Negative atheism? (Introduction)

by David Turell , Tuesday, December 16, 2014, 01:01 (3413 days ago) @ dhw


> dhw: If, as you claim, “everything is energy. Matter is a form of energy. Energy is all there really is”, I don't know why you should cast doubt on the possibility of matter developing “out of formless energy”. What else could it have developed out of if everything is energy?-The matter I have been discussing is a highly complex universe that appeared 13.78 billion years ago. A blob of eternal energy does not have the planning ability to do that. It requires a planning consciousness-> dhw: As for consciousness, I can no more describe the process than you can describe how first cause energy acquired consciousness. You can only fall back on the meaningless formula of an uncaused cause, as if somehow energy and consciousness were one and the same thing.-I can't imagine anything else to fit the requirement of a first cause. A first cause (FC) must be present, and its attributes can be detected by looking at what it produced, items of specified complexity that require careful integrated planning.
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> DAVID: All I can say is your alternative hypothesis is a good try in avoiding the obvious. What we have is too complex (the universe and its life) to simply appear out of nowhere.
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> dhw: And that is why I have pointed out that if everything is energy, and matter is a form of energy, the alternative I am offering cannot be called something out of nothing (or nowhere).- My reasoning is above. Where is the planning in your scenario to create mechanisms of specified complexity in order to work properly?-> dhw: However, the article on horizontal gene transfer makes it clear (as does the extinction of 99% of all species) that during the process of cooperative innovation things are not always nicely balanced: (quote skipped)-But things go back into balance! In balance, out of balance, in balance, and evolutionary innovation is pushed. You are missing the point of a constant flow of change and reorganization. Are you underrating life's DNA and all of the sub-processes That make it work so well with so few genes?-> 
> Even if your God designed the mechanism in the first place, it still sounds to me more like higgledy-piggledy than “advanced planning”.-Your blind spot in this area has been explained. H-P is required.