Monday, April 18, 2011

My email correspondence with Apologist Kyle Butt

As promised, below is the entire, unedited email conversation I had with apologist Kyle Butt. As you can see, his arguments are extremely weak and are not what I would expect from a trained apologist.
Enjoy!
Click here to read my synopsis of the correspondence -->
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Kyle:
My name is Daniel Brown. I’m a resident of Columbia, TN and voted for your mom, but never had the pleasure of meeting her until today. (Personal info about meeting a family member of his removed.)
I met with her to speak about a certain bill making its way through the State House that I oppose. In discussion, she mentioned you’re a Biblical apologist. I was once on path to be a Southern Baptist preacher, but found myself working for the Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist and for the Tennessee Baptists upon graduating from Belmont in 1998. I was also a youth minister and licensed minister. I decided to leave my personal ministry and work as a graphic designer and then obtained a Masters in Communications from Norwich University.
In 2003, I decided to focus on my faith and zeroed in on a few questions that bothered me from childhood—including authenticity of Scripture, existence of God, and many other areas. After a while, I finally embraced these doubts and realized much of what I claimed to know about God, the mind of Christ, etc, could not be known. A declared myself an atheist and still consider myself a non-believer to this day.
I’ve engaged many, many pastors and church leaders with MDivs and PhDs through the years, but not one has been able to completely and fully answer my questions. I’ve never had a chance to discuss any of these with an apologist specifically. Once I heard about you, I knew I had to write and request an opportunity to ask you a few questions. If you don’t mind, I would like to begin a cordial dialog via email if possible. Who knows—I might hear something I never heard before.
Sincerely,
Daniel Brown

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Hey Daniel,
Great to hear from you. I’ll be glad to discuss whatever questions you have. In my experience, it is the most productive to focus on one specific issue at a time and move on from there. So, I would suggest that you fire away any one thing that you believe militates against belief in God. I’ll look forward to it.
Sincerely,
Kyle Butt

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Kyle,
Thank you for indulging me.
Simply put, my lack of belief is due to lack of evidence. By evidence, I mean verifiable, material evidence that unmistakably points to a god. Either the god proposition is true or false. To be intellectually honest with myself, I must suspend judgment until I have confirmation. It can’t end there. It must be evidence that can be validated by outside sources and testable. I’m sure we would agree that a creator would have to exist in a realm to which neither of us has access. This makes determining the validity of the statement impossible. My non-belief extends into all things supernatural—ghosts, demons, angels, unicorns, and fairies. I am a materialist, simply because that’s all we can possibly know. Anything outside of that resembles imagination.
How do you personally determine whether a proposition is true or false? How do you define “god” and by what means do you determine its existence? After answering that, one must make the broad leap from deism to theism. How do you bridge the gap?
Thanks,
Daniel


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Hey Daniel,
Thanks for getting back to me. Are you familiar with the often used scientific concept of indirect observation?
Sincerely,
Kyle Butt


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Yes. I'm familiar with it. One example you might cite is gravity.
You can't infer something you cannot define. Gravity is defined by the rate at which things fall. It's testable. Sure, you can infer the Christian god because there is something rather than nothing, but I'll make the leap and infer a pink sock puppet as god for the same reason. This points back to my question--how do YOU determine whether a proposition is true or false? How do you KNOW this inference of the Christian god is correct and my inference of the sock puppet is incorrect?
D

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Hello Daniel,
Thanks for writing back. Bear with me here. I’m not avoiding your question, I just think we need to nail this idea down early in order to move forward. So, using the concept of indirect observation, we could agree that we could know some things about an item or entity without ever having direct contact with that entity. For instance, we could know how big a planet is that circles a distant star by measuring the wobble of the star and using our knowledge of gravity to infer the planet’s mass, etc. Are we on the same page here?
Sincerely,
Kyle Butt

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Sure. The beauty of science is that it makes predictions, is measurable, and is testable. We might be able to infer a small bit of information here and there, but all scientists studying this hypothetical planet know that all information about it is developing and on-going. The information we gather lays the groundwork for further tests and measurable data collection. EVERY idea begins as an hypothesis. In science, these hypotheses are founded on limited information, but the end goal is to know as much about it as possible based on measurable and repeatable evidence. So, to answer your question, yes, we can "know" some basic information about the planet, but as time progresses, technology advances, and we develop a fuller picture based in reality and facts. You will never hear a scientists say, "That planet is exactly this size and if you disagree, you're going to hell." The certainty is in flux until we KNOW--and knowing is based in facts gathered. Scientists do not build entire theories and laws on inference and speculation--hypotheses, yes, but theories, laws, certainty, no.
Once we have a working understanding of the distance, gravitational pull, mass, surface temperature, etc, we can send a spacecraft to the planet. To accomplish this trip, we accumulate facts and make predictions. If we are wrong, the spacecraft will either not meet its destination and/or burn up. Indirect observation is but a small part of science.
Are you attempting to say that the entire concept of the Judeo-Islamo-Christian god hangs on one small section of science called inference? That the god hypothesis is alone sufficient and requires nothing more to verify or falsify the claim? Is the goal to use a portion of the scientific method to explain god, while discarding the process of peer-review, experimentation, etc? Can you provide an example of a scientific fact/theory/law that is based entirely on indirect observation and cannot be tested or measured?
D


