SeN Continues Its Love Affair With The Discovery Institute

[Fence Sitter]

Sad when a guy doesn't know what a tautology is.

Maybe you need to tell him twice.

[malkie]

Sad when a guy doesn't know what a tautology is.

Maybe you need to tell him twice.

Yeah, well, it is what it is, right?

[malkie]

The proprietor seems to have updated part of his post. The relevant part currently reads:

If I fall fifty-five thousand feet from a high-altitude airplane without a parachute and somehow land on my feet, completely unhurt, with my unspilled cup of Coke Zero with ice still in my hand, well, I just happen to live in a universe in which that happened. No questions needed. No mystery. Move along! There’s nothing to see here!

It previously read:

If I fall thirty-five thousand feet from an airplane and somehow survive unhurt, well, I just happen to live in a universe in which that happened. Move along! There’s nothing to see here!

Well now.

Update to my previous comment:
[apologist Hat = "on"]
If only she had fallen a further 21670 feet you might have a point.
[apologist Hat = "off"]

[drumdude]

If a Mormon apologist found evidence of Zarahemla in the central American rainforest, well, we just happen to live in a Universe in which that happened.

[Tom]

The proprietor writes:

The late atheist polemicist Christopher Hitchens is said to have called the fine-tuning argument “the most intriguing” among the arguments for the existence of God. The vocally atheistic physicist Sean Carroll has grudgingly termed it “the best argument that the theists have when it comes to cosmology.”

And it’s no wonder that Hitchens and Carroll and others have been at least slightly taken aback by evidence for fine-tuning.

It is worth quoting Carroll at greater length:

So let’s go to the second argument, the teleological argument from fine-tuning. I’m very happy to admit right off the bat – this is the best argument that the theists have when it comes to cosmology. That’s because it plays by the rules. You have phenomena, you have parameters of particle physics and cosmology, and then you have two different models: theism and naturalism. And you want to compare which model is the best fit for the data. I applaud that general approach. Given that, it is still a terrible argument. It is not at all convincing. I will give you five quick reasons why theism does not offer a solution to the purported fine-tuning problem.

The blog post reminds me of Tim Barnett’s article, “Why the Puddle Analogy Fails against Fine-Tuning,” posted here.

[Doctor CamNC4Me]

The blog post reminds me of Tim Barnett’s article, “Why the Puddle Analogy Fails against Fine-Tuning,” posted here.

The money shot from the link:

The problem is, life doesn’t work like that. Life cannot exist in any universe. The evidence from fine-tuning shows that a life-permitting universe is extremely rare. If you change certain conditions of the universe, you cannot get life anywhere in the universe.

…

So, the puddle analogy has a problem. And it’s a big one. It’s a false analogy. The analogy doesn’t work because getting a life-permitting universe is vastly different from getting a puddle-permitting hole.

Perhaps Dowsin’ Dan should stick to posting about NDEs, shoveling food into his maw, and posting travel updates?

- Doc

[drumdude]

Good catch, Tom. Dan took Tim Barnett's article and copied it faster than a high school senior the day before Spring Break.

If a student turned that in, the teacher would certainly have some questions.

[Res Ipsa]

Maybe you need to tell him twice.

Yeah, well, it is what it is, right?

I love tautologies because they are so true!

[Everybody Wang Chung]

Good catch, Tom. Dan took Tim Barnett's article and copied it faster than a high school senior the day before Spring Break.

If a student turned that in, the teacher would certainly have some questions.

Good Lord!! Another plagiarized blog post from DCP?!

[malkie]

Yeah, well, it is what it is, right?

I love tautologies because they are so true!

That is a lie, a deliberate falsehood

(I hope you will overlook the mixing of levels here)