 110010101011000. The way they are arranged tell the computer program what to do. The DNA code in each of our cells is very similar. It's made up of four chemicals that scientists abbreviate as A, T, G, and C. These are arranged in the human cell like this: CGTGTGACTCGCTCCTGAT and so on. There are three billion of these letters in every human cell!!ZOMG! Like, that's a really huge number! Lulz!
Well, just like you can program your phone to beep for specific reasons, DNA instructs the cell. DNA is a three-billion-lettered program telling the cell to act in a certain way. It is a full instruction manual.Ha, no. Word shystery (this seems to be what every theist argument boils down to in the end.) Marilyn has given us a definition of an instruction manual (written with a purpose) and has mentioned that DNA codes cells. She now makes the untrue statement "[DNA] is a full instruction manual." so that she can claim DNA must have been "written" with intent. But see, DNA isn't an instruction manual. It's a code, mostly for making protein, but there's no evidence intention is behind it.
Why is this so amazing? One has to ask....how did this information program wind up in each human cell? These are not just chemicals. These are chemicals that instruct, that code in a very detailed way exactly how the person's body should develop.*facepalm* I'm just gonna let cdk007 do the talking, Marilyn. You just shouldn't try talking about the genetic code like you understand it.
Natural, biological causes are completely lacking as an explanation when programmed information is involved.No, they really aren't. Didn't you watch the video?
You cannot find instruction, precise information like this, without someone intentionally constructing it.Sure you can. I know one place - the human genome! Haha, suck it.
Okay, so maybe that wasn't my best come back ever. I'll get to part 3 tomorrow, which is the part I'm really looking forward to (including the "I used to be an atheist" argument.)
