[Nick100]

(Original post by member910132)
I know this argument is real old and I have heard it a hundred times but I need help refuting it.

The argument:
No human being, even the atheist, will think to him self upon finding a watch (any made-made object) in the dessert that this must of appeared out of some "big bang" or explosion or so on, why then do people believe that this universe which is more complicated than any man-made object came out of nothing ? Surely this is hypocrisy ?

Thnx

Because we have sufficient evidence to know that the Universe started from the Big Bang. And immediately after the Big Bang the Universe did not look like a watch; it looked like a big ball of charged particles. To compare even the present Universe to a watch is silly; the present Universe is extremely chaotic and doesn't look designed at all. The Earth is suitable for humans, but only because humans evolved on Earth; pretty much everywhere else in the Universe, except for the odd habitable planet, will kill us instantly.

Even the Earth doesn't look designed for humans; there's disease everywhere, the oceans are salt water and hence undrinkable (if they were fresh water life would be much easier for us), and the climate can change in devastating ways (the El Nino/Nina cycles have wiped out civilizations before, and we've previously had to endure ice ages). The Solar system isn't designed for humans; if it was then there would be many other habitable planets. As it is now we will need to spend quadrillions of dollars if we ever want to walk on the surface of the Moon, Mars of Venus without a space suit.

Complicated doesn't mean designed. An asteroid entering Earth's atmosphere and hitting the ocean is a complicated event, but the resulting fireball, explosion and tsunami have no designer.

[James82]

(Original post by Perseveranze)
And here we have someone who knows everything about the Universe. Please do invite me to your next space outting.

I never claimed to know everything about the universe, but the universe is just a vast collection of very simple things. There are only a few simple laws that govern the universe, but looking at it as a whole it becomes massively complex. In a similar way, the human body is, on a cellular level, very simple, but taken as a whole we perceive it to be very complex.

The universe, save any biological processes, could in theory create a watch, it possesses all the necessary elements, but the laws of physics dictate that the probability of it doing so is extremely unlikely.

If you gave a monkey a typewriter and an infinite amount of time the probability that he would eventually write the complete works of Shakespeare approaches 1. However if you gave the universe, save any biological processes, an infinite amount of time to produce a particular object, say a watch, the probability would still be practically 0. The monkey scenario is based on randomness, whereas the universe scenario is based on the laws of physics.

Of course, the fact that the universe is responsible for the biological processes that ultimately led to the evolution of man, which in turn led to the invention and manufacture of the watch, shows that the universe, through biological processes, is capable of creating a watch.

So, yes, the watch did occur as a result of the big bang (or whatever started the universe), as did everything on earth and everything man has ever created. The question is flawed though, because it assumes that biological processes weren't started as a result of the big bang and somehow man is an entirely separate creation.