9th December 2005, 11:46 PM
Just to play devil's advocate here, here's a little thing I'd just like to add, just to see what results.
When one says a watch is so obviously a designed impliment, one can't help but agree. By what means is it determined that the watch is designed? Well, one may note the watch is complicated and shows purpose, but of the first, complication doesn't mean all that much, indeed weather is complicated. As to the second, what means did you decide it shows purpose? Well, indeed what it all comes down to is that you compare it to the natural order of things and note that while volcanoes spew out igneous rock or warm waters produce hurricanes, no means in nature other than the skill of a watchmaker has been shown to produce a watch.
So hence my riddle: What is it we compare "the universe" to when we decide it must be designed? Relative to what exactly?
When one says a watch is so obviously a designed impliment, one can't help but agree. By what means is it determined that the watch is designed? Well, one may note the watch is complicated and shows purpose, but of the first, complication doesn't mean all that much, indeed weather is complicated. As to the second, what means did you decide it shows purpose? Well, indeed what it all comes down to is that you compare it to the natural order of things and note that while volcanoes spew out igneous rock or warm waters produce hurricanes, no means in nature other than the skill of a watchmaker has been shown to produce a watch.
So hence my riddle: What is it we compare "the universe" to when we decide it must be designed? Relative to what exactly?
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)