"If you're watching this, you're probably an intelligent atheist. And you're either in college, or have graduated from one."

CLOSE! But not close enough.

1. This is a form of the argument that accuses atheists of replacing religious belief with scientific belief. But science is driven by evidence and rationalism whereas religion is driven by revelations and dogma. Science isn't perfect, but it is the best tool we have for understanding the universe. Also, evolution is not about chance. Natural selection is the exact opposite of chance.

2. Wow. Three well trodden fallacies all wrapped up into one. This guy reads way too much Ray Comfort. To answer his primary question, Why is ther something rather than nothing? Well, we don't really know. To suppose that the universe was created by some powerful, divine being doesn't answer the question of First Cause because now you have the presence of a God to explain.

3. Morality is generated by culture. Culture is a set of baseline assumptions that people in a community take for granted. It enables us to communicate efficiently. Having a conversation where you had to define each and every term would be tedious and extremely time consuming. Morality, or the division of actions between Right and Wrong, is woven into the fabric of our culture. So, of course, religion influences morality, as does every cultural institution, but it is not the originator of morality. We create morality. And we are decidedly not Gods or divine.

4. This is more or less the same question as question 3. Morality evolves because of culture. Language allowed us to pass information and knowledge from generation to generation. Culturally speaking, a new generation does not start from scratch. It builds upon culture that has already been established. Also, his caveman example is ridiculous because it is entirely fictitious.

5. Yay! The argument from design rears its ugly, battered head! Why the fuck won't this one go away? When life first started here on Earth it was exceedingly simple. The diversity and complexity we see today is the product of 4 billion years of evolution. FOUR BILLION MOTHER FUCKING YEARS. That is a lot of years. I'm seriously. Although I give him credit for using a wood carving as an example instead of a pocket watch. I haven't heard that one before.

He just had to invoke intelligent design. Every proponent of ID starts by putting the cart before the horse. They say, "Look at how our world is made for us to survive!" But that isn't so. We survive because the world is habitable. Water wasn't created so we could drink (as if some Creator knew before he created us that we would need to drink to survive); water existed before us, and when we came around it helped us survive. Thus, we drink it.

His argument doesn't go anywhere. I'm reminded of a quote from John Stuart Mill (although many people have said this before):

"My father told me that the question, 'Who created the universe' is illogical, because the next question is, 'Who created the Creator?'"

this is the reason why stupid people belief in god. They just can not understand basic principles.

To answer question 1, Finding real explanations instead of putting god in every gap is all about REDUCING the chance element. Darwinian evolution, for instance, explains how animals change over time, by reducing the improbability to a level of "How different is it probable that you can be from your parents" The answer: Almost nothing, but that little "almost" is enough. plot that into the algorithm of natural selection and add time, and the result is that even tiny variations can lead to major changes over suprisingly few generations.

Thats why Darwin's is such a brilliant theory, precicely because it makes the apparantly improbable probable.

This guy is an idiot. He should read some books about atheism before opening his mouth.

I'd like to nominate this tool for douchebag of the year.

The stupid part about his bullshit questions is that none of them can be answered in a way that will satisfy him. His world view is so limited by his faith that anything that doesn't confirm his beliefs is filtered out as being wrong. Though I do like how he implies that atheists are wrong because we understand how "chance" i.e. physics and biology, functions in the universe, while tip toeing around the fact that a supreme creator being is far more unlikely than billions of permutations coalescing into what we know as life.

To me this is the inherent problem facing anyone of faith. Most are so blinded by their indoctrination, that nothing resembling a rational thought will ever flow from their cortex.

I'd like to propose a simple test for him. If he can show me a single passage in his holy book that states unequivocally "THE EARTH IS ROUND!", I'll give his argument some merit. Until then I'll just laugh at the monkey, and realize how sad it is that so many of us haven't come far enough from the trees.

I refuse to watch the rest of this video after I heard that I MUST answer these questions in an intuitive manner...

1-5. You're a moron.

Was that intuitive enough?

"Is that what you want me to believe?"

It is not the goal of any atheist that I know of to convince Christians to stop believeing in God.

It is, for some perverse reason, the goal of almost every Christian that I know of to convince an atheist to believe in God.

The fact of the matter is that nobody knows, and as humans it is beyond our ability to know.

And some of the most immoral people I've ever met, especially in terms of the business world, were almost all of a Judeo/Christian persuasion.

Morality is the logical extension of the familial conditions known as love and respect.

Yes I don't believe in god. But I do follow morals, where did they come from? Books on japanese culture, and those books lack of explanation of religion.

When you have no mind, then any thing is possible, and nothing matters.

I like Bushido, not for its vanities but for its use in my daily life. Mainly the belief that every moment I spend doing something even mundane as sweeping the floor, may be the last time I ever sweep the floor.

Wu Wei action is what I strive for, it has nothing to do with religion or god, it is discipline over the mind. To be able to do something with out rationalism. When you do something you like, and forget what time it is, or when you trip over your shoe lace and tumble only to stand right back up and continue walking. In this way I need not worry about foolish questions made by those who disagree with the way I live my life, what is left of it.


He assumes that the cave man is remorseful, what if that cave man was a sociopath?

damn Nordlich that's some good shit... everyone else quickly answering rationally also made me smile. we may just be able to make it.

without rationalism... you just blew my mind!! i knew smokin weed was the answer somehow.. i just knew... <vaporize> yay!

WOW, I think he convinced me!!!
Now, "Which" God should I choose


(shakes head...)

