(October 23, 2014 at 12:47 pm)datc Wrote: Very good. Without realizing it, you have produced another argument for God's existence called "argument from particularity."
The argument is almost as you have put it. We ask: Why is the world this and not something else? Either it was designed for a purpose, such that the purpose (or end) constrained the universe (or means) to a single thing or at least a finite set; or its essence was randomly pulled somehow out of an infinity of possible worlds. But not the latter, because the probability of this world’s being chosen in such a way is exactly zero. It is impossible to consider for selection every member of an infinite set.
But purposive design entails choosing between possibilities and suggests an intelligence at work behind the scenes. Hence, another conclusion: God is smart.
The failure of this argument is obvious. You are insisting that the current universe is somehow meant to be, but that is an unwarranted assumption.
We exist as a result of this universe's existence. If it weren't this universe, we wouldn't be. So what? What makes you believe that we are meant to be?
Skepticism is not a position; it is an approach to claims.
Science is not a subject, but a method.
Science is not a subject, but a method.
