C.J.O'Brien
Posts: 395
Joined: Aug. 2005
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bFast:
| Quote | | if a UFO came down, and little green men popped off. If they went on to claim that they are the designer of life on earth. If they then sat down with the scientists and showed them how they did it. This would be a solid victory for ID. |
Too Funny.
I was just thinking about a scenario like this. (The inimitable DaveTard got me thinking about it via his recent tirade against "Who designed the Designer" arguments.) Because how solid a victory for ID would it be really, if the aliens could prove they were indeed the designer of life on Earth, but steadfastly maintained that our conception of Evolution was perfectly correct and furthermore that our designers were convinced beyond a doubt that their own origins were the result of organic, contingent processes -- Dreaded Chance + Necessity? How many IDers are still on board the lead float in the victory parade? One suspects not very many.
It's a perfect opportunity to highlight the real interests of your average Creationist. Do they want to prove anything specific about life on Earth, or do they simply want the imprimatur of science on their religious beliefs? The average cdesign proponentist no doubt believes the two ends are perfectly consonant, but bFast, "unwittingly," natch, illustrates the beginnings of a proof that it just ain't so.
I'm going to extend bFast's cute little counterfactual a little, and show just how disastrous such a scenario would actually be for ID's target audience.
Let's say that not only do our super-high-tech aliens show that they designed life on Earth, but intervened significantly in human history as well. Specifically, they are able to show via extensive documentation and beyond doubt that they are responsible for the origin and perpetuation of monotheistic religion. Abraham's YHWH, the burning bush, Noah's boat trip, complete with unnatural flood, alien android miracle-working prophets, the works. Let us say, furthermore, that Jesus was also an alien android, the "miracles" were Clarke's Law-type sufficiently advanced technology, and the early Christians were the beneficiary of significant interventions bolstering the cult and ensuring that the beliefs would persist into the modern era. How is ID faring now?
Scientists would be extremely surprised to find out that they had been fooled regarding the evolution of life, of course. But remember that the aliens agree with Evolutionary Theory, and indeed believe it was instrumental on their own planet. They simply show convincingly that they circumvented it via intervention on Earth, all the while rigging the evidence to be indistinguishable from a natural origin. While shocking, this would sink in and become acceptable to scientists.
And atheists would say, well, there's your God, then. But most theists wouldn’t be happy at all, would they? “That’s not God! That’s trickster aliens. God is Transcendent and Immanent and all that stuff. And they say THEY evolved. They must be wrong. There IS a God, and he designed them, so they could design us.” The scenario, when you really look at it, is a complete non-starter for creationists –when you ignore what they say they want and focus on what they’re really after.
Methinks bFast’s victory parade is going to encounter some afternoon showers.
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The is the beauty of being me- anything that any man does I can understand.
--Joe G
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