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How do you detect "design"?

We Never Know

No Slack
how many people do you know that believe in Leprechauns?
Why aren't there more outside of areas that were brought up to believe in them?

We don't believe there is no designer, it just seems smarter to believe there are no Leprechauns until you can show us one at the end of the rainbow and the pot of gold would be a nice addition.

You don't believe in Leprechauns do you?
"We don't believe there is no designer"

Lmao!

Who is we and why do youns believe there is a designer?

Fyi..."We don't believe there is no designer" means you believe there is a designer.
 

Brian2

Veteran Member
Our belief that it's natural is the observable evidence of chemistry and physics, and the dearth of evidence for the supernatural.
While awaiting evidence for the supernatural, we go with the actual evidence.

Just as I thought. While awaiting evidence for the supernatural, you follow the evidence, iow believe that there is no supernatural.
You can't follow what you call evidence and believe there are no gods and also defer belief in gods (sit on the fence).
 

Pogo

Well-Known Member
The fact that you can wave your hand and say 'ordinary observable chemistry and physics' does not take away the complexity of what is in that wave. Basically what you are saying is that you can't see a designer and so no designer is needed. And if there is no designer needed when you cannot see one then you are saying that there was no designer there.
This of course is a long way from deferred belief, which you claim.
yup, if we cannot see a designer, then we don't assume one exists.
So are you following the evidence and saying that there is no designer OR are you deferring belief in a designer?
You can't do both.
We are following the evidence that there is no designer needed for what we observe.
Science knows that there is no empirical evidence that there is no designer unless you want to call the "lack of evidence for a designer", actual evidence that there is no designer. (the appeal to ignorance fallacy) but that does not stop most scientists from taking a stance and not sitting on the fence when it comes to their beliefs about Gods.
In life the belief of most of them would be that there no gods, that gods are irrelevant.
In a discussion like this however where they might want to be seen to be logical, they would say that they have just deferred belief in a designer (until they die of course when nobody will want them to explain their belief in empiricism and rejection of the history of God revealing Himself to humanity and to explain why they did not live as if God existed, if they seriously lacked belief either way.)
Yup, we are not claiming there is proof of no designer, we are just not claiming that there is evidence of a designer and thus far, there is no evidence that a designer is necessary.
Gods/Designers are deferred until there is some evidence they exist and explain anything, thus far no soap.

you have obviously never done any science, so you don't even know how silly your position sounds.
 

Pogo

Well-Known Member
"We don't believe there is no designer"

Lmao!

Who is we and why do youns believe there is a designer?

Fyi..."We don't believe there is no designer" means you believe there is a designer.
LMAO, It is hopefully way to late for you if you confuse lack of belief with belief of lack.
Though this begins to explain why you seem unable to follow any logic.
 
I try to be honest about what I see, and I see atheists claiming that Gods do not exist and then I see atheists hiding from giving evidence that there are no gods by claiming that I am the one making the claims and so I need to prove something to them.

There’s really nothing to be proves.

As an atheist, I believe that God does not exist.

This belief (or claim, as you call it) is not something that I would ever try to prove. So I’m not sure what kind of evidence I’m supposed to be hiding. What would be the nature of this evidence? I can’t prove my atheist beliefs.

As for your claims, I don’t know what they are, nor do I know why you might or might not feel a “need” to prove them.

People prove claims because they enjoy proving their claims, or maybe somebody is paying them to prove their claims, and they enjoy spending the money.

Proving things is a voluntary action.

According to Richard Feynman, you can just tell the physicists to do their own damn calculations!
 
No, induction is scientifc and not depending on your philosophy of science. That is the point.

I like that!

I was worried that I might not wake up tomorrow morning, given my advanced age, but I realize now that my advanced age just means that I’ve accumulated more evidence that I’ll wake up tomorrow morning than young folks have.

Thru the use of science, I was ably to convert my pessimistic outlook on life with a more optimistic outlook.

I feel better, already!
 
You don't believe in Leprechauns do you?

It took me a while to realize what a Duende was.

Aparently, they have those in Ireland, as well, which is pretty cool.

In some places they can be quite mean, but the Irish Duendes never looked mean to me, and patiano Duendes look just like Irish Duendes, so I was surprised.
 

Valjean

Veteran Member
Premium Member
Religion is more about spiritual things and science is about secular
Yes. Science forms and tests models of reality. It assesses evidence. Religion is more multi-faceted. It's different things to different people.
Ideally religion deals with questions of purpose, values, significance, morality, &c. Unfortunately it often trespasses onto science's turf with doctrinal claims about physical reality.


