1. How do you explain the high degree of design and order in the universe?
Just as war brings about new technology for all to enjoy, so does evolution. If not for war, we would not have most of the inventions we do because there would have been no need to so urgently try and design them. We'd be hundreds of years into the past today if not for war. And just like the dangers of life, our bodies adapt to it.
However, I do believe in some kind of higher power. I'm an agnostic that believes in a higher power. The difference is that I believe we have no idea who and/or what that higher power is that started all of creation. I believe all religion to be mere philosophical thoughts on the "what ifs" of God. It's no different than me writing a book about you, whom I may feel is an important person yet I have no idea who you are. I can write all about you, but it doesn't mean it's true since I've never met you but my thoughts sculpted you into what I wish you would be.
I believe that after the moment of creation, science took over and everything evolved. It's as if that higher power created a program of evolution in that things would continue to build and build and build. The universe is continuing that creation loop and everything we see is an offset of that. We are an offset of that. It all comes down to that first act of creation. Who knows, the Big Bang could be that Supreme Being that went on a suicide mission blowing up and starting off this chain reaction of creation. Hey, the Bible says we're all a part of God so that could be it.
2. How do you account for the vast archaeological documentation of Biblical stories, places, and people?
The same reason why I can account for the Mississipi River that Mark Twain talks about in his books? Real life stuff is talked about all the time in books. Just because the Bible mentions a city that existed, it doesn't mean all of a sudden everything in the Bible is 100% true just like Mark Twain's books aren't 100% true even though it references many real life things.
3. From whence comes humanity's universal moral sense?
If I punch you in the face and you feel your body in pain, wouldn't you tell me not to hit you again? Bam, there's one rule of morality. If I kill your mother and you feel sad, would you not want no killings to happen? If I steal your lollipop, would you not want me to do it again? It's pretty simple how to create morals.
4. If man is nothing but the random arrangement of molecules, what motivates you to care and to live honorably in the world?
Laws and the reactions of others in our present life. If there were no laws or fear of retribution from others, I could go kill a man and steal his money. However, now that I know I could risk being put in jail for the rest of my life, that sucks, so I wouldn't wanna spend the rest of my life in confinement. However, people still do so and have a lower standard of risk vs reward.
Most of what motivates people though is their morals. As I mentioned earlier, it's pretty easy to come up with a sense of morals all by yourself. And for the religious people, it's the false known or the unknown that causes fear into them. What if God is real and what the Bible says is true? They sure don't wanna spend eternity in Hell.
5. Please explain how personality could have ever evolved from the impersonal, or how order could have ever resulted from chaos.
Things simply change. Look all around you; that's proof enough. How can I dislike the taste of tomatoes then later on all of a sudden like them? All sorts of factors can come into play. Well for me, I liked tomatoes later because it was in salsa and other flavors enhanced it's plain taste. Now I love em!
6. How do you account for the origin of life considering the irreducible complexity of its essential components?
How do you account for a person with a one in multi-million change of winning the lottery? It's bound to happen. How long has the universe existed? Billions of years. That's a lot of chances for some weird crazy thing to spark and happen every second for billions and billions of years. We all may have just won the lottery of the universe, of whatever was first created in which finally spawned us after that chain reaction of evolution.
7. Why does the Bible alone, of all of the world's 'holy' books, contain such detailed prophecies of future events? Many of which have already been fulfilled?
Detailed prophecies don't mean a darn thing. I can come up with quite a few detailed ones. As for them already having been fulfilled, please name one.
8. Are you aware that every alleged Bible contradiction has been answered in an intelligible and credible manner?
No, and that's also because they haven't. How can you answer a question that there is no knowledge of? That's basically making things up. I can tell you that God likes to paint his toenails purple and since nobody can prove or disprove that, does it mean I'm correct? All of the holy bible is just a book. Lots of it could very well be correct in a historical sense such as Soddom and Gomarah being burned to the ground, etc, I have no doubts about real events, but when it comes to talking about God and all that other stuff, it's complete rubbish. I believe all of the normal things to be true, even if there's no way to prove most of it, but for some of the outlandish claims, I do not believe and I toss it up to it being something unknown but explained in terms only known to man at the time.
Take Ezekial's vision he sees of a supposed UFO. That could very well be a UFO, not some multi-faced being with wheels, etc etc as is written in the bible. If the so-called "Gods" of the Bible, and other holy books, actually did happen, I believe them to be extraterrestrials, and not true "Gods". They're god-like, nothing more, and that's only due to their technology. It's no different when natives see a plane fly overhead thinking it's some flying beast or something. They just don't know what it is so they do their best to try and understand what it is with their limited knowledge. But for a true Supreme Being to exist, there would be no way to know about it as it'd be on a much higher plane of existance than us. It would be like an atom interacting with a human and vice versa.
9. How did 35-40 men, spanning 1500 years and living on three separate continents, ever manage to consistently author one unified message (i.e. The Bible)?
Pretty simple. If you're amazed at the bible doing that, you should see Hindu texts as they span an even longer time period and their books are basically limitless. Ever play the "finish my line/story" on message boards"? Someone writes a sentence or paragraph then another person continues the story. Pretty easy to do.
Not to mention that when there's not much to do in those olden times, people can dedicate their whole lives to doing something so mundane as that. Yes, it seems like something hard to do in todays world only because our times are much different than theirs. If you had no TV, no computer, no phone, basically no much technology period, you'd be able to dedicate your life to many things such as that whether it's artwork, crafting things, or whatever. Heck, that's why the brilliant minds of the past were so brilliant, because the had the time to dedicate their lives to being rennaisance men such as Leonardo DiVinci. They were skilled in all areas. Some were artists, inventors, scientists, advisors -- all in one!
10. Why subscribe to the incredible odds that the tilt and position of our planet relative to the sun are merely coincidental?
What's so coincidental about it? It's not as if this is the only planet in the universe to be like it. We simply lucked out. There's billions and billions of planets out there and after that many planets, surely there's gonna be one that has life on it. And when that happens, they'll ask your same question. How were they so lucky to be in such conditions to spawn their life?
- N