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Hey Daniel,
Thanks for writing. I appreciate your discussion and the way that you have put some things, but I must disagree with your statement: “Scientists do not build entire theories and laws on inference and speculation.” Let me explain. The theory of evolution is built on the idea that non-living chemicals gave rise to life and that life changed into different kinds of life over millions of years. Now, do we have direct scientific evidence that non-living chemicals can change into life? If not, the theory of evolution is built on, not even an inference here, but an assumption. I think you would have a difficult time defending the idea that “indirect observation is but a small part of science” if you want to discuss the alleged Big Bang, Human evolution, life coming from non-life, etc. As to what I am trying to say about belief in God. I am saying that you can look at the things which God made, like the Universe, Human Body, Animal Kingdom, and come to legitimate truth statements about God based on what has been created. As for your final question about any theory that is based on indirect observation, Eugenie Scott, an avid evolutionists, wrote: “Indeed, no paleontologist has ever observed one species evolving into another, but as we have seen, a theory can be scientific even if its phenomena are not directly observable.” Thanks for writing.
Sincerely,
Kyle Butt


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Thanks for your response. Now it’s getting interesting.

As with most discussions I have with Christians, it always turns to evolution. That’s not the discussion we were having, but I’ll indulge you briefly on the topic. We have 150 years of evidence supporting the theory of evolution. For me personally, the evidence that was most convincing was how DNA shows relatedness as evidenced by the mapping of the human and ape genomes. To deny DNA shows our relatedness to other mammals is to deny that DNA can show you are related to your father. I can provide information on DNA and other evidences outside paleontology—including the fusing of Chromosome 2, endogenous retroviruses, proteomic evidence, DNA sequencing, pseudogenes, biochemical organization, and more—If you’d like to review it. As I mentioned in my previous email, scientific theories are predictable. Our understanding of evolution has aided in fighting H1N1 and HIV/AIDS. Evolution by natural selection is fully evidenced across multiple areas of study. With genome mapping alone, we now have clear, concise evidence that it is true. Fossil evidence is virtually irrelevant to me. I would encourage you to read, evangelical Christian Dr. Francis Collins’ book, “The Language of God,” which I’m sure you probably have. Whether you accept evolution is neither here nor there to me. The people who need to accept it do and they’re busy in labs developing medicines from which you and I will benefit.

Further, you’re correct. Eugenie Scott said that. Paleontologists have not directly observed speciation in progress, because they deal with fossils. But biologists have. Would you like documentation on observable speciation?

I must correct you. You said that the theory of evolution is built on non-living chemicals turning into life. That’s actually untrue. Evolution by natural selection simply explains speciation, which IS observable. Again, I can provide peer-reviewed, scientific evidence of this. What you’re referring to is abiogenesis and we are learning more and more about it every day. There are scientists vigorously working to understand how this happened. We will know the full answer one day, but until that day, saying the Judeo-Islamo-Christian god did it isn’t a solid explanation.
We were discussing what militates my disbelief in a god. I am convinced science provides the best answers for understanding the world around us. No offense, but mentioning the theory of evolution seems to be a straw man. Even if you could provide evidence that DNA does not show relatedness, it wouldn't assist in the argument FOR the Judeo-Islamo-Christian god.
I certainly didn’t expect you to pull out the argument from design so early in the discussion. It's based on the obvious false premise that “it looks designed, therefore it is”. I can look at the exact same thing and assert that it is not designed. To what avail? You might cite the watchmaker analogy. I can refute that by showing you the factory where the watch was made, how it was made, and introduce you to the maker. This cannot be done with the universe. It’s also an example of argument from personal incredulity, because you’re claiming that because we don’t understand how something came about, it must have been created—by your particular god no less. As I stated previously, for me, I must have clear, concise evidence. I determine whether a proposition is true or false based on evidence. If none is available or is limited, I reserve judgment until I have solid, verifiable, and testable evidence.
Back to my original question, how do you determine whether a proposition is true or false? Is it merely based on revelation or something more tangible?
Again, I TRULY appreciate your time.
Daniel

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5 Months Later
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Hey Daniel,
Thanks for writing. Sorry it has taken me so long to reply. Let’s get back into our discussion. In my previous e-mail I stated: “I appreciate your discussion and the way that you have put some things, but I must disagree with your statement: “Scientists do not build entire theories and laws on inference and speculation.” I then mentioned evolution being “built on” the idea that life arose from non-living chemicals. You “corrected” me and stated that evolution does not deal with the origin of life. I’m sure you will agree that the word evolution is often used (by many of your atheistic colleagues) to refer to aspects of the world that have nothing to do with living things, such as stellar evolution, cosmological evolution, etc. So, let me then ask you, are there scientific theories about life’s origin out there? And are they based on direct observable data which shows that life actually did or has come from non-living chemicals. Once we nail down the fact, and you admit its truth, which Scott’s statement verified, that we can know things about certain entities without actually touching, tasting, seeing, hearing, or smelling them, then we will move on to your discussion of DNA, and I’ll gladly provide you with information showing that DNA and its similarity between organisms is much better evidence supporting the idea of a common designer than of common ancestry. Thanks again.

Sincerely,
Kyle Butt


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My response on the same day
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Kyle:

I think it's generally accepted in popular culture that "evolution" refers to evolution by natural selection, In fact, Scott's organization is almost exclusively dedicated to promoting and teaching the theory of evolution by natural selection--not stellar evolution, etc. So when you brought that up, it can be assumed you been biological evolution. If it needs to be clarified, then I've done so now.

To understand certain theories, they must be demonstrable. We can look backwards in DNA, RNA, and molecular evolution to determine how life began. We can replicate the processes by which the building blocks for life began and THAT is observable. Perhaps, one day, we will be able to observe life developing in real-time on a distant planet, but for now, replication in the lab will suffice. This is a field of study that is developing. For further reading on the topic, I refer you to one of the first experiments--the Urey-Miller experiment--and subsequent demonstrations:

--Oparin and Haldane
--Fox's experiments
--Shapiro's work on RNA replication
--and so many more.

