Evidence God Exists

[Tiberius]

Without further ado, here’s the evidence: Humans are the only species, out of millions of species, which have evolved into an intelligent life form. Other species live pretty much to eat and sleep -- survival. If our evolution were only a result of natural selection, shouldn’t other species, or even just one, have evolved into intelligent beings after millions of years? But the fact is that no other species have been able to develop science, literature, art, music and intelligent thought process as humans have. Isn’t this evidence that God exists?

I dispute your first sentence. All animals have varying degrees of intelligence; we are not the only intelligent life form. Just off the top of my head, I can cite dolphin and chimpanzee intelligence as examples of other "higher" intelligence beings.

What is interesting about all of this is that you place intelligence above all other characteristics, and I wonder why this is. There are single species of organisms that have developed their own unique features, yet you don't presume to use these as evidence of God because they aren't human. So I contend that you are using confirmation bias in your argument, by ignoring other unique features that animals have in favour of humans having things like literature as unique attributes.

It is also interesting that you put "or even just one" as some form of condition on the argument. Tell me, why is having two organisms with unique features evidence against God?

Yes it is, and for several reasons. For one thing it corroborates what’s written in the bible, which is that God created man in his image, and that animals are inferior. But to truly understand why my evidence points towards a deity one needs to be able to appreciate the grandness of this gift that is human intelligence. And you have to ask yourself, why are we the only species, out of millions, that have achieved this type of intelligence? Evolution is about natural selection, but shouldn’t at least one other species, out of millions, have benefited from intelligence? I think so. And there would be a myriad of other intelligent species if there were no God. If you can appreciate the grandness and uniqueness of human intelligence, then you’ll understand why only humans were given this gift, and you'll know why what I've outlined here points to a God.

Many animals benefit from intelligence. The entire ape family build tools to help hunt and problem solve, ants form a collective intelligence to build a nest and protect the queen, dolphins are intelligent enough to override their natural instinct for sex and do it for fun.

As you say, Evolution is about natural selection, but there is nothing in natural selection to prevent one species from emerging with a unique feature. We are a bunch of apes who millions of years ago "decided" (figuratively) to breed for intelligence rather than any other attributes. We are one of the weakest species on the planet; we aren't strong, we don't produce our own Vitamin C (unlike the rest of the apes), we don't make good hunters without tools, we are susceptible to a whole host of micro-organisms that can kill you easily.

To state that animals are inferior is an overstatement. Whilst we are dominant in the artificial environment we've created for ourselves, in the natural world we are pathetic. Take away our tools and the vast majority would die within a couple of days.

As a final point, I'd like to pose a hypothetical question to you. If we were to find life on another planet, and find intelligent life that resembled our own intelligence (or was slightly less / more), what then would happen to your argument? Would you dismiss it because we are no longer "unique"? If so, I hope I can convince you that intelligence isn't the magical attribute you think it is.