(April 7, 2025 at 11:33 am)Sheldon Wrote:Quote:The number of people who believe in a thing is not proof of anything other than that a certain number of people believe in something. The fact that they are scientists means nothing without the appropriate testing and the ability to recreate the same results time and again.You beat me to it, his argument is both an argumentum ad populum fallacy, and an appeal to authority fallacy. FWIW atheism rises sharply among scientists in the US, and among elite bodies of scientists, like the National Academy of Science atheism and agnosticism is almost universal, perhaps they haven't heard of fine tuning?
Larson and Witham's 1998 survey found that 93% of NAS members are agnostics or atheists, with only 7% believing in a personal God. This is hard to reconcile with Drew's claims that fine tuning is a) supported by sufficient scientific evidence to lend it some credence, and b) that were it so, it would evidence a creator deity.
And I'm pretty sure the '51% of scientists believe in God' should be '51% of American (the most religious developed nation) scientists believe in God'.
"A survey of scientists who are members of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, conducted by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press in May and June 2009, finds that members of this group are, on the whole, much less religious than the general public. Indeed, the survey shows that scientists are roughly half as likely as the general public to believe in God or a higher power. According to the poll, just over half of scientists (51%) believe in some form of deity or higher power; specifically, 33% of scientists say they believe in God, while 18% believe in a universal spirit or higher power. By contrast, 95% of Americans believe in some form of deity or higher power, according to a survey of the general public conducted by the Pew Research Center in July 2006. Specifically, more than eight-in-ten Americans (83%) say they believe in God and 12% believe in a universal spirit or higher power. Finally, the poll of scientists finds that four-in-ten scientists (41%) say they do not believe in God or a higher power, while the poll of the public finds that only 4% of Americans share this view."
https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/200...er%20power.
I'm not anti-Christian. I'm anti-stupid.