Science is about the world secular view, religion with the biblical dealing with the ethical view of should or should we Not do it
Science is about ontological reality; about how the world or universe works. Religion is a separate magisterium.
Science generally stays in its lane. Religion tends to wander.
Secular education today is more about scrubbing out the Bible in Academic U.
Secular education is about concrete facts. It would prefer to ignore religion, if only religion weren't repeatedly getting in its face, trying to subvert scientific reasoning and block student exposure to doctrinally inconvenient facts.
Education is supposed to teach us how to think
And religion tries to subvert it.
Religion often retards analytic skill and the habit of thinking rationally. It discourages skepticism, questioning, reason, and analysis, in favor of faith.
Schools today are more like indoctrination centers
The religious schools are, yes. Secular education, on the other hand teaches evidence-based facts and thinking.
I don't consider teaching investigation and questioning to be indoctrination.
Propaganda teaches us what to think
Propaganda indoctrinates us into believing a preferred narrative. It discourages questioning it.
Science is Not the teacher of morality
Is it supposed to? Does it claim to? What's your point?
Religion doesn't do a very good job, either.
The Bible (religion) teaches us the way to serve God ( morality to be governed by )
It depicts a jealous, impulsive, cruel and vindictive god. It gives many conflicting examples of proper conduct, and promotes a lot of behavior that very few would consider moral today.
The world struggles desperately Not to learn about the teachings of Christ and how that affects our lives
Governments often do suppress His more compassionate teachings as impractical and seditious.
Genesis is about getting Earth ready for mankind to inhabit Earth. Who named planet Earth _________ Genesis 1:10
How did you come up with that interpretation?
 

Valjean

Veteran Member
Premium Member
Of course the 'church' has No such track record because: by breaking the Law Adam set up People Rule as superior to God Rule,
in other words, The old adage applies ' give a person enough rope.......'
Since Adam's choice God does Not interfere with our choices
However, both Job and Jesus have the perfect track record that under adverse conditions they proved faithful to God and so can we
You're preaching a religious mythology. Can you support it rationally?
 

Valjean

Veteran Member
Premium Member
Just as school spirit (pep rallies) are designed to inspire feeling and school spirit is Not a person
Just as a high-spirited horse shows feeling but we know the horse's high spirit is Not a horse person
We all have different abilities as our life's spirit shows while still alive - Ecclesiastes 12:7 B
At death one's spirit (IT) returns to God in the same way a foreclosed house 'it' is returned to the owner
Any future life for the foreclosed house now lies in the owner's hands and so does any future life for us
Don't just preach. Support your assertions.
 
The same place as your evidence there are no unicorns.

My belief in the existence of unicorns is a result of my faith in the capabilities of science.

I’m not saying that it’ll be easy, but without faith it’ll be impossible. We’ll just give up on the whole idea of creating a unicorn, and then what will our great, great grandchildren ride to school on?

Evo-Devo (Despacito Biology Parody) | A Capella Science​

 

Valjean

Veteran Member
Premium Member
It sounds like you mean that you believe that there is no designer and do not believe that there is a designer?
or at least that would be your position if there is empirical evidence that there is no designer and no evidence that there is a designer, correct?
So where is that empirical evidence that there is no designer?
And this is why I question your ability to think.
Who has the burden of proof, and what is the reasonable default position if the burden isn't met?

I am making no claim. I have no burden, so no need to prove a negative -- that a designer does not exist.
The claim is yours, and the burden. If you can't support it logically, with objective evidence, the default position stands -- automatically.
Belief is withheld, pending such support.
Without empirical evidence either way, it is reasonable not do make up your mind.
OK, so with no evidence of existence, non-existence is assumed.
If that's what you're saying, I'm on board, but I suspect it's not. Clarify?
And as I said, no evidence of non-existence is needed for the position to stand. It's the blank slate we start with.
So why are there so many people who have not made up their mind about the existence of a designer but fight tooth and nail against the idea that there is a designer?
You're misinterpreting our request for evidence of the claim, or our pointing out that you have none and haven't met your burden; as fighting tooth and nail against the claim. No the claim was never substantiated in the first place.
More faulty reasoning.
M
 

mikkel_the_dane

My own religion
And this is why I question your ability to think.
Who has the burden of proof, and what is the reasonable default position if the burden isn't met?

I am making no claim. I have no burden, so no need to prove a negative -- that a designer does not exist.
The claim is yours, and the burden. If you can't support it logically, with objective evidence, the default position stands -- automatically.
Belief is withheld, pending such support.

