Philosophical Vegan Forum

I've encountered a bunch of different Creationists, both online and in real life, and I have noticed that they use the same arguments over and over again. And the best part is that the arguments used and debunked on many levels. Anyways, here are my top three creationist arguments.
(Note- This isn't directed towards all theists/creationists, just the ones that think that the presented arguments are valid points.)

1. "Evolution is just theory! Just a guess!"
No it's not "Just a theory". In scientific terms, science has an entirely different meaning than everyday use. In science, A theory is something that has evidence to support it, and is well documented. The website Not Just a Theory explains this more thoroughly. And I know this may be a lame example, but let's take the cell theory to task. The cell theory states that every living thing is made of cells, cells are the basic unit of life, and cells can only come from other cells. It's still a theory, but we know it to be true! It's been observed over 500 years ago!

http://notjustatheory.com/

2. "Yea? Well the 2nd law of thermodynamics DISPROVES EVOLUTION BRUH!"
It doesn't! Basically, the second law of thermodynamics states that "the entropy of an isolated system does not decrease" and Creationists thinking that evolution cannot be possible with such a law. They misinterpreted it, and the 2nd law of thermodynamics only occurs in a closed space, whereas planet earth is NOT!

http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Second_law ... modynamics

3."Well if you're wrong about God not existing, you're goin' to HELL! Why not just believe and be on the safe side?"
Pascal's wager. Basically, why not believe and be wrong? I mean you have nothing to lose right? Well, let's think about this argument. First of all, there are A LOT of different religions out there. And about 99% say that if you don't follow our religion, you'll BURN! Well, which religion should I follow? I mean, I want eternal bliss, not eternal burn right? Also, I can't just make myself believe in that religion. I have to make sure that the religion is credible, and rational. I have standards.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pascal's_Wager

This is by no means and exhausted list. I just got lazy to right all the ones I knew. But anyways, what are your favorite creationist arguments?

"If we came from monkeys, WHY ARE DERE' STILL MONKEYS?!?!?!?!?!1111111111"

The ones you give are pretty frustrating to say the least. Don't consider them to my favorites. My favorites would be the ones that at least challenge my understanding of evolutionary theory a bit. Then I might even have some work to do.

You can't know anything so god exists. Exhausting.

God put dinosaur bones here to test us.

J-Park wrote:God put dinosaur bones here to test us.

No, the devil buried them to trick us!

brimstoneSalad wrote:

J-Park wrote:God put dinosaur bones here to test us.

No, the devil buried them to trick us!

Nuh-uh, that’s what forbidden apple trees are for!

J-Park wrote: Nuh-uh, that’s what forbidden apple trees are for!

Forbidden apple trees buried the dinosaur bones to trick us?

Well, it makes more sense than most things Christians believe in.

A somewhat more challenging and common argument from the more intelligent creationists (mostly ID'ers I suppose) would be the argument that human beings never could develop our sense of, what they would call, true altruism. This altruism would go a step further then kin selection and reciprocal altruism.

It seems to be clear to me that this kind of altruism is not innate in us, just by watching the morality of young children and taking a look at the history of human civilization. Also people are still struggling to be altruistic without getting something in return (continuing to eat meat is a great example). It's mostly cultural and moral progress that drive us to be non-reciprocal altruistic in certain circumstances. And let's also not forget our punishment systems.

And it should also be said that reciprocal altruism shouldn't be underestimated. We now might be very gentle towards complete strangers that we might never see again, but notice that our societies are completely different from what it used to be. We used to live in small groups, where most people you saw had a high chance of seeing throughout your life. The position of being gentle doesn't seem to be strange if this is the historical context.

I think Pascal's Wager is quite interesting, although quite easily defeated.

Matt Dillahunty does a very good job: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBCDGohZT70

I personally feel like Matt is right up there with the four horsemen in terms of debating qualities, his understanding of reason and philosophy is quite amazing.

Basically what he says in the video is that if you believe in a god that is nowhere near a guarantee to go to heaven as there are many other religions than that particular god you would believe in, of which the gods would still condemn you. Say, you believe in the Christian God, everyone from Allah to Anubis will be against you. There would still be a 99% chance of you being wrong and going to hell or something alike. Also there could theoretically be a god out there that is testing our reasoning and will reward atheists as they took the most reasonable position.