Why we believe

[robvalue]

First off, I think most people here have no problem with almost any points of view being presented. We ask that the person presenting them is willing to discuss them, hopefully back them up with reason and evidence, and not just endlessly repeat assertions ignoring rebuttals. I'm in no way saying the latter is what you have done, I've been very impressed with your arguments overall compared to most theists. Your restraint in not just shoving Yahweh in at every opportunity from broken compass arguments shows more intellectual honesty than most.

The short answer is that, in my opinion, arguments like this are looking at events entirely backwards. By this I mean we look at our situation, then assign significance to it, and then think how unlikely that is to have happened. A quick analogy: someone wins the lottery. They think they must be special, it must have been preordained, because the chances of specifically them winning just by accident were so incredibly low.

The other analogy is from Douglas Adams. It deals more with the idea of things being designed with us in mind. If anyone is not familiar with that name, fuck off right now and read all his books and don't come back till you do. Right. A puddle thinks to itself, "This hole in the ground fits me absolutely perfectly. Every single tiny part of it is just the right shape for me. It must have been created just for me!"

My third point is based on a reliable source, but I don't know if I can pull up detailed references. Maybe those with a physics background can back me up, or correct me. I have heard it said that the "Big Bang", where the natural laws go utterly mental if you go back that far, was unpredictable. I mean that no matter how well you "set up" the singularity, and what was in it, it would be impossible to predict what the result would be. So if there was intended eventual design in it, then it wouldn't have happened anyway. It would require later manipulation, which science firmly suggests has not happened.

God is coming round for tea at 11, so if there's any more specific questions I can put them to him.

Tl;dr- We are just "what happened". Assigning significance and purpose retroactively is a mistake.