The Argument from Design

The First Apologetic Design is the BIG apologetic. With few exceptions a Christian begins his apologetics with the argument of DESIGN. Well, it's a good argument - the universe, respiration / photosynthesis, the water cycle even single-celled organisms just seem way too damned complex to come about by accident. Here's the problem and what few Christians understand or will EVER understand: Atheism does not mean a dogmatic adherence to Big Bang and Evolution - it means disbelief in worshiped beings called gods. The Christian is all ready to whip out his arguments from some Creationism website only to be told, "Okay let's pretend that the universe is designed - so what, your god STILL doesn't exist!" That's right, proving design doesn't mean that your god exists; it's not like Genesis which claims that the Earth was made a few thousand years ago, before the stars and placed on a solid foundation is a good second option! This confuses the HELL out of Christians and they seem incapable of understanding this at all!

The Ad Hoc Fallacy
The Ad Hoc or "It Doesn't Follow" fallacy is the fallacy of coming to a conclusion that doesn't necessarily follow the evidence. In the case of Christians or Muslims - their apologists will go to amazing lengths to show the complexity of life and the universe in order to disprove randomness. The ridiculous leap that these theists take is saying "Now that we've proven design we must therefore believe that an ancient Hebrew tribal wargod by the name of Jehovah made the world about 6,000 years ago placed a dome above the flat earth and stars in the firmament (for signs and wonders). This god placed two magical trees in a garden and when a human ancestor was tricked by a talking snake the species was tossed out because it was afraid that they would eat the other fruit and become like him (them). " Is this even remotely rational? The answer, of course is "no" since there are an infinite number of other options.

The False Dichotomy Fallacy
This is the fallacy of providing only two options when in reality there are more - maybe many more options. In the case of Christians or Muslims - they believe that all they have to do to prove that their religions are real is to disprove "Big Bang". This is an insane stance as there are thousands of religions and an infinite number of other options. In fact I cannot think of a worse violation of "The False Dichotomy Fallacy".

Lying Theists
I've run into two of these people so far and it is a seriously frustrating situation. Both of these OBVIOUS Christians claim to be generic theists with no theology and are HELLBENT to prove the existence of a generic deity through the argument of Design. First - I don't believe in unicorns, leprechauns or generic theists. A theist is someone who believes in a god. A god is a worshiped being so therefore a theist must believe in a being with a theology. A Muslim is a theist, a Deist is not. Why do these Christians lie about their theology? They have no interest whatsoever discussing their religion since they know they cannot possibly defend it - they just prefer to tilt at the windmill of design. Neither of these Christians understand or will ever understand that if all of earth's religions are provable myths, proving design accomplishes.. NOTHING! Lying theists are living examples of the "False Dichotomy Fallacy".

Let's get to the core problem of this argument:

Proving Design is Impossible
Imagine a tribe of pygmies sitting around discussing what earthquakes are all about. The Witch Doctor declares that his books state definitively that M'Pumba, the Hippo god, creates them when he walks. We know that things shudder only when large things walk so a large shuddering must come from a large walker! The pygmies don't have the science to explain what earthquakes are but does this make the Witch Doctor's explanation valid? We humans living in the 21st century simply do not have the science to definitively state what created life or the universe, this does not automatically mean that the "God did it" explanation is valid.

Proving Design DOES NOT Prove Jehovah
Imagine that in some far distant future with advanced, near godlike technology, we somehow prove design. So what? This changes almost NOTHING! Why should we automatically assume that Jehovah; the capricious, tribal god of the Hebrews is responsible? How about Horus, Odin, Zeus, Krishna, Allah, The Great Spirit, Apsu, Tiamat, the Anasazi, Quetzacoatl, Baal, Ashteroth, Samhein, Altjira, the Jade Emperor, Ilmatar, Jupiter, Inti... etc etc ad infinitum? Any one of thousands of earth gods could be responsible. But what why does it have to be an Earth God?

Proving Design DOES NOT Prove Theism
Theism is belief in a god, therefore a theist must have a religion as an unworshiped entity is not a god. If all of earth's religions are incorrect then the supreme, powerful, prime-mover is by definition not a god, it is an alien intelligence. This creature may not be omnipotent, omniscient or even benevolent. It may have little use for the human race and as such will be effectively no different from a natural event.