Now we go into a more philosophical realm. The answers we will find regarding the beginning of life WILL BE natural and not supernatural. This has been demonstrated over and over throughout the history of science. I'm not willing to say as you do, "I don't know the answer, therefore my particular deity did it." That's not the answer of an inquisitive mind. I prefer to say, "there is no answers for such and such, but we are working on an answer and it won't be magic."

So, in conclusion, yes, the fundamental processes by which life began are repeatable and observable, just not in totality as you would like, because it has already occurred billions of years ago. Experimentation and direct observation of various parts of the whole theory demonstrate its truth. The theory of evolution by natural selection is more than just "a monkey turning into a man". It is a culmination of a variety of fields of study over 150 years and can be validated at numerous points throughout. One cannot argue against the whole of evolution, but must address each and every individual scientific study that form the totality of the theory. Now, I ask you for peer-reviewed, observable, empirical evidence that debunks any of this. If we are going to argue science, I want to keep this discussion in the realm of science--meaning peer-reviewed work and empirical evidence. If we are going to debate the philosophy of science, we need to keep it in the realm of philosophy--which, to me, is entirely subjective and essentially a futile endeavor.

As I stated previously, indirect observation ALONE in science is not used as it is with creationism. There are empirical studies and scientific evidence to backup any science claim otherwise, it is rejected. Provide me with a SINGLE creationist claim backed up with peer-reviewed scientific evidence.

I'm curious to see what peer-reviewed evidence you have demonstrating DNA points to a creator (which happens to be your god nonetheless).

Daniel
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December 13, 2011

Hello Daniel,
Thanks for getting back with me and thanks for updating the site. I’d like to address several of the things you mentioned. First, let’s look at the idea of peer-reviewed journals.
Those of us who advocate that an Intelligent Designer created the Universe are often ridiculed by evolutionary scientists. This ridicule comes in many different forms, but one of the most often used tactics of atheistic evolutionists is to claim that creation science is simply not good science. As “evidence” that creation or intelligent design is not “good science,” atheistic evolutionists exult in the fact that the standard peer-reviewed scientific journals do not publish papers that support intelligent design. A couple of sample statements to this effect follow:

“ID [Intelligent Design—KB] advocates complain that their views are rejected out of hand by the scientific establishment, yet they do not play by the normal rules of presenting their views first through scientific conferences and then to peer-reviewed journals and then in textbooks” (Scott, 2006, p. 22).

“Most telling, perhaps, is intelligent design’s near total failure to make any headway in the peer-reviewed publications that are the gateway to scientific success” (Wexler, 2006, p. 94).

The reasoning here is that if creation or intelligent design were scientific, then it would be included in peer-reviewed journals. Since it does not appear in peer-reviewed journals, then it must not be scientific. The problem with this reasoning is the circular process by which papers are accepted for inclusion in such journals. The scientists in authoritative positions have established their own preconceived definition for science. “To be scientific in our era is to search for solely natural explanations” (Hewlett and Peters, 2006, p. 75, emp. added). Thus, if a paper even hints at something other than a “natural” explanation, it is rejected as “unscientific” regardless of the facts or research presented in the paper. Creationists’ papers are not allowed in peer-reviewed journals, not because they are poorly written or documented, but because they do not offer “solely natural explanations.”

An example of this prejudicial dismissal of intelligent design material occurred in 2004. In that year, Richard Sternberg allowed a paper that presented evidence in favor of intelligent design to be published in a peer-reviewed journal. Concerning what happened as a result, Sternberg wrote:

In 2004, in my capacity as editor of The Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington, I authorized “The Origin of Biological Information and the Higher Taxonomic Categories” by Dr. Stephen Meyer to be published in the journal after passing peer-review. Because Dr. Meyer’s article presented scientific evidence for intelligent design in biology, I faced retaliation, defamation, harassment, and a hostile work environment at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History that was designed to force me out as a Research Associate there (2008).

Reacting to the fact that an intelligent design paper was published in the journal, The Council of the Biological Society of Washington, which sponsors the journal, wrote an official statement concerning the ordeal:

The paper by Stephen C. Meyer...was published at the discretion of the former editor Richard v. [sic] Sternberg. Contrary to typical editorial practices, the paper was published without review by any associate editor; associate editors would have deemed the paper inappropriate for the pages of the Proceedings because the subject matter represents such a significant departure from the nearly purely systematic content for which this journal has been known throughout its 122-year history.... The Council endorses a resolution on ID published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science...which observes that there is no credible scientific evidence supporting ID as a testable hypothesis to explain the origin of organic diversity. Accordingly, the Meyer paper does not meet the scientific standards of the Proceedings (“Statement from...,” n.d.).

The way the council presents the matter, it seems that Sternberg did not go through the proper peer-review process. But that is not the case. The article was peer-reviewed and revised in accordance with the reviewers’ suggestions. The article did not cause a stir because it did not pass the review process. It caused a stir because it did not meet the “scientific standard”—in other words, because it advocated the possibility of an intelligent Designer.

The Council alluded to a resolution on ID issued by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. That resolution was adopted in October of 2002. In that resolution, the AAAS stated: “Therefore Be It Further Resolved, that AAAS calls upon its members to assist those engaged in overseeing science education policy to understand the nature of science, the content of contemporary evolutionary theory and the inappropriateness of ‘intelligent design theory’ as subject matter” (“AAAS Board...,” 2002, emp. in orig.). This simply means that if any book, article, or paper has anything about intelligent design in it, do not publish, promote, or condone it in anyway.

