My daughter wants to know....

[GUBU]

So the kiddo has a question and has been quite argumentative with me about it. Actually, she has several questions.

1. If god doesn't exist, where did life come from? Her answer is evolution isn't the answer because we had to come from somewhere.

She says logic and reason doesn't make sense. The big bang doesn't make sense and can't explain it because an explosion can't create things when explosions destroy things. That can't explain why there's life.


Her words. Have at it because I tried to tell her that you don't just throw in the excuse that "god did it", when there's no definitive answer to these things.

A lot of stuff doesn't make sense to us because it doesn't operate on scales we are able to comprehend. Humanity has a very limited ability to sense reality around us operating in a very small portion of the sensory field. Couple that with our insistence that there must be some sort of underlying narrative (I really like the idea of reclassifying humanity as Pan Narrans, the storytelling ape) to explain everything, and lots of reality comes out weird.

To respond to your daughter, ask her to explain god if life is too much to have a natural beginning, then god must also have a creator, being far more complex.

[Joods]

She got on the defensive about it last night and because I wasn't doing something right, decided that she didn't want to talk about it anymore.

I will show her your responses another time, when she's not being so emotional.

[Alex K]

It's not like there is a hurry. Also, you don't have to get her to agree to anything or to convince her.

[robvalue]

Sounds like she's got into religion/woo and is just looking to rationalize it by poking holes in science.

Hopefully she'll calm down and want to learn.

[ukatheist]

The thing I dont't get with the 'something from nothing' argument- theists try to explain this away by saying that the creator is supernatural and so not subject to natural law, yet the 'stuff' of our universe is natural. So where did the creator get the 'stuff' of our universe from? Did he being it over from the supernatural realm? How does something supernatural turn into something natural?

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[robvalue]

Right. You can't make something from nothing, so instead God made something from nothing.

It's the classic false dichotomy, anyway. Either [strawman of current science] or [goddidit]. Nope.

[Joods]

Yes, there is time. I'm going to let her go on this. Clearly her dad has gotten into her head with more than just one thing, which scares me because he's narcissistic. And my daughter is very swayable.

[ErGingerbreadMandude]

1. If god doesn't exist, where did life come from? Her answer is evolution isn't the answer because we had to come from somewhere.

If God does exist then where did God come from??? Hehe

To which she'll reply, "From God's mom!"

Aha! God doesn't have a mom! So how can God exist without having a mum and dad???




Owned. Too easy. Hehehe

[Ben Davis]

So the kiddo has a question and has been quite argumentative with me about it. Actually, she has several questions.

1. If god doesn't exist, where did life come from? Her answer is evolution isn't the answer because we had to come from somewhere.

She says logic and reason doesn't make sense. The big bang doesn't make sense and can't explain it because an explosion can't create things when explosions destroy things. That can't explain why there's life.


Her words. Have at it because I tried to tell her that you don't just throw in the excuse that "god did it", when there's no definitive answer to these things.

Hi Nymph, to be honest I'm surprised at her questions. In the UK, a 14yo would have been taught the facts behind our understanding of the universe years previously (starting ~8 years previously!). Has she had those lessons yet? What's the curriculum? More importantly, if the lessons have been taught, why haven't they stuck?

1. Abiogenesis can be replicated in the lab. Not our specific genesis but the basic building blocks of life can be formed by good old fashioned Chemistry, demonstrating that nature has all it needs to get life going. We don't have a complete picture but we know as fact that abiogenesis occurs naturally and explains the rise of life. We'll find out exactly which combination of chemicals and environment created ours in time, sure enough.

2. She's falling for the straw-man version of the Big Bang. Other explanations already in this thread do a great job of explaining it so I won't repeat them however it's important to highlight that it's not an explosion like a dynamite explosion rather it's an expansion like a bubble or balloon with universal laws acting on matter to make it behave the way that it does.

If she doesn't understand the facts and is instead someone who responds to authority (not yours, obviously ), you might try 'accidentally' leading her to reputable sources with easily understood, mnemonic, witty summaries. Pith is often trumped by the pithier

If she's instead swayed by emotional arguments, then the old 'I know it's hard to get to grips with life sometimes but life is hard, here have some sympathy' card may generate a better response. At least that way she's more likely to rely on information from a close, personal, emotionally-charged rationalisation than one imposed externally.

[brewer]

She got on the defensive about it last night and because I wasn't doing something right, decided that she didn't want to talk about it anymore.

I will show her your responses another time, when she's not being so emotional.

Don't worry, you'll start doing things right again in about 10 years. You'll stop being dumb also. It's amazing.