(May 30, 2014 at 8:40 pm)Heywood Wrote: If the burden of proof is shifted it is because of a change in circumstance. Further I do not need to show you the intelligent designer. All I need to do is make the case that something falls into the category of being intelligently designed. If that thing falls into the category of being intelligently designed, it is strong evidence of an intelligent designer.I bolded the bit I'm addressing there.... make the case? What is this? Jury duty?
(May 30, 2014 at 8:40 pm)Heywood Wrote: If you find a watch on the beach, you don't need to see the maker in order to know there was one. Your counter argument fails.
Knowing that watches are made by man, then any watch I find is assumed to have been made by man.
Knowing that self-replicating molecules replicate themselves naturally, through chemical reactions and that, sometimes, these replications carry errors, I expect to find, after a lot of time, self-replicating molecules that have accumulated lots and lots of "errors"... first and foremost, the errors that managed to keep the molecules replicating, and those that made it replicate even better.
All this is natural and follows physics and its subset known as chemistry.
If you wish to make the case that self-replicating molecules exist because they were designed, then you must show the designer.
Like we see the man that designs watches and cars and planes and cogs and electronics chips, etc., so too, I'd expect this designer you claim must exist to come forth. Until then, all I see is Nature working as Nature does.