Thus, it is clear that the oft-repeated accusation against creation science’s lack of peer-reviewed papers is seen for what it is: an intentional exclusion based, not on the merits of the paper, but on the agreed-upon, but false, definition that true science entails only “natural explanations.” The scientific establishment’s stance is similar to that of a child who forms an exclusive club, one of the stipulations for membership being that all members must be “extremely smart.” The child then includes in the by-laws the statement that all smart people should think that he (the founding member) is always right. Thus, he concludes that those who do not think he is always right are not smart. Then, he proceeds to malign those not in the club based on the idea that they are not smart. And as proof that they are not smart, he states that it is obvious they are unintelligent because they are not members of his club. In reality, his motivation for castigating those outside his club is simply the fact that they disagree with him, which is the same motivation that propels the evolutionary establishment to reject all creation science articles. You will not see articles advocating intelligent design in the majority of peer-reviewed journals, not because the findings are unscientific, not because they fail to provide evidence and proof of their conclusions, but because they are not atheistic and evolutionary.
{“AAAS Board Resolution on Intelligent Design Theory” (2002), [On-line], URL: http://www.aaas.org/news/releases/2002/1106id2.shtml; Hewlett, Martinez and Ted Peters (2006), “Theology, Religion, and Intelligent Design,” Not in Our Classrooms, ed. Eugenie Scott and Glenn Branch, (Boston, MA: Beacon Press); Scott, Eugenie (2006), “The Once and Future Intelligent Design,” Not in Our Classrooms, ed. Eugenie Scott and Glenn Branch, (Boston, MA: Beacon Press); “Statement from the Council of the Biological Society of Washington” (no date), [On-line], URL: http://www.biolsocwash.org/id_statement.html; Sternberg, Richard (2008), “Smithsonian Controversy,” [On-line], URL:http://www.rsternberg.net/smithsonian.php; Wexler, Jay D. (2006), “From the Classroom to the Courtroom: Intelligent Design and the Constitution,” Not in Our Classrooms, ed. Eugenie Scott and Glenn Branch, (Boston, MA: Beacon Press).}

Next, let’s consider your question about DNA that points to a Creator. SETI is the acronym that stands for the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. For some time prior to 1981, the Federal Government pumped millions of dollars into the construction of high-tech satellites overseen by NASA that were designed to scan the skies in an effort to detect messages, codes, signals, or signs from intelligent life forms on other planets. In 1981, however, federal funding for this program ceased, but this roadblock in the search for alien intelligence did not stop the program. Currently, the Planetary Society stands as the major player in the SETI project. Thousands of volunteers all over the world have put their desktop computers to work, equipped with a program that filters information and radio signals from satellites. These computers are looking for patterns in signals that would suggest the existence of intelligence in outer space. Such prestigious institutions as Harvard and the University of California at Berkeley have joined the search. In the past, renowned scientists like Carl Sagan adamantly pushed for the funding and expansion of the SETI project (McDonough, 2004).

What, then, are these scientists and volunteers hoping to find in the data collected from their satellites, observation equipment, and computer analyses? They are hoping to find patterns or codes in radio or laser signals that contain some type of communication from an extraterrestrial intelligence. On the Planetary Society’s Web site, under the heading of Frequently Asked Questions, the question is posed: “How could we possibly understand signals from another civilization?” The answer given to this question is:

Even though we and an alien civilization would not have a language in common, there are ways to communicate that should be understandable to intelligent beings. Mathematics, physics, chemistry, and astronomy contain fundamental laws that provide a common “language” throughout the universe. Television pictures are a way of communicating that do not even require a common language to understand (“Frequently Asked Questions...,” 2001).

We can see that mathematical patterns, codes, languages, algorithms, and various other “fundamental laws” would be accepted as evidence that some type of intelligence did exist. The premise that can be surmised from the SETI program is that intelligence could be recognized and distinguished from non-intelligent, natural explanations; the required criteria for this recognition being some type of code, mathematical sequence, physical patterns, etc.

Suppose we were to send a man to the moon, and tiny floppy discs started falling to the moon’s surface. Upon inspection of these discs, the astronaut discovers they contain intricately coded information. Suppose further that he is able to decipher this code. Upon doing so, he discovers that the instructions contained in the code, if followed precisely, would produce a machine that could convert sunlight and minerals into food edible by humans and animals. Such an amazing find would receive world-wide recognition to say the least. And there would be no doubt that these discs had originated from an advanced intelligence. Yet, this hypothetical lunar scenario has a terrestrial equivalent.

In his book, The Blind Watchmaker, Richard Dawkins purports to show how life in this Universe could have evolved over millions of years. He claims to present information that shows that complicated life forms such as humans could have arisen from non-living substances by tiny, gradual steps over eons of time. In chapter five, he begins a discussion on DNA, and attempts to explain how such amazing codes of information could have arisen through natural processes. In his introduction to that chapter, however, he makes a startling admission that, to the honest reader, is impossible to explain in terms of naturalistic evolution. He discusses a willow tree that sits in his garden, shedding its “cottony” seeds through the air, to the ground and the passing water in the canal. In his discussion of the seeds, he explains that each seed contains DNA that, if allowed to grow, will produce another willow tree. He then explains briefly some of the coding capabilities of DNA and the instructions found in it for growth. Referring to these seeds and the DNA they contain, he makes the following statement: “It is raining instructions out there; it’s raining programs; it’s raining tree-growing, fluff-spreading, algorithms. That is not a metaphor, it is the plain truth. It couldn’t be any plainer if it were raining floppy discs” (1996, p. 111).

