God Must Exist Because Nature Is So Gosh Darn Wonderful

[DavidDvorkin]

I came across a blog post in which the writer gushes about the beauty of the world and its profound effect on her. She concludes that it must be hard work to be an atheist because atheists have to actively deny the god whose existence is revealed by all of this gosh-darned wonderfulness. This isn’t a new argument. Psalm 19 says it this way: “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.” The blog post, however, tried to be very down to earth, focusing on insects and plants and the loveliness of the writer’s immediate surroundings. Above all, the piece lauded the writer’s emotional reaction to all of that as proof of God’s existence.

http://eyeblister.blogspot.com/2017/04/god-must-exist-because-nature-is-so.html

[PsychoBabble]

1. Ummmm, NO.

I have no need of a magical explanation for nature, or anything else.

No struggle.

... atheists (me) have to actively deny (umm, NOPE) the god (the WHAT?) whose existence is revealed (umm, nope, didn't see him) by all of this gosh-darned wonderfulness (YES!) ...

[cos dem]

2. All things dull and ugly

All things dull and ugly,
All creatures short and squat,
All things rude and nasty,
The Lord God made the lot.
Each little snake that poisons,
Each little wasp that stings,
He made their brutish venom.
He made their horrid wings.

All things sick and cancerous,
All evil great and small,
All things foul and dangerous,
The Lord God made them all.

Each nasty little hornet,
Each beastly little squid--
Who made the spikey urchin?
Who made the sharks? He did!

All things scabbed and ulcerous,
All pox both great and small,
Putrid, foul and gangrenous,
The Lord God made them all.

- Monty Python

[DavidDvorkin]

14. Now, that's gosh darn wonderful.

[progressoid]

35. Oh Lord! You Are So Big!

Python did so many great sketches about god and religion.

[Binkie The Clown]

3. And Satan must exist because there are bagpipes. n/t

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

4. And Donald Trump.

[DavidDvorkin]

6. I like bagpipes!

Well, within reason. And not too close.

[Binkie The Clown]

9. O.K. then. How about accordions?

We can substitute accordions for bagpipes. The logic is still sound.

[DavidDvorkin]

10. Clarinets

I hate that sound. And you're right. The logic still works.

[sakabatou]

29. Especially in smooth jazz!

I HATE SMOOTH JAZZ!

[DavidDvorkin]

34. I hate all jazz.

[progressoid]

31. I didn't really appreciate clarinets

But my daughter has been playing one for about 12 years. Now I get it.

[pangaia]

26. Hey, Sir Clown, I used to play in a pipe band.... Although I played snare drum...

[Sculpin Beauregard]

5. It's easy to romanticize nature, but

Nature can be brutal and ugly, too. Deformities, Ebola, dying from exposure, blights on crops, forest fires, volcanic eruptions, getting torn apart by wild animals, hurricanes and floods, arthritis, disease and death - you get the idea.

[DavidDvorkin]

8. Exactly.

[elleng]

7. Au contraire!

[beam me up scottie]

11. This reminds me of Ray Comfort logic.

And the Banana Argument

[progressoid]

19. Hahaha. That's great!

I just saw a post on facebook by a high school classmate. She quoted some crap by Ray Comfort.

I was gobsmacked. I hadn't realized have far off the deep end she had gone. When you admire Ray Comfort, you no longer deserve my time. Unfriend.

[beam me up scottie]

21. Oy!

That is pretty bad, I wouldn't be able to tolerate it either.

Facebook is great for atheists though, it's like a smorgasbord of groups, videos and endless memes.

[progressoid]

32. Yes indeed...

[Jokerman]

42. I've been burned by god's love before...

now I wear god's love screen.

[sakabatou]

30. Ask her if she still thinks the modern banana was made by God

[progressoid]

33. Oh, I wouldn't doubt that she does.

[sakabatou]

36. Even though her idol had to admit it was made by humans

[Warpy]

12. I wonder if she knows about bot flies

and Guinea worms. Maybe she doesn't understand that the penicillin her kids take for every earache kill living creatures that made the kids sick. Or the diseases from sand fleas and kissing bugs (more properly called shitting bugs because they shit into the bite they just made, passing infection). Or maybe mango worms. Those really love Fido.

It's not all pretty little Thomas Kinkade miniatures, lady. The natural world can be nauseatingly awful.

