by jimwalton » Mon Feb 13, 2017 1:46 pm
Yeah, I didn't like the argument. I don't think it works. You used many terms to try to explain how the universe "acts," and in the process used many "personal" terms: attempts, overcome, etc. You attribute personal capabilities to blind forces, and even eventually insert progress and purpose. But this is impossible (or ridiculously impossible, even given enough time) in a world of random forces where all events are happenstance, and necessarily without purpose. The universe can't "overcome" anything. Even at the point of life where all changes happen by random mutations and natural selection (another misnomer), both of which are blind forces and don't "communicate" (another personal term) with each other. Blind and random forces simply cannot eventually "learn," "attempt," "overcome," or anything of the sort. They are always random. It's like asking, "How long will it take that traffic light to learn to recognize my car and turn green every time it sees me?" The answer is never. It is mechanical, and there is no possibility for learning in the system. So also with the universe without God. It is mechanical, and all the words you use are automatically out of play.
You asked, in your video, which of the two boxes looked more designed. Before I knew where you were going, I thought to myself, "Neither." Then you assumed I would say the bottom one, but I didn't. While possibly a random situation could occasionally mimic design in a snapshot kind of scenario, and maybe, if I were being ludicrously gracious, assume that random forces might be able to mimic progress (just as my iTunes might be able to actually get a few of my favorite songs in a row by accident), it's not like that could ever develop into anything more. My player is set on "shuffle," and there are no mechanisms inherent or learnable to make it anything different. The primary axiom, that we are the result of so many accidents that we now have intelligence, purpose, reason, and progress is a non sequitur. Intelligence, purpose, reason, and progress cannot come from a source other than an intelligent, purposeful, reasoning, and personal being.