It is ironic, is it not, that the very coded mathematical information that, if found on the Moon, would be hailed as proof for the existence of extraterrestrial intelligence, when found on the Earth, is viewed by many as the product of a mindless, multi-million-year random process. How is it that such prestigious academic institutions such as Harvard and the University of California at Berkeley spend thousands of man hours and millions of dollars searching the skies for mathematical codes, radio signal patterns, etc.? And yet when they find such patterns, in biological, terrestrial organisms, they attribute them to non-intelligence. The logical implication in this situation continues to be missed by many of the major players in the scientific community: if complex coded information is found anywhere in the Universe, it proves that it was put there by a superior intelligence. If such is not the case, why waste time scanning the skies for these patterns? Dawkins’ book attempts to explain away this implication when it comes to coded information found on Earth, but it fails completely. Such an obvious, logical implication cannot be explained away. In truth, the coded information found in the DNA of living organisms points overwhelmingly to the fact that these organisms were design by an intelligent Being. [Dawkins, Richard (1996), The Blind Watchmaker, (New York, NY: W.H. Norton and Co.); “Frequently Asked Questions About the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence,” (2001), [On-line], URL: http://www.planetary.org/html/UPDATES/seti/SETIFAQS.html; McDonough, Thomas (2004), “Two Decades of SETI,” [On-line], URL: http://www.planetary.org/html/UPDATES/seti/seti-history.html.]

Good to hear from you.

Sincerely,
Kyle Butt



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December 20, 2011



Kyle,

Normally I respond more quickly. I've been trying to finish up several year-end projects. Thanks for the essay and I appreciate your renewed interest in the discussion.

Either you don’t understand the scientific process or you’re playing dumb. You and I both know that if creationism were supported by repeatable scientific processes, testing, and empirical data, it would be included in these prestigious journals.

I can’t believe you actually cited the weak paper by Meyer. Yes, I’m aware of the story. Wasn’t there a movie about it called “Expelled”? Don't hold me to that. I didn't see it. Let’s not rehash what’s in popular circulation, please. I’m also fully aware of how Sternberg was supposedly railroaded. Sternberg worked with Meyer exclusively going entirely against accepted editorial practices. I’m glad he was rebuked and I support it. They were obviously being deceptive to get the paper published published. Am I hearing you correctly that you support such behavior? As for the paper itself, it contained no independent research or lab results. It was nothing more than a review of others’ work. The scientific community and I want to see hard results that can be replicated in labs and tested. Please address this particular comment and do not veer around it.

Here’s my follow-up question: Can you cite ANY work that has been conducted in labs or otherwise to further the “work” conducted by Meyer in 2004? Have creationists just been sitting on their hands this whole time? Scientists work despite controversy if they are passionate about a subject. Where is the body of work or are Meyer, Sternberg, and you going to whine for 8 more years about Meyer’s pathetic piece of garbage? Can you cite other supposed-scientific papers being submitted as we speak or is this it for you?

Nice SETI strawman, by the way. You didn’t remotely answer my question correctly. I want evidence, not philosophizing. So, I’ll ask my question again: Can you cite PEER-REVIEWED EVIDENCE demonstrating DNA points to a creator? That’s really all I want from you at this point.

Sincerely,
Daniel A. Brown

24 comments:

  1. You, sir, are a hero.

    You have approached this in the best possible way and everything you have said is logically sound to me.

    "I mean verifiable, material evidence that unmistakably points to a god. Either the god proposition is true or false."

    This was one of the more interesting statements. I would suggest a third option: The proposition is either true or false or nonsensical.

    You were close to voicing this latter option when referring to the 'sock puppet' as 'god'-- your point being that, with unverifiable statements, there are an infinite number of options that could fill the same space as the concept of 'god'. As such, each has equal weight and each has equal (un)importance in the absence of evidence.

    Either way, you did a fantastic job and, inevitably when talking with someone intelligent, an apologist has suffered a lot of damage from your discussion. Well done.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Daniel,

    I found it quite interesting to discover another person had engaged would-be apologist Kyle Butt in an email debate. My experience with Kyle was, I’m sure, different than yours, in the sense that I am a Christian. So, to the unbaptized my discussion with Kyle might seem to have been mere infighting. However, Kyle is what is known in historical theology as a Pelagian, and therefore beyond the pale of historic Christian orthodoxy. So, I perceived our conversation to be of a different nature than mere polemics, something more than two Christians fusing over periphery issues of private judgment. Nevertheless, you and I have at least one thing in common: we’ve both experienced the frustrations of trying to maintain a rational rally of arguments with Kyle.

    Not only do Kyle and I have antithetical views of anthropology, our approach to defending and commending the Christian gospel and worldview are radically at odds. With that in mind, I thought I would share with you some thoughts and challenges that I find to be insurmountable problems for those committed to metaphysical naturalism. And please bear with the following, though, as I will likely present several points, which are more or less related. The reason being, I simply cannot predict exactly when or whether I will be able to return to whatever conversation you are willing to indulge in for follow up remarks. Similarly, I do not engage in blog battles often, but I thought that your material and Kyle’s poor representation warranted whatever meager offering I could present. So, if you are willing to give ear, let me begin. Essentially, for simplicity’s sake, what follows will be restricted to the field of epistemology.