I'd follow the links and send her a few You Tube videos to watch but she'd probably cry and get mad and say all that stuff was from the devil religious people who want to reconcile the natural world with an all good god invented.

And I'm just impolite enough to point out that such a creature, if real, could only operate with the express permission of their all good, all powerful god.

Then again, probably not. Mostly, these idiotic people just make me tired.

[TlalocW]

13. I think that's the argument from ignorance fallacy

I can't think of any other way for this beauty to come about except a god, therefore a god did it.

TlalocW

[Warpy]

16. It's certainly the dust on the rose colored glasses fallacy

Obviously, science classes weren't her strong suit and she slept through them.

[beam me up scottie]

15. She should ask Stephen Fry about that. Watch as he completely destroys this 'argument':

[Duppers]

20. Yep. That clip is THE BEST!

[beam me up scottie]

22. It is. He totally nailed it. I loved the exasperated reaction from the interviewer.

Here's the gist of it for those who can't watch videos but it's missing Stephen's crisp British accent and the cutting tone of his righteous indignation:

Stephen Fry brands God 'utterly utterly evil'

The newly married broadcaster was asked what he would do if he found himself at the “pearly gates” after his death.

"I'll say: bone cancer in children, what's that about?” he said.

"How dare you. How dare you create a world in which there is such misery that's not our fault? It’s not right. It's utterly, utterly evil.

"Why should I respect a capricious, mean-minded, stupid God who creates a world which is so full of injustice and pain?"

Fry was being interviewed for an Irish television show called The Meaning of Life when he launched into an impassioned tirade about God’s existence.

Asked if he thought he would get to heaven, he replied: "No, but I wouldn't want to. I wouldn’t want to get in on his terms. They’re wrong.

He added: "The God who created this universe, if he created this universe, is quite clearly a maniac, an utter maniac, totally selfish.

"We have to spend our lives on our knees thanking him. What kind of God would do that?

"Yes, the world is very splendid, but it also has in it insects whose whole life cycle is to burrow into the eyes of children and make them blind. Why? Why did you do that to us? It is simply not acceptable.

“Atheism is not just about not believing there's a god. On the assumption there is one, what kind of God is he? It’s perfectly apparent that was monstrous, utterly monstrous, and deserves no respect.”

He added: "The moment you banish him, your life becomes simpler, purer cleaner, more worth living in my opinion."

***

Gay Byrne, the interviewer, slightly taken aback by Fry's strongly worded response, said it was the longest answer he’d got to that question.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/11381589/Watch-Stephen-Fry-brands-God-utterly-utterly-evil.html

[Doodley]

17. As an atheist, I think she is onto something.

[Duppers]

18. What kind of deity would create viruses that...

kill innocent babies & children?


Their perspective is so one-dimensional, myopic, naive, childish, ignorant, romanticized hogwash, etc.

[DetlefK]

23. OMG! Those brain-parasites are so cute!!!

https://www.democraticunderground.com/122851382


And moscitos spreading plagues? So cute.

Plants eating insects alive? So cute.

The Sun bombarding Earth with UV-radiation that can cause skin-cancer? So cute.

[uriel1972]

24. Leaf through the pages...

Of a Pictorial Atlas of Tropical Disease... nice one God.

[DavidDvorkin]

25. Hey, come on, he had to put a lot of godly thought into that!

[randr]

27. Human arrogance

The beauty around us could only be the result of a concept we create in our imagination?
The world would be as perfect without a single human to witness it, maybe even more beautiful.
The one thing we do have to contribute to the magnificence is our love.

[heaven05]

28. Stephen Fry's response to the question is similar to how I feel,

frequently, about god's creation here that MOST of us have to suffer through for however finite our time in this existence.

[Brainstormy]

37. for every blooming dogwood . . .

there's a flesh-eating bacteria.

[SwissTony]

38. This was posted on DU a couple of years ago.

Warning: some unpleasant video

[progressoid]

43. I hadn't seen that before.

Thanks for posting.

[edhopper]

39. so gosh darn wonderful

[IMG]?w=964&h=644&crop=1[/IMG]

[DavidDvorkin]

40. Oh, that's just free will in action

Also, I bet there were people who prayed and escaped that destruction, and that was a miracle and proof of God's beneficence.

[edhopper]

41. yeah

I saw that move. The impossible happens, if you are white.