How to decide is there a deity (Introduction)

by George Jelliss , Crewe, Thursday, January 08, 2009, 15:41 (5605 days ago) @ dhw

DHW says he does not have an aversion to chance. He says, and I agree with him, that "Life is massively influenced by chance, and that helps to make it all the more exciting. Almost every turning point in my own life has come about through chance, and indeed the very combination of genes that make me what I am is a matter of luck." Although I would add "or misfortune". - But he then says: "But that is a long way from believing in the ability of chance to create a working, self-replicating, infinitely adaptable machine." But no-one claims that chance ALONE can do this! Only that chance, which DHW admits he believes in, is a factor. - I did a search through the version 2.1 of the downloaded text for the word "chance" and it occurs throughout the document, but it is usually used in the sense of "a miracle of improbability", or else as part of a claim that chance is what atheists "have faith in". - I do not "have faith in" chance. I just believe, exactly as DHW does, that chance is an important element in the way the world works. Chance alone cannot bring about the instantaneous miracles of improbability that DHW imagines brought about life, and consciousness. - He leaves out the role of LAW. Even chance is governed by laws - those of statistics. Chance works within the framework of the laws of physics and chemistry, and brings about what may look like major miracles only slowly over great lengths of time. - Finally, to contradict DHW's last paragraph, I am not "saying there is no such thing as OBEs, NDEs, ESP, psychic phenomena" as perceived by those who claim to have experienced them. I only say that they all have simple explanations in terms of psychological knowledge that we already possess. The evidence is not sufficient to justify the speculations that are often based on them.