    Begin by considering this. If our brains are merely a random collection of atoms, responding to various stimuli, in accord with the laws of physics, biology and chemistry (whatever ‘laws’ may be in a materialistic universe), then true beliefs are illusory, since these beliefs would be only the consequences of these bits of matter reacting with other bits of matter in ways predetermined by antecedent material causes. It seems inescapable that, according to materialism, our brains are just a random collection of atoms, which behave according to physical laws and predetermined antecedents. It follows necessarily, then, that true beliefs are illusory, not least the belief in materialism.

    More than that, if the materialists’ perspective is correct, and our reason is reducible to brain stuffs, working as described above, then a subject’s seeming favorable attitude and volitional commitment to any ‘belief’ would likewise be determined not by meaningful reflection and rational deliberations but by material-only antecedents. So, on your view, I don’t believe beliefs signify anything personal or rational, but are best understood to be sensational effects of purely material causes. On materialism, I can find no grounds for believing in belief.

    At any rate, what difference this makes is insignificant in terms of materialism. For like beliefs, truth—the object of knowledge—cannot exist within the context of the materialists’ world. Truth itself is immaterial. Moreover, it is eternal. For instance, there never was nor ever will be a time in which the law of non-contradiction was or could be false. This fact also points to the immutability and absoluteness of truth. In a materialists’ world the only thing that enjoys these attributes—immateriality, eternality, immutability, absoluteness—is the fact that there is no ontological (or even logical) residency for such, and therefore no home for truth, thus leaving knowledge homeless as well. (Continued in next post.)

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  3. Your primary problem is rooted in your epistemological autonomy. Granting your faith commitment to metaphysical naturalism and materialism, in your strivings for knowledge, you are left with and only with the epistemological perspective of pure empiricism. This leads into a number of problems of significant proportion.

    Firstly, empiricism cannot stand the rigors of its own criteria for knowledge, e.g., “Knowledge comes only through sense perception.” The truth of this proposition is not itself something known through sense perception and observation. And despite your remarks about perditions made in this discussion, empiricism, ultimately, can tell us nothing about the future, since the future is yet to be observed, and all knowledge is reducible to observation through the senses. Closely related is the fact that your man David Hume observed, namely that the cause and effect relationships presupposed by empiricists are (obviously!) not subject to empirical analyses and verification, and therefore cannot be known, according to the rigors of empiricism. At best, two events or states of affairs, what are commonly called “brute facts,” occurring in close relation to one another are mere coincidence, happenstance, without any meaningful relation.

    Moreover, pure empiricism’s history cannot even agree about the metaphysical reality we’re supposedly observing. Locke rendered “substance” to be inexplicable; Berkeley decided to simply do away with material reality; but, who really cares, since Hume discovered that there was no mental/immaterial self to do the observing! Even if a consensus were established, it makes little difference, since empiricism, presuming the principle of induction, without an internally coherent justification always begs the fundamental question. An eminent spokesperson of your stripe understood this much.

    It has been argued that we have reason that we know that the future will resemble the past, because what was the future has constantly become the past [if this sounds strangely familiar it’s because this is the same argument you tried to use to argue for the scientific method!]...But such an argument really begs the very question at issue...We have therefore still to seek for some principle which shall enable us to know that the future will follow the same laws as the past (Burtrand Russell, The Problems of Philosophy [New York, NY: Barnes and Noble, 2004] 45).

    In your opening statements in this discussion with Mr. Butt, you made much of ‘verification.’ However, the argument for empirical verification breaks a formal law of logic, and is therefore always fallacious. It goes like this: If hypothesis P, then effect Q will result; Q was the result, therefore P is verified and may be considered ‘theory’ or ‘law.’ This is the fallacy of affirming the consequent. Because every line of verification must proceed thus, no method of verification is logically valid or sound. Besides this, if truth were dependent upon verification, then we’d never know anything to be true, since every verification would itself need verification, ad infinitum. Empiricism has no answer to the problem of an infinite regress in establishing epistemic justification. Furthermore, empiricism cannot verify, much less account for, the abstract, absolute, universal, and invariable logical laws and concepts it takes for granted.

    It may be added that empiricism leads to solipsism. Empiricism begins, is checked, and ends with the subject’s mere (brute) perceptions; and, those perceptions can only be verified by other perceptions, thus leading to solipsism. The epistemology which most loudly boasts objectivity actually eliminates genuine knowledge of any reality outside oneself—crass subjectivism. Additionally, our senses are often deceptive, and empiricism provides no means of determining which and how the data should be filtered. (Continued yet again.)

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  4. Finally, empiricism is destroyed by means of the so-called ‘problem of criterion.’ Empiricism is an epistemological ‘method’ for investigating reality; it is a chosen criterion for judging and verifying claims made about what ultimate reality truly is. The problem comes when one asks, “How do we know that empiricism is the proper criterion for evaluating reality, one that truly corresponds with reality?” You see, empiricists would already have to know in advance, and exhaustively so, what reality is ultimately like before they would ever be able to identify their epistemological method. But, they tell us that such is only achievable by means of their method, empiricism. The point is: You must already presuppose your metaphysical perspective (i.e., materialism) in advance before ever selecting your method of investigation—you must first make a faith commitment. This, ironically, is the very thing for which you attempt to mock Christians. Therefore, I believe it apropos to cite Psalm 7:14—15 as a proper acclamation for the antitheistic position: “Behold, he travaileth with iniquity, and hath conceived mischief, and brought forth falsehood. He made a pit, and digged it, and is fallen into the ditch which he made.”

    Granting all this—making the concept of beliefs unbelievable, making truth a cosmological hobo, and by faith in a false metaphysical construct, making epistemic justification unjustifiable—your materialism, like the mute pagan idols of antiquity, make the idol of autonomous human reason, in a word, dumb. (Continued on yet another post.)