Proving Design DOES NOT Prove a Supreme Intelligence
Design does little more then prove... 'design'. Christians assume that we have two choices; belief in a grey-bearded, benevolent god or natural causes. What if we believed in...

• Eternal aliens of amazing power but not omnipotent or omniscient.
• A mass of living DNA at the center of the multiverse dispersing self-replicating, self-designing life.
• We are made of a sort of semi-sentient material that built us because it needs matter-based tool-builders to enter space.
• A trillion year old computer-like being sitting at the center of the multiverse that has been designing self-replicating, life-creating viruses which improve and design as they grow.
• We are a slave race engineered to serve the needs of a master that will harvest our distant descendents.
• We are escaped, engineered food for a giant, doomsday like creature.
• An insane being of limited but amazing power by our standards. This creature wanders into our time/space and we are its waste product like maggots in a dogpile.
• Our universe and life itself is a building process started by partially sentient, multi-dimensional mathematics?
• The universe itself is an eternal, sentient organism that we inhabit like fleas on a dog.
• The universe is little more than a factory built by an ancient race of energy beings to create matter levels necessary for technology in their civilization.
• Mice are really pandimensional creatures which contracted out the Earth from an ancient Planet Building company.
• Universes are fully capable of forming at random and creating life in agreement with laws of physics that we are simply ignorant of.

Finding Meaning in a Non-God Creator
Let's say for some reason you decide that there is a non-god creator. Worshiping or praying to or praising a non-god creator is as stupid and pointless as worshiping "The Big Bang". The being has not contacted us, doesn't listen to prayers and probably doesn't care. It is absolutely no different from a natural event and completely irrelevent to our lives. Worshiping or praying to a natural event is a stupid, self-delusional waste of time!

We Were Created - That Means We Have a Purpose
Not necessarily. What purpose do leeches serve? What purpose did the Neanderthals serve? I like to point out the Neanderthals because this was a different species of humanity that lived in a harsh, horrible environment for 100,000 years and then went into extinction. The Neanderthals were NOT a step in human evolution but a completely different branch. They came into existence, worked, struggled, loved, bred, died for 100,000 years and yet had they never existed we never would know the difference. Their existence had no cosmological/celestial purpose and there is no reason to believe we are any more special.

Jehovah
Again, what I'm saying here is that proving design doesn't prove Jehovah. Jehovah must be proven on his own and I believe that a creature as confused, childish and capricious as this tribal god would have trouble with a Lego Castle - much less creating all energy and matter. We'd have to believe that the same power that created giant fusion reactors called suns would need to eat fruit to stay immortal and likes the smell of burnt flesh. The same power that created the infinitely complex process of photosynthesis / respiration would have to put his hunting bow in heaven to remind him not to drown his people. I read a beautiful treatise by an astronomer who went into detail on the perfection and balance of the universe. At the end he stated that the sheer complexity of the design proved to him that something as vicious and confused as the Hebrew god could have nothing whatsoever to do with it. It had to be something smart and powerful with long-ranged plans and designs - not some silly, capricious monster who accepts blood sacrifices and regrets his own massacres.

Anthony Flew
Here's a new and interesting fly in the ointment - Christians will characterize it this way: "Life long atheist, Antony Flew has recanted of his earlier beliefs and is now a full-fledged theist; claiming that the universe is too complex to come about at random." Wow, sounds like a big win for Christians huh? Guess again, here's the actual quote:

At age 81, after decades of insisting belief is a mistake, Antony Flew has concluded that some sort of intelligence or first cause must have created the universe. A super-intelligence is the only good explanation for the origin of life and the complexity of nature, Flew said in a telephone interview from England.

Flew said he's best labeled a deist like Thomas Jefferson, whose God was not actively involved in people's lives.

"I'm thinking of a God very different from the God of the Christian and far and away from the God of Islam, because both are depicted as omnipotent Oriental despots, cosmic Saddam Husseins," he said. "It could be a person in the sense of a being that has intelligence and a purpose, I suppose."

Congratulations Antony, you've taken the baby step of believing in a Big Bang with a Brain instead of a Big Bang without a Brain. What possible difference does this make in anyone's life? Mr Flew is still an atheist as he believes in none of the world's religions. He has nothing in common with religionists like Christians, Jews and Muslims and will still live his life no differently than any atheist. Again, an unknown causer is no different from a natural event - NOTHING has changed!