(February 7, 2014 at 2:02 am)Esquilax Wrote:(February 6, 2014 at 9:41 pm)Statler Waldorf Wrote: You seem to be skipping a few steps. If you believe that all that exists is matter in motion and there is no transcendent governing agent then how can you possibly know that the Universe operates the same now as it did in the past?
Wow, how did I miss this?
If you're a young earther, you already believe that there's some weirdness going on with starlight, right? It was either created in transit, or was faster in the past, or some shit. And you've got a god whose main communication to mankind is full of accounts of how he suspended or altered the physical laws of the universe to his own whims, and an ancient evil in the form of the devil whose whole deal is finding ways to trick people:
How do you possibly know the universe operates the same now as it did in the past? Science, at least, has consistent observations of these things.
I'd add that Statler has presented a classic case of how the ad hoc hypothesis can be abused, mixed with a dash of argument from ignorance.
Paraphrasing slightly:
"The light in the night's sky from Andromeda is 2 million years old."
"Maybe the laws of physics worked differently in the past." (ad hoc)
"What do you base that on?"
"It coulda happened." (argument from ignorance)
Atheist Forums Hall of Shame:
"The trinity can be equated to having your cake and eating it too."
... -Lucent, trying to defend the Trinity concept
"(Yahweh's) actions are good because (Yahweh) is the ultimate standard of goodness. That’s not begging the question"
... -Statler Waldorf, Christian apologist
"The trinity can be equated to having your cake and eating it too."
... -Lucent, trying to defend the Trinity concept
"(Yahweh's) actions are good because (Yahweh) is the ultimate standard of goodness. That’s not begging the question"
... -Statler Waldorf, Christian apologist