I don't care what you believe. Here's a question YOU must answer. Why don't you go fuck yourself? You have to admit, every intelligent person is wondering.

I learned my morals from Superman, Spider-Man, Sam Malone, and Optimus Prime.

Wow.

If the ignorance of science doesn't stagger, the apparent certainty in fairy tales to explain the ultimate nature of the universe most certainly will.

Fail.

yaaaaaaaawn...

How come you need your purpose to come from some grand scheme? Can't you create your own purpose relative to your community? Can't you just accept the fact that it feels good to help because that's part of a biological reward system? I don't hate the idea of god, I just don't have any reason to subscribe to it.

I was really excited about hearing this guys questions and getting to answer them and I have to say that I'm more than disappointed.

This will be the fourth video I've downvoted in my whole two years as a member of this site.

Instead of answers to questions what this guy really needs is a fist designed to hit his face.

The requirement for "Intuitive answers" is just foolish and obviously anti-reason.

1) "Darwinism makes chance a creative force in the universe"
Darwinism b.k.a. Evolution by Natural Selection does indeed use random mutations as an element, but Natural Selection is in fact opposite to chance. It explains the variety of the species perfectly.

2) "Why is there something instead of nothing?"

It's not certain that it really did spring into existence at any point in time. We don't have evidence of that. We have no evidence "pre Big Bang" as far as I know.

And the universe is certainly not fixed in any way. It is constantly changing. Most of the Earth is uninhabitable and an even larger percentage of the known universe is uninhabitable. We have the sheer luck that the climate, temperature and atmosphere of Earth was ideal for life when it started. The reason the Earth seems so "ideal" now, is that we evolved with the earth, not that the earth was designed with us in mind.

Moral order is learned from parents.

3) "Where do you get your morals from?"

Parents, social environment and intellectually motivated. I think that murder is wrong, because I don't want people to murder me at some point. If I treat people nice, they treat me nice. If I write someone a sonnet I fully expect to take advantage of that later... hmm, I got sidetracked there.

It is not a problem for Atheism, because morals are not that important. It is a problem for Christians, because they want morals to be divine and they are not.

4) "How did morals evolve?"
Like we evolved. Memetics, genetics, different parts same principle.

"There is something within us that understands the goal of evolution [*sigh*] that instructs us to do the best to ensure our survival"

Buzzz, you lose. Natural Selection does not care what you do. If you do the wrong thing you'll not procreate or procreate less and thus slowly be thinned from the species. Natural Selection is not to be seen from a personal perspective but a global one. There are many, many, many wrong moves that the species have gone, but they have not been viable directions and have died out, so to speak. There is no distinct goal of evolution, just a direction.

5) Ugh, just to stupid. Creationism, yay. God blew me into existence. Buzz, you lose again, dingbat.

*philosophy and I want to go * lies, because he's not accurately portraying what Atheists "believe".

Adding video to channels (Philosophy) - requested by gwiz665.

>> ^rougy:
It is, for some perverse reason, the goal of almost every Christian that I know of to convince an atheist to believe in God.


I wouldn't say perverse. Evangelism is a tenet of Christian faith as indicated in the Gospel according to Matthew: "Jesus drew near and said to them, 'I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Go, then, to all peoples everywhere and make them my disciples: baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teach them to obey everything I have commanded you. And I will be with you always, to the end of the age.'" (Matthew 28:18-20)

So all Christians are expected to spread the Word and bring more people into the Church. I was raised in a pretty liberal parish, but I've been to services in more conservative areas where they take an almost militaristic tone in converting others. I remember hearing a priest in a particular conservative parish say during a homily once that "25% of the United States is made up of Christians, so if everyone could just go out and convert three people..." and I forget the rest of the sentence because I was so disgusted.

I'm Christian (Roman Catholic, specifically), but I don't go out shoving my religion in others' faces. This is because (a) it's ineffective, (b) it assumes other beliefs are misguided or sinful, which I feel is wrong, and (c) I have an incomplete understanding of the Universe. So instead I use my time to question my faith and understand the world around me and only inject my own religious beliefs when the conversation turns to those ends, like it did here. I'm not exactly sure how that story was relevant, except to say that not all Christians are crazy, and that evangelism is a natural part of Christian dogma.

Besides, I wouldn't say that atheists never force their beliefs on others either. I use as my examples the two prominent atheists Richard Dawkins and Bill Maher, who both scoff at atheism and seem to take every opportunity to make their case for how ridiculous religious belief is. Dawkins wrote "The God Delusion" which is pretty self explanatory, and that's without even mentioning his own evangelism (lecture circuit). Maher pans religion every chance he gets on his show, and there's that movie he recently made on the subject. I don't find anything wrong with these things, as it's natural to want to turn others on to your point of view, but it's not fair to say Christians are rather pushy over this and atheists aren't. It's just that there seem to be a lot more Christians and certain sects tend towards intolerance.

Quite the book I wrote up there -- Congrats on reaching the end of my rambling.

Why is there something rather than nothing?

well, why not?
http://www.science.uva.nl/~seop/entries/nothingness/#1

*terrible

Adding video to channels (Terrible) - requested by Trancecoach.

These questions are irrelevant.

Even if he was correct on every point, it would still not tell me which religion is the "correct" religion. Even if there is a supreme being that guided us into existence and instilled morality into most of us, that would still not be any evidence that the god of the bible is fact.

That is what intelligent atheism is all about.

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