    It was the Puritan Richard Baxter who declared, “Nothing can be rightly known, if God be not known.” So, I suppose in a sense the above arguments are simply support for this unpretentious dictum. The good news is that in the fullness of time God the Father sent forth his Son, Christ Jesus, to live such a life and die such a death and be resurrected in such a glory that rebels like you and I, by faith—not in our own will and reason independent of God; instead—in Jesus’ Name, offices, and work alone we might be saved. That is, that we might be saved from God’s righteous judgment against our cosmic treason and rebellion, and restored to a right standing before him and relationship with him, having peace with God through Christ by the Holy Ghost.

    In addition, Jesus saves us from the various expressions of our sinful reasoning, such as naturalistic/materialistic antitheism. Such false constructs lead straightway to epistemological self-destruction, as I believe foregoing succinctly demonstrates. By the mercies of God in Christ, however, the Holy Ghost begins his work of transformation, which includes not least the renewing of our minds, recreating us in true knowledge and righteousness and holiness, after the image of him who created us, and thus conforming us into the image of Christ. So, I am not inviting you to have faith at the expense of reason. Rather, I am inviting you to a faith other than the one that you have now, antithetically other in fact. This faith, faith in the Logos, Christ Jesus and his self-attesting Word, does not disparage reason; no, this faith is the only one that can save reason, just as it is the only one that can save sinners, like you and like me.

    May God give you light and this very sort of faith,

    Kevin

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  5. Bro, the simple answer to your question.. you must CHOOSE to believe.There is more than enough evidence in the earth to guide you.GOD has given EVERY man a seed of faith..your materialist intellect will NEVER comprehend the Glory of GOD. material intellect is too primitive to comprehend the fullness of GOD..GOD IS LOVE and JESUS is LOVE and LOVE never forces himself on anyone. satan is the trespasser, not GOD.although Kyle may not have been able to answer your question to your satisfaction..but he demonstrated much love to you by responding to your less than honest emails.. and then you mock the guy? come on man..

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  6. @Kevin Stevenson @CEN Rather than support your argument, you "attempt" to dismantle naturalism, which happens to be the foundation of ALL decisions--from assembling a toilet to driving down the street. If you have issues with the scientific method, naturalism, materialism, or rational thought and decision-making, I invite both of you to jump out of a 10-story window and be greeted with the harsh reality of naturalism. Verification and falsification are the reasons science has sent rovers to Mars. Can you pray a ship to Mars?

    I don't need to address at length because of the utter ridiculousness of your arguments. Suffice it to say--both of you said "you must choose to have faith". That's bottom line. I MUST CHOOSE to BELIEVE your position without an ounce of testable evidence. Why can't I just "choose to believe" Islam or Buddism or Hinduism? Why Christianity? Do you not see the importance of verification/falsification?

    Your premises are baseless and faulty. Shifting sand.

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  7. Thank you for your reply, Daniel; it merely illustrated the truth of my conclusions. You misquoted me in order to dress your strawman; you make the sophomoric mistake of failing to recognize that in honest inquiry and debate, epistemological criteria must coordinate the metaphysical nature of the object in question (e.g., when your Mama would tell you that she loved you, did you suspend your belief in the proposition except she offer you empirically testable evidence?!? No, you didn’t). When I attacked naturalism, you present it as an attack on the natural order; when I attacked naturalistic science, you reacted as though I attacked verification (simply because you cannot answer the challenges in terms of your espoused worldview does not mean there is no answer...but such is the narrow-mindedness of antitheism). In sum, your reply provided “testable evidence” in support of my conclusion that your view issues in solipsism. So, it is not at all surprising that your “attempt” to answer--in short or 'at length'--my challenge was barely more than an emotive outburst. Thanks, again.

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  8. Ahhh...old faithful--the Love Argument. Love is an emotion--a mental reaction to stimuli, a natural phenomenon. We simply apply a name to it and make it into something magical and abstract when it is not. For me, someone expressing love does not require the same level of evidence as brain surgery. There is no comparison.

    My arguments remain unaddressed. The Christian position is merely a playful exercise in philosophy and nothing more. Philosophical musings on the suspension of reality are a precursor to post-modernist thought.

    Demonstrate Christianity is true or we have nothing more to discuss.

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    1. Which is more fundamental and sublime in human experience, love or brain surgery? If love is a mere reaction to physical stimuli, as you suggested, then it is no longer a choice, and is therefore no more meaningful than constipation...if you are correct, that is. Again, I love how all your name-calling and snide remarks, rather than answers, bolster the truth of the Christian position; it is immensely helpful for the self-conscious, honest observers.

      Demonstrate...?

      1. Either Christian theism or materialism
      2. Not materialism (as demonstrated above)
      3. Ergo, Christian theism...QED!

      There ya go, Daniel. Now what would you like to discuss?

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    2. You have used materialism as a straw man. The Christian claim lies outside the known material world. I simply point out that what you claim cannot be known. Demonstrate Christianity is true, please.

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  9. Logical laws lie outside the known material world as well. Therefore, to demand a logical demonstration of anything presupposes the truth of the Christian worldview. In this sense, if your view were correct, no one could prove anything! There is your demonstration. Our debate over the truth of Christianity would be unintelligible, if Christianity weren't true.

    What is odd is that you left one fundamentalist group to only remain a fundamentalist in another...just odd.

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  10. Not once have I asked you to "prove" anything. I do not use that word in this context. "Proof" is applied to physics and math. Your claim is philosophical and should be supported with verifiable/falsifiable evidence. Without it, your claim holds as much water as a cheese grater.