OK, so with no evidence of existence, non-existence is assumed.
If that's what you're saying, I'm on board, but I suspect it's not. Clarify?
And as I said, no evidence of non-existence is needed for the position to stand. It's the blank slate we start with.

You're misinterpreting our request for evidence of the claim, or our pointing out that you have none and haven't met your burden; as fighting tooth and nail against the claim. No the claim was never substantiated in the first place.
More faulty reasoning.
M

Overall good post.
One small detail. Non-existence as a concept is philosophy and "bad" philosophy at that. You can't observe non-existence. It is a cognitive concept made up of 2 abstract that have no observational evidence for both of them.
 

TagliatelliMonster

Veteran Member
Is there a hypothesis that says that there is no design in the universe?
If so, is it based and supported by some evidence (not merely ignorant negative "evidwence" against some different idea)
Why are you repeating the same mistake that has already been addressed?

Your mistake is in the word "no" there.
A hypothesis is going to be about how things are or DO work. Not how they are not or do not work.

No, there is no hypothesis that says there is "no design".
Just like there is no hypothesis of gravity that says that there are "no graviton pixies".

If you still don't understand this PRATT then I don't know what else to tell you.
 

TagliatelliMonster

Veteran Member
Not being able to show that the universe was not designed, seems to mean that you are relying on it not being falsified so that you can claim it is true.

How many times can you use the word "no" / "not" in a sentence?

That being said, it is as much the ignorantium fallacy as believing in a designer.
It is not. Try making a positive case FOR design instead of merely stating the obvious of the unfalsifiable not being falsifiable. :shrug:
 

TagliatelliMonster

Veteran Member
When have you demonstrated that no designer is needed?

With the same argument that no undetectable graviton pixies are needed.
Try making a positive claim.

Yes OK, that is what I say about your claim that there is no designer.

I made no such claim.
I tend to stay clear of meaningless claims.
It's why I also don't claim that there are no undetectable graviton pixies regulating gravity.

What I DO say, is that there is no reason to think that there IS such a thing.
If you think there is, then it's upto you to make a case FOR that positive claim.
But all you seem to be able to do is point out the obvious that there is no testable claim such things NOT being the case. That, and argue strawmen.

Here's a good exercise for you for future reference. Whenever you try to make a claim / case concerning a designer of the universe, replace "universe" with "gravity" and "designer" with "undetectable graviton pixies". Then see if the "argument" works just the same. If it does, try and do better.

Science does not make up the idea that there is or that there is not a designer

Exactly, so why do you keep pointing out the obvious?

Yes, science does not know how to recognise whether something has been designed or not.

This is false. Archeologists, for example, do exactly that all the time.
And it's in fact what the thread is about.


And that is your dishonesty when you claim that God is a fiction

I have not once actually claimed that.
Who's dishonest here, really?
I would say it's the person that's insisting on arguing such strawmen.
 
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TagliatelliMonster

Veteran Member
Well, here is another version of science and yes @TagliatelliMonster I am break my promise, but I don't care:

As relevant:
"
That Nature has uniformity of laws and most if not all things in nature must have at least a natural cause.[60]
Biologist Stephen Jay Gould referred to these two closely related propositions as the constancy of nature's laws and the operation of known processes.[66] Simpson agrees that the axiom of uniformity of law, an unprovable postulate, is necessary in order for scientists to extrapolate inductive inference into the unobservable past in order to meaningfully study it.[67] "The assumption of spatial and temporal invariance of natural laws is by no means unique to geology since it amounts to a warrant for inductive inference which, as Bacon showed nearly four hundred years ago, is the basic mode of reasoning in empirical science. Without assuming this spatial and temporal invariance, we have no basis for extrapolating from the known to the unknown and, therefore, no way of reaching general conclusions from a finite number of observations. (Since the assumption is itself vindicated by induction, it can in no way "prove" the validity of induction — an endeavor virtually abandoned after Hume demonstrated its futility two centuries ago)."[68] Gould also notes that natural processes such as Lyell's "uniformity of process" are an assumption: "As such, it is another a priori assumption shared by all scientists and not a statement about the empirical world."[69] According to R. Hooykaas: "The principle of uniformity is not a law, not a rule established after comparison of facts, but a principle, preceding the observation of facts ... It is the logical principle of parsimony of causes and of economy of scientific notions. By explaining past changes by analogy with present phenomena, a limit is set to conjecture, for there is only one way in which two things are equal, but there are an infinity of ways in which they could be supposed different."[70]
"
Point?
 
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