So your an Athiest

[AAA]

Well it isn't easy to try to have a discussion on what there was before the universe that we can observe. You seem to think that an intelligent designer is illogical. I have a hypothetical scenario: if we one day created a computer simulation program that had conscious beings, and these beings started to realize that the space that they live in only works if the parameters to make the computer program work at very specific values. They then learn of their own complexity and begin to examine the digital code that makes up themselves. Is it irrational for them to conclude that they are living in a space that was designed?

This scenario is not so hypothetical. It is exactly the situation we are in.

Yes it is, it's very, very hypothetical - just because we happen to exist in a Goldilocks case of coincidental situations which are favorable to life does not in any way imply design. We are centered where we are around 1 of probably trillions or more stars in this universe, therefore the law of averages is not only favorable for relatively small number of variables to occur all at once - it mandates that this happens! If such conditions never developed here, then we would not be having this conversation, but interesting life (whether or not it speaks or writes) would certainly be on some other planet. Give any planet with such conditions enough time, and high intelligence will develop eventually.

Here's an example of how the statistics play out, which you can do yourself with the help of only 1,024 friends. I'm sure you've been in bigger crowds than this, even if you didn't know anybody, and if that many or more all flip a coin 10 times, it's guaranteed you will see somebody win that many consecutive times!

People have done the calculations. And the fact is that it is not likely that our planet would exist. Yes there are billions of galaxies with billions of stars, but the variables for a life sustaining planet must be set at very specific values (gravity, nuclear forces, cosmological constant). The fact that the laws of the universe must be a certain way for life show that either it just happened to be right the first time, or we are just one of many universes. Also your coin example is under exaggerating the issue.

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Ok, I want to say again that I study biology and I think the evidence disagrees. I did not bring the old book into this, you did. I agree that observations should guide our belief. I also want to make sure that you realize that within the scientific community there is virtually never a consensus between what they think the evidence points to. Your story about the eye is just a story. The facts: organisms can sense light. We have organs that sense light. Your interpretation: one must have become the other over many generations. You have been taught in your biology class about the slight changes that occur, and they tell you that these changes can lead to entire new genetic information. Evolution operates by changing existing DNA. It has no good mechanism of adding new genetic information. The design of the human body is amazing. If there was an engineer alive today capable of designing something that efficient, they would be the most successful engineer of all time. The appendix still serves functions. It has functions in cultivating bacteria for your intestine to aid in digestion. It also may have immune functions. Life is not poorly designed. The simplest cell is more efficient and complex than anything mankind has done.

I do sincerely hope you aren't a surgeon who I may need to rely on some day, for your grasp of the difference between fiction and reality!

I would slap and run too if I didn't understand the opponent's argument.