    Now, I'll explain again (and for the last time). I make no claim. The theist claims "I know the mind of god and I know he is the author of everything". The atheist says "I don't accept your argument. Please provide evidence."

    If I said, "I spoke to John F. Kennedy in my apartment last night." You have every right (and should) question my claim. Stop attempting to philosophize your way out of this.

    Stop copping out and demonstrate Christianity is true.

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  11. Look, I'm well-aware of postmodernist attempts to make verification/falsification irrelevant, but it won't work with me. It fails in every way. I encounter it often. If you make a claim, there must be something to support it. If the evidence insufficient, it will be rejected. "God told me in my head" is not sufficient evidence for me. You obviously have a lower standard for evidence and that's probably why you're not in any other field, but religion. You would not survive in the real world where every day decisions are made on facts and reason.

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  12. Very well, Daniel. Please just tell me what kind of verifiable evidence for the truth of the Christian claims would it take to satisfy you? But know, I hold to anything but a postmodern epistemology, and that you can't see that is telling. Moreover, I am not challenging verification per se, but only verification grounded in a materialistic frame of reference. Philosophizing in these questions is unavoidable. That you forbid it is, again, telling of your tenuous position and mindset. So, tell me: what sort of evidence would satisfy you; and, secondly, why that sort of evidence alone?

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  13. BTW: Positivism is as dead as it is ridiculous today. So, if I were you, I wouldn't speak so disparagingly of postmodernism. Your positivist fathers gave us sour grapes, and now their childrens', the postmoderns', teeth are on edge. Typical of the dialectical tension of antitheistic worldviews.

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  14. I don't have time nor do I have interest in giving a dissertation on postmodernism, but you are clearly a subscriber. Religious philosophy requires no firm foundation in reality and no methodological rigor. It is merely speculative and nonsensical--a classic example of postmodern epistemology. Every time I push for evidence for Christianity, in return I receive nonsense responses questioning reality. That's postmodern thought.

    I think you're well-aware of what sort of evidence I require. Do not play coy. 1) Establish there is a god with testable, repeatable evidence (e.g. something we can take into a lab and probe); 2) Establish that this particular "god" created everything. Arguments from beauty or design are not testable--only hypothetical. Beyond hypothesis there are test requirements to establish the veracity of the claim. 3) Establish that this particular god is the god of Christianity. If he/she/it is, then all other claims that he is not can be falsified. Islam will be demonstrated as false every time.

    All evidence is not only verifiable, but falsifiable. For instance, to falsify 2+2=4, only once does it need to equal 5. Every time I drop a ball, it falls to the earth. If once it does not, the law of gravity is falsified. Likewise, demonstrate that the Christian god created the universe and we can verify/falsify your evidence.

    Without verification/falsification of claims, anyone can claim anything they want. I can even claim to be a god and according to your epistemology, no one can challenge it.

    Absolute and utter nonsense, my friend.

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  15. Please demonstrate Christianity is true.

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  16. I think the most humorous part of your response is that it's a lengthy way of saying "I can't demonstrate it's true". You're saying exactly what an uneducated backwoods preacher would say, but in a pseudo-intellectual way.

    Rather than provide positive evidence for your position, you attempt to philosophize your way out of reality. This is quintessential postmodernism.

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  17. Clown, what repeatable, verifiable, "probable" evidence can you offer to demonstrate that empirical verification/falsification is the only means of epistemic justification? Demonstrate your style of demonstration is justifiable and I will gladly oblige.

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  18. I can provide verifiable/falsifiable evidence of why and how planes work. That sort of evidence will suffice, my friend. It's as basic as that.

    Stop getting so emotional. Name-calling isn't very Christian.

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  19. Now, read the question carefully. Either you completely avoided or failed to comprehend it. Here it is again...read slowly.

    Clown, what repeatable, verifiable, "probable" evidence can you offer to demonstrate that empirical verification/falsification is the only means of epistemic justification? Demonstrate your style of demonstration is justifiable and I will gladly oblige.

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  20. If you would stop acting like an ass and getting emotional, you’d recall I never said it’s the ONLY means of epistemological justification. The problem is we have nothing else. Can you provide a better means of determining veracity of a philosophical statement?

    Christians are always offended when I don’t believe in talking snakes and talking donkeys. I know it’s frustrating and hurts your manhood. You're one stubborn and sad person. I didn't answer your idiotic, post-modern question, because you're an imbecile. Let me warn you, if you continue acting like a backwoods preacher on my blog, I’ll delete your comments and block you. Be civil.

    My requirements for evidence (i.e. verification/falsification) are rooted in basic logic. Allow me to explain in basic terms since you're unable to comprehend so far. Verification/falsification.

    You mentioned “positivism” and I assume because of the ignorance you’ve demonstrated you mean “logical positivism”. If you had a better post-secondary education, you might have recognized the nuance. However, I do not subscribe to that philosophy, because it attempts to apply meaning, which cannot be determined and renders the argument fallacious.

    Verification/falsification is a logical tautology. It’s the principle underpinning of all of our understanding. The more evidence we have, the more true/false a statement becomes. We know that 2+2=4 because we can demonstrate it over and over. Multiple people can verify it anywhere in the world at anytime. Four sticks lined in a row is sufficient evidence to support this. Aeronautics is continually verified because numerous pilots repeat it every minute of every day.

    As for something like revelation, it is one person making one claim and there is no one to verify/falsify the claim. Therefore, I suspend judgment on the claim until further evidence is presented.

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