Thursday, April 26, 2007

Theistic predictions? Materialistic predictions?

I encountered a ... well, I'm not sure just what to make of this guy. In PandasThumb, he uses the name Philip Cunningham and posted this little tidbit:

1. Materialism did not predict the big bang, Yet Theism always said the universe was created.
2. Materialism did not predict a sub-atomic (quantum) world that blatantly defies our concepts of time and space, Yet Theism always said the universe is the craftsmanship of God who is not limited by time or space.
3. Materialism did not predict the fact that time, as we understand it, comes to a complete stop at the speed of light, as revealed by Einstein’s theory of relativity, Yet Theism always said that God exists in a timeless eternity.
4. Materialism did not predict the stunning precision for the underlying universal constants, for the universe, found in the Anthropic Principle, Yet Theism always said God laid the foundation of the universe, so the stunning clockwork precision found for the various universal constants is not at all unexpected for Theism.
5. Materialism did not predict the fact that the DNA code is, according to Bill Gates, far, far more advanced than any computer code ever written by man, Yet Theism would of naturally expected this level of complexity in the DNA code.
6. Materialism presumed a extremely beneficial and flexible mutation rate for DNA, which is not the case at all. Yet Theism would have naturally presumed such a high if not, what very well may be, complete negative mutation rate to an organism’s DNA.
7. Materialism presumed a very simple first life form. Yet the simplest life ever found on Earth is, according to Geneticist Michael Denton PhD., far more complex than any machine man has made through concerted effort. Theism would of naturally expected this.
8. Materialism predicted that it took a very long time for life to develop on earth, Yet we find evidence for photo-synthetic life in the oldest sedimentary rocks ever found on earth (Sarah Simpson, Scientific American, 2003). Theism would have expected this sudden appearance of life on earth.
9. Materialism predicted the gradual unfolding of life to be self-evident in the fossil record, The Cambrian Explosion, by itself, destroys this myth. Theism would of expected such sudden appearance of the many different fossils in the Cambrian explosion.


Someone called bornagain77 managed to post the same drivel at uncommondescent (26th April, 2007). Perhaps some people over there might actually think that this guy has anything to say. Rather than going through them all and pointing out all the flaws, I will just point out the blatant illogic that almost all of them suffer from. First of all, to say that materialism predicts anything is plain non-sensical. Materialism is not a hypothesis, it is a philosophical stance that says that matter is all that exists. Second, theism doesn't predict anything either. Given that theism includes any conceivable god that can do any of an infinite set of things, you can't predict what any of those "things" are. Third, it is claimed that materialism does not predict x, YET theism predicts y. x and y are half of the time not even remotely the same thing. There is no opposition, as bornagain77 would have us think.

This has got to be the most logic-deprived 9 point list I have seen in my life (although, I would be happy [and frightened] if someone pointed out an even worse example than this). I would suspect a troll, but then I've seen worse arguments from ID creationists before.

2 Comments:

At 3:59 AM, Blogger John Pieret said...

Just to finish that off, the Bill Gates stuff is a quote mine.

 
At 4:15 PM, Blogger Hawks said...

Added to the fact that DNA isn't really like a software program...

 

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