1.What caused the universe to exist?
I don't know. I don't know if we'll ever know. It is amazing that we have been able to trace the universe's history back to the Big Bang, but its hard to imagine what methods might be used to get a clear picture of the time before it.
Personally, I suspect that the universe didn't have a cause because causality requires time and time began with the universe; asking what happened before the beginning of the universe would be like asking what is north of the north pole. (if you want a more in depth understanding of this philosophy here is a lecture by its most famous champion, Stephen Hawking)
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| A brief history of time. |
2.What explains the fine tuning of the universe?
The belief that "fine tuning" is a paradox without the intervention of a creator depends on the assumption that the universe as we know it and humanity in particular was an intended result of the universe's existence; the universe was not fine tuned to accommodated our existence, but rather, we are a product of the universe and therefore are made to live in it as it is.
3.Why is the universe rational?
I am not entirely sure what is meant by this question, and I am not going to try to guess. But I will say that we are part of the universe, and our notion of what is rational comes from what we see in the universe. So for many interpretations of this question the universe appears rational to us because our notion of what is rational is born from the universe itself.
4.How did DNA and amino acids arise?
5.Where did the genetic code come from?
I am not a biologist, but I feel pretty safe in saying that at this time we don't know. That is the thing about science, every time we answer a question we discover three more need to be asked. A century ago a theist would have thought that asking an atheist how traits are passed from one generation to the next was a gotcha question, but since then the body of knowledge that comes from science has expanded.
I will say that 20 years ago I read a book called Genetic Takeover, and ever since the question of "how could life have arisen?" hasn't kept me up at night.
6.How do irreducibly complex enzyme chains evolve?
The notion of irreducible complexity is one championed by people who have no desire to understand biology; most of the best cases for it were explained long ago.
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| The eye was once a favourite subject of those who champion irreducible complexity. |
7.How do we account for the origin of 116 distinct language families?
Human ingenuity, isolated populations and tens of thousands of years. Honestly, I have no idea why this is one of the questions.
8.Why did cities suddenly appear all over the world between 3,000 and 1,000 BC?
I find it a bizarre statement to make that something in human history happened "suddenly" over a time period of two thousand years (never mind that Mesopotamia arose about 3500 BC while some some isolated tribes still don't live in cities to this day). But if you insist that a small number of cities being built millennium apart is a phenomena that must be accounted for, then the way to account for it is to look a few millennium earlier - agriculture spread around the world between 10,000 BC and 6,000 BC and cities are the natural result of agriculture.
9.How is independent thought possible in a world ruled by chance and necessity?
It may not be; it is entirely possible that independent thought is an illusion. Notice how people are so quick to see others as gullible sheep, but themselves as free thinkers. Its entirely possible we are all fooling ourselves.
10.How do we account for self-awareness?
We are have evolved large brains because they have helped us solve problems that needed to be solved for our survival. These same brains have been useful tools in understanding the universe and ourselves.
11.How is free will possible in a material universe?
It may not be.
12.How do we account for conscience?
I am going to assume this is referring to the aptitude, faculty, intuition or judgment that assists in distinguishing right from wrong. Conscience was a beneficial trait for survival because we are a social animal. You can witness many other social animals displaying similar behaviors.
13.On what basis can we make moral judgments?
If an action harms another human being it is immoral. You will notice that virtually every moral code in human history can be boiled down to two laws. 1. Show respect or reverence to the authority that made the code. 2. Don't do bad things to other people.
You will also notice that the fewer exceptions a society has to the rule "don't do bad things to other people" the more civilized we consider it.
14.Why does suffering matter?
Because we have the ability to understand and empathize with the plight of other human beings, I feel we have a responsibility to them.
15.Why do human beings matter?
To the universe we don't.
I know this is a humbling and paradoxical thought to someone who believes that the entire universe was made for humanity and that its creator takes a personal interest in all your affairs, but it is the atheist position.
16.Why care about justice?
This is a difficult question because justice can mean so many things. I believe we should always seek to take whatever course results in the least amount of human suffering for the reasons I mentioned in 14.
17.How do we account for the almost universal belief in the supernatural?
Because humans did not evolve to be logical; we are at our core, storytellers. Logic is something we discovered fairly recently and we struggle to apply it with brains that exist for other purposes. Truth is not a popularity contest.
(I love how he tries to use the widespread belief in the super natural as a point in his favour, even though most of those people believe in super natural events that he would reject)
18.How do we know the supernatural does not exist?
We don't; you cannot prove something doesn't exist. But before I will accept anything supernatural as being true I will need evidence. At this time there is not a single instance of the supernatural standing up to scientific scrutiny.
"Some people speak as if we were not justified in rejecting a theological doctrine unless we can prove it false. But the burden of proof does not lie upon the rejecter. ... If you were told that in a certain planet revolving around Sirius there is a race of donkeys who speak the English language and spend their time in discussing eugenics, you could not disprove the statement, but would it, on that account, have any claim to be believed? Some minds would be prepared to accept it, if it were reiterated often enough, through the potent force of suggestion."
- J. B. Bury
19.How can we know if there is conscious existence after death?
We can't. But again, there is no evidence.
20.What accounts for the empty tomb, resurrection appearances and growth of the church?
There is no documentation of the empty tomb, or the resurrection outside of Christian writings. In fact there is no historical evidence that Jesus even existed.
I am not sure why I should be expected to document the spread of Christianity. There are many religions the author does not believe in that provide ample evidence that a religion can become far spread without being true.
This was a lot of fun to do; it was interesting to see what questions the author thought would be difficult for an atheist and many of the questions were an interesting reminder of how different the perspective of a theist can be from an atheist.
Some of the questions I completely expected like 1, 2, 13, and 20. Some of the questions really took me by surprise like 7 and 8. A few of the questions left me really confused like 3. My favorites were the ones where the author was essentially asking "I have belief x about the universe, but if there is no god belief x doesn't make sense; how can x be true if there is no god?" (answer: x isn't true) Questions 9, 11, and 15 were all like this.
One thing I can say from this is that I could never be a person who makes a hobby out of debating religion; I find it draining, and knowing that no matter how well you make your point you will almost certainly convince no one of anything gives it an air of futility.
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