Naive ideas of theists

1. Assuming God to exist.
You cannot assume God exists and then just proceed to shoehorn everything else into that assumption - there is no basis for the assumption. This breaks Occam's Razor simplest assumption - which is "God does not exist". In order to start with this premise,you need evidence that it is in fact the case. The fact that humans have assigned God's to other natural phenomena such as Thunder and Water and Volcanos,means assigning one to creation is more than likely sticking a man's face upon your own ignorance of how the universe began. It is just as naive as asserting the Earth is flat,because it looks like it is,or that the sun goes round the Earth because that's what seems to the case.What you personally believe to be the case has nothing whatever to do with what is true.

2. You can't disprove God exists. Nobody needs to. The onus is on those who claim the existence to do so,you cannot shift the burden of proof to someone else.43.

3. You cannot prove a negative - That's a gem isn't it....okay...let's see...click here. 39.

4.God doesn't need a creator himself as he has always existed. (or something can't come from nothing) Sorry. Humans invented gods,and anyhow assuming God doesn't suffer from needing a cause is called 'Special Pleading' - if the universe needs God as a prime mover,then God needs a cause too. If he has always existed,so could the universe.
If you say,but something can't come from nothing,then neither can God. 41.

5. Belief in no God is just as much as faith as belief in God(s).
It is a mistake in thinking to say that saying God does not exist is as much an act of faith to say that he does.This is a question of argumentum ad ignorantiam - Believers assume that those who argue FOR something by reason,are in the same position as themselves and that the beliefs are as personal and as arbitrary as each other.They are falling foul of a logical error in thought,whereby they invert logic - to say that they need proof that God does not exist;this process defeats Ockham's razor.(see point 7). See Also Figments of Reality. 1.

6. The universe could not have come about by itself. This would breach common-sense "cause and effect".
Cause and effect breaks down in Quantum Theory - the arguments used by believers often are not apprised of modern physics and how their own literal "experience" of "linear time" is insufficient to support their contention.Moreover,they confuse theological notions of "the eternal present" with what is provably the case,such as theories about the free universe and the future being undefined.Ironically,they also argue for Freewill and yet contend we are in a Laplacian/Newtonian clockwork universe. Those who do not, still do not see why modern physics undermines the notion of God. 2.

7. The Bible is a source document of the word of God.
The bible it is maintained is the bequeathment of God's word to mankind,it is amazing then that it contains errors,is overly complex,shows the ignorance of men during the period it was "written" and can be "interpreted" by whosoever reads it. 3.

8. The Universal Constants show that there must be a God,for they are too narrowly defined.
There is a contention that the universal constants are so narrowly constrained that this could not have happened by chance- and would therefore have had to have been defined by someone/thing and therefore it was God -this argument is absurd in itself that it should necessarily be God that supplies the constrainment. The fact is such narrowly defined terms CAN arise without any help. String Theory which posits up to 11 dimensions of spacetime allows for a kind of "resonance" that would necessitate the narrow confining of such terms. 5.

9. Belief in a system of religious faith is just as reasonable as anything else.
Belief in God is an act of faith and as such cannot be argued reasonably,therefore it is an act of unreason Anyone who reasons is led inevitably to atheism,because there is no evidence that we need anything but the physical facts of modern science to explain the world around us. 6.

10. God does not defeat Ockhams Razor.
God is an example of an unnecessary multiplication -something that is NOT requisite to explain what happens in the universe - he is therefore academic to the cosmos. Moreover,to maintain that he either exists or is needed is an act of unreason and an attempt to hold onto notions that are built upon ignorance and inverted logic - if someone says "Prove to me that God does not exist" they are missing the point and not thinking reasonably. Carl Sagan's story "Contact" exemplifies the argument excellently. 7.

11. Mathematical Complexity  in the Universe presumes a creative intelligence.(The Argument from Design)
The nature of the universe has complexity and sufficiently thinking human beings are led to ask "How did it get like this?" Unable to facilitate an answer without alluding to their own intelligence they presume something like it must have brought it all about - this shows their lack of appreciation for the laws of science,man's intellect,and bizarrely,seems unable to see that the fact of their own brain's existence- a product OF scientific law - is what makes them think something like them is needed to explain scientific law. (For explanations of complexity and why a designer is not needed,see "Frontiers of Complexity" by Peter Coveney and Roger Highfield.) 8.

12. Evolution cannot be correct,nor can the big bang because nobody was around to see it.
The same can be said of creation.There is more evidence FOR evolution and the the big bang than there is for creation.One book that does not even contain the words of Jesus Christ does not constitute evidence.For those who think it easy to dismiss scientific concepts such as this and use God as the antidote to any failures they perceive,try reading "Why Anything?" and "The Self Organising Cosmos".
The arguments rage about time periods for development of eyes - and that no one has seen evolution in action - and yet these are straw men arguments - the fact is evolution is observed and such time period arguments are falsely based. 20.

13. Evolution is a myth.The evidence shows mankind was designed by God.Life did not arise by chance.
Believers often do not understand chance and mutation as they apply to genes and the way in which "lower" organisms have give rise to more complex forms,in some cases,believing that those animals which can regenerate are superior to us (which makes a mockery of their own creation notions),they hold on by faith to creation,when the evidence shows that evolution is what happened. String theory suggests we live in 11 dimensions,if we had been created then God would have apprised our brains of this fact- if we evolved then we would only be aware of the 3 spatial dimensions that we are.
For those who question evolution - please see the work being done on simulating life in a computer - which is showing that far from being difficult to arise by chance - evolution is almost a done deal - and will by necessity bring about evolving life forms - computer simulations can reproduce the effects of genetics - and it only a matter of time before mankind understands his own genetics -any idea that God created life is just due to massive ignorance of what is ACTUALLY taking place. 4.

14. I did not evolve from a monkey. Evolution does not say anyone evolved from a monkey. It says that there is a common ancestor shared by apes and man. We know they are related as one choromsome has fused showing the relationship.

15. Evolution is 'just a theory'. A theory does not mean that something is in doubt,or that there is no proof.  Missing Links are a misunderstanding as is the misuse of the term Species. 42.

16. Everything can't come from randomness. One of the perennial myths of theists is that science says everything was made 'by chance' and that this implies randomness. Do they really think educated people think order in the universe happened by a watch being thrown together by a hurricane? They are creating a straw man argument - nobody says that. 44.

17. Irreducible Complexity. Another argument trotted out again and again that there are things that cannot have arrived in steps. Yet God is irreducibly and needlessly complex,and has no cause,yet that's okay? We know how eyes and brains evoilved,because theists don't, isn't an argumnