(July 29, 2015 at 5:14 pm)Esquilax Wrote:(July 29, 2015 at 5:04 pm)lkingpinl Wrote: I would have to assume that a being of intelligence was present and wrote those words. What would you deduce in that same scenario?
... But you know that no being has ever been to this planet before. You have evidence that you are the first mind there and you'd still assume that someone was there before you?
As for me, I'd have no choice but to give more credence to the idea that the words formed naturally, since I have no evidence that they could have been written.
Let's change it up, however, and make the question more like the DNA example: say you go to the same planet, but instead of words in English, you find repeated symbols on the ground. They aren't intelligible to you at all, they match no known language, but you can see patterns in them, and the symbols are very complicated to look at. Do you deduce intelligent agency there, or not?
If the symbols are shown to be repeatable or have a pattern to them or appear to carry meaning, yes I must deduce an intelligent agency. I would liken this to cave drawings or hieroglyphics. I cannot decipher them, but they clearly carry meaning and I cannot logically deduce that it occurred naturally.
We are not made happy by what we acquire but by what we appreciate.
