The Case for Theism

[Drew_2013]

Would you give an example of something unknowable, or inexplicable in mathematical terms, so we can compare?

Sure the radio hiss generated by the universe is an example of chaos. There's no mathematical formula that can make predictions of what sounds are going to emit or find any pattern.

Can you give an example of something that was unplanned, not engineered, and not designed that does not have many of these same characteristics?

If I were to take a box of 200 toothpicks and drop them from 50 feet it would create a random pattern that isn't predictable. However, it isn't completely random or completely unpredictable because it still is bound by the laws of physics primarily gravity. If we dropped the box in space the pattern would be even more unpredictable. Barring the laws of physics or someone intentionally doing something this is what happens when we allow unguided forces to interact freely.

It is true that magic offers the most explanatory power, as it can 'explain' anything, but for scientific purposes, an explanation that explains anything at all, whether it's the case or not, isn't really an explanation.

Which explanation is more magical? The explanation that mindless, lifeless forces minus any plan or intent produced a universe that resulted in something unlike itself sentient life or it was the result of planning and design?

One might with equal justification predict that such a creator might create a universe made out of chocolate with sentient life (also made out of chocolate). We can certainly create virtual realities made out of virtual chocolate.

Not sure what your point is.

Well, there wasn't anyone around to expect it before it happened.

Its a rhetorical question.

And you're still affirming the consequent. As long as the premise of your argument remains 'If God, then the universe' and your conclusion remains 'the universe, therefore God'; your argument will be fallacious. You may as well say 'if poptarts are made of plastic, the unverse' followed by 'the unverse, therefore poptarts are made of plastic'.

A better example from Wikipedia is

If Bill Gates owns Fort Knox, then he is rich.
Bill Gates is rich.
Therefore, Bill Gates owns Fort Knox.

The reason this argument is false is because owning Fort Knox is not the only way to be rich.

I didn't make the argument

If God created the universe then God exists
there is a universe
Therefore God exists and is the creator of the universe.

However this is a different case. If a personal agent caused, designed and created the universe such a person by definition would be God. I'm not making the argument that only God can create a universe with the characteristics observed, such a universe exists, therefore God created it. The argument I am making is more like.

1. There is a universe
2. There is life
3. There is sentient life
4. The universe has laws of nature, is knowable, uniform and to a large extent predictable, amenable to scientific research and the laws of logic deduction and induction and is also explicable in mathematical terms.

I am building a case from facts and inferring the existence of a designer creator as opposed to the other possibility that these facts occured without plan or intent. I'm not denying there could be some other possibility than God.