Share your worldview?

[Simon Moon]

Great responses - very helpful and well argued! I appreciate it.

All in all, quite interesting and a lot of similarities. I need to do some deeper thinking on a lot of what was said, but a couple questions do jump out -

1) How do you deal with the idea of ceasing to exist after death - or doesn't it bother you?
2) How do you explain what could be considered evidence of intelligent design (such as DNA) - or the statistical improbability we could have happened by random occurrence.

Another is - Can you explain why you became an atheist? But that could easily be a topic for another thread.

I already PM'd my responses to psalm531, so I'll respond to these.

1) How do you deal with the idea of ceasing to exist after death - or doesn't it bother you?

1) While the process of dying might be a bit scary, I am not afraid of after I die.

As Mark twain once said, "I was dead for billions of years before I was born and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it". Well, to be honest, he may not have said this, but the sentiment holds true anyway.

2) How do you explain what could be considered evidence of intelligent design (such as DNA) - or the statistical improbability we could have happened by random occurrence.

Sorry, but DNA is not evidence for ID.

Has the exact explanation for DNA been discovered? No. But, there are natural pathways, that do not violate anything known about physics, chemistry, or biology, that explain how DNA could have come to exist.

And here's the thing, the vast majority of scientists that work in any field related to DNA, do not believe it is evidence for ID. Here we have people that actually work in the related fields, who have spent years in graduate school, who actually understand the science better than we can even imagine, dedicated their lives to the study, who are not convinced DNA is evidence for ID.

Why are you, a layperson in the fields related to DNA convinced, yet the people that understand it, not? Where's your Nobel?

Are you leading the evidence to where you want it to go, or are you following the evidence where it leads? Did you already presuppose that a god exists, before you decided that DNA was evidence for its existence? Or, was DNA the thing that convinced you that a god exists?

Let me add, that when scientists use terms like " language" or "code" to describe DNA, they are not using those terms literally, they are using them metaphorically, for the understanding of laypeople.

And to add one more thing, DNA is pure chemistry. It is mindlessly producing proteins. To be a code or language, it would have to be communicating from one mind to another with the goal of being understood. What are the 2 minds that DNA is supposed to be communicating?

Another is - Can you explain why you became an atheist? But that could easily be a topic for another thread.

I became an atheist because I correctly applied critical thinking to the god claim. I was always a skeptic, but I always compartmentalised my theistic beliefs in my mind to shelter them from critical thinking. As soon as I came to the conclusion that I was not being intellectually honest with myself, I was forced to examine my theistic beliefs with the same level of scrutiny that I used for other supernatural claims.

The bottom line is, the case for the existence of gods has not met its burden of proof (supported by demonstrable and falsifiable evidence, and valid and sound logic). Until that criteria is met, I will continue to be unconvinced that a god exist.

And if the best you can offer is "DNA is evidence for ID", I am not very confident that you will be able to meet the burden of proof, also.