What do you mean, how do we know? There's so much evidence it would fill a warehouse with books and tanks and bottles and petri dishes. If you're implying that our entire perceptions are altered in a way that "nothing is true" and "nothing is real" then nothing would be real, including evolution (and including your god). Rene Descartes tackled this problem, and concluded that the outside world exists because sensations come to him without him thinking of producing them.... and if it doesn't, it's all our brains know, and is very consistent, so it's "real" to us either way. And in this world, evolution is very very real, undeniably in fact, unless you are going to shut out your mind to the evidence in favor of outdated beliefs
Like what? I can say the same thing about Zeus, and back it up just as well. Probably better. But evolution is different, in that the evidence is actually valid
Those are big questions, that have been tackled for many many years. You know that. We all know that. There are zillions of theories, I'm not going to recount all of them. But the fact that nobody has any definite answer doesn't suddenly make your own answer right
lulz. What about Zeus or Buddha? And why is a god needed to explain this stuff (in the following quote)? It's not.
Closer to the sun = more energy. Evolution There are a lot more reasons too (all evolutionary), but I suspect your question was theoretical and you don't actually want to know. If you do, it's very logical.... if a true grew in some other direction or in a completely different manner, due to mutations, combined chromosomes from mating, etc, it would die out, and the "victorious genes" would prevail onward. Evolution is very simple, and not random at all. Trees are only the way they are because that's the type of shape and growth that the conditions favor(ed). If something different had happened zillions of years ago perhaps, they would look completely different and we would wonder why they were like that (if we existed, that is)
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qi...18144214AAc2Dd6
This really has no relevance to anything religion-related lol Though I might add that it's an instinct from evolution. If you think that evolution doesn't exist, birds shouldn't fly in a V-shape at all. But they do. (Or you could say "well Zeus wanted them to fly in a V-shape, that's why they do"... that's when the question WHY is appropriate ;D)
basic psychological behavior, evolved hundreds of thousands of years ago, mostly in Africa but partly in groups that had migrated to Asian areas. Sticking in groups increases chance of survival (think herds of zebras; it's the same thing) and of course more things spring from there, emotions and whatnot springload off of it, etc
And your point is? Are you suggesting that if we can't figure something out, we should give up and say "oh well that's how Zeus wants it to be. We can't figure something out, so no reason to even try anymore, it's just Zeus's whim or Zeus's Big Plan"? I don't think so, and I hope that's not your mentality, cuz it's a sucky one to have. It's actually called 'God of the Gaps' and a typical apologist behavior... ie, "You scientist morons don't know why seeds are arranged in pentagons within an apple core? THAT MUST BE EVIDENCE FOR GOD!!!"
That was just random example off the top of my head, we do know why apple seeds are arranged in pentagons, it has to do with the Golden Ratio and the Fibonacci Numbers and their recurrence in nature (something which is very fascinating, and also explainable, if you were going to jump on the God of the Gaps bandwagon again ;D)
I agree. Words are words, and math is math - nature is built upon math, though it's mysterious as to whether math is manmade, naturemade, or a mix of both. Clearly one thing and one thing make two things, so I would say that nature definitely plays a role here
uh, why? Cuz 2+2=4? If 2+2=5, everything would be different, and 5 would be the new 4. Maybe 4 would be 17 and 17 would be 1548126 and 1548126 would be 5. Does it really matter? They're just names
Your reasoning for "everything comes down to god" is fallacious, and probably based on the Argument from Design. It goes something like this:
'You see a beautiful, intricate sand castle on the beach. Would you expect it to be a product of sea and sand caused by the random processes of nature? No, you would expect it to have been made by a person. Now look at the world. Someone had to design the universe. It was Zeus'
First, jumping from "someone had to do it" to "it must've been Zeus" is fallacious in its own right, but let's ignore that and move to the larger point:
At first this seems appealing, but in fact almost all Christian apologists have moved away from it because of its flaw that is realized when you think about it for... a couple of a seconds. Basically it boils down to: "if every complex, beautiful, intricate thing has to be created by a higher-leveled intelligent entity (by the theist's own definition), then Zeus must be created by a higher-level entity too. And that entity must be created by a higher entity, and so on and so forth."
It doesn't disprove Zeus, but it entirely blows to shreds your argument for his existence, unless you want to adjust your beliefs to incorporate an infinite ladder of Zeuses, stretching on back forever. But then why not have a universe with no beginning? Much simpler.
And the 'sand castle' analogy can be applied to life on earth, however what is misunderstood is that evolution actually will produce that 'sand castle' over a long period of time (not a literal 'sand castle', but some complex organism or whatever). In life, everything you see around you starts out simple and grows, evolves. Even you, from the moment of your conception to your cell growth and birth, etc. Everything starts out simple and grows to be very very complex. That's how we have eyes. That's how we have brains and arms that can build sand castles. That's why nature is full of metaphorical 'sand castles'. Complexity is an emergent pattern
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No, we do not know if he is real... but nor we do know if he is not. That is why you may not believe in God and I might.
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I agree. The fact that it cannot be proven either way makes it frustrating to show truth to people who have been blinded by conformity or parentage or what have you.
However neither can it be proven that I have an invisible, undetectable dragon in my garage
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That paragraph is SO going on my Sig...
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My suggestion: don't put it in your sig You will probably get unwarranted PMs from various atheists picking holes in your statements and showing you all of your logical fallacies and where your reasoning falters
note: this may get deleted by Martini, so I coped it in case you want to move to the religious debate