Suppose you came upon a man lying in a snowdrift, unmoving. You tap the man on the shoulder and he’s stiff as a board. You roll him over and see the snow beneath his body is stained red, and there’s a large cut in the man’s coat around the area of his heart. You unzip the coat, remove his shirt, and see that the cut extends into the man’s body in a thin line that goes between his ribs above his heart.
As you examine the scene further, you notice there are two pairs of footprints leading up to the area of the snowdrift, then what looks like a bunch of hectic overlapping footprints, and finally one set that staggers off to the drift, and another that look like someone ran off in the other direction. In that area, you also see several drops of blood.
Given this evidence, you conclude, “Some kind of non-intelligent forces were involved that just happened to come together at this point in time to make it look like the man’s death was by design.” And then you go happily on your way.
For you are, after all, a Darwinist, and you know full well that any evidence of design must be a hidden God of the Gaps argument.
Darwin of the Gaps. We don't know how it happened, but we know somehow Darwin is responsible.
ReplyDeleteI've done a fairly extensive post on the God of the Gaps argument (more properly, the *dogmatic* god of the gaps argument) here.
ReplyDeleteWhat if someone were to say that you were just making an argument from incredulity?
ReplyDeletePeter,
ReplyDeleteI appreciate the oxymoronic title of your post.
Peter,
ReplyDeleteI think we need to find vegas casinos run by Darwinists like The Atheist Missionary. We can then cheat and get twenty Royal Flushes in a row and the hypothesis that intelligent design was involved given the astronomical odds against this happening will not even be considered as a viable option to consider.
Given this evidence, you conclude, “Some kind of non-intelligent forces were involved that just happened to come together at this point in time to make it look like the man’s death was by design.” And then you go happily on your way.
ReplyDeleteThat seems like an awfully generous level of reflection to attribute to "Darwinian Intelligence".
Occam's razor would posit that it was simply yet another example of survival of the fittest.
One blindly programmed gene replication unit got the better of another, and so it goes...happens multiple times per day - every day...*yawn*...
Paul:
ReplyDelete"I think we need to find vegas casinos run by Darwinists like The Atheist Missionary. We can then cheat and get twenty Royal Flushes in a row and the hypothesis that intelligent design was involved given the astronomical odds against this happening will not even be considered as a viable option to consider."
Addressing that from a position of having been a gaming commissioner, that would not be possible without a conspiracy of the whole house! :)
Isa 8:11 For the LORD spoke thus to me with his strong hand upon me, and warned me not to walk in the way of this people, saying:
Isa 8:12 "Do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy, and do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread.
Isa 8:13 But the LORD of hosts, him you shall honor as holy. Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.
Isa 8:14 And he will become a sanctuary and a stone of offense and a rock of stumbling to both houses of Israel, a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
Isa 8:15 And many shall stumble on it. They shall fall and be broken; they shall be snared and taken."
I'm confused, where's the selection process in your thought experiment? Without it, it's not really a fair analogy.
ReplyDelete