Uncommon Descent Serving The Intelligent Design Community

A Sermon From PZ Myers

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Evolution, the theory that natural processes created all life, is mandated by the religious belief that God would not have created our world. Ironically, a belief about God underwrites a theory that, as Richard Dawkins put it, “made it possible to be an intellectually fulfilled atheist.” But historians have seen this before. Alan Charles Kors, for example, found that eighteenth century French atheism had come from the church and its culture. Kors wrote:  Read more

Comments
PZ Meyers:
We go right to the central issue of whether there is a god or not. We're pretty certain that if there were an all-powerful being pulling the strings and shaping history for the benefit of human beings, the universe would look rather different than it does.
1- "for the benefit of human beings"? Where did he pull that from? 2- How does PZ "know" what things would look like? 3- What would things be expected to look like if our existence was due to sheer dumb luck?Joseph
March 8, 2010
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Evolution, the theory that natural processes created all life
Blind, undirected processes. By saying "natural processes" you make it seem as if the alternative is supernatural processes. http://www.discovery.org/csc/topQuestions.php
1. What is the theory of intelligent design? Click here for video The theory of intelligent design holds that certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection. For more information see Center Director Stephen Meyer's article "Not By Chance" from the National Post of Canada or his appearance on PBS's "Tavis Smiley Show (Windows Media). 2. Is intelligent design theory incompatible with evolution? Click here for video It depends on what one means by the word "evolution." If one simply means "change over time," or even that living things are related by common ancestry, then there is no inherent conflict between evolutionary theory and intelligent design theory. However, the dominant theory of evolution today is neo-Darwinism, which contends that evolution is driven by natural selection acting on random mutations, an unpredictable and purposeless process that "has no discernable direction or goal, including survival of a species." (NABT Statement on Teaching Evolution). It is this specific claim made by neo-Darwinism that intelligent design theory directly challenges. For a more thorough treatment see the article "Meanings of Evolution" by Center Fellows Stephen C. Meyer & Michael Newton Keas.
Joseph
March 8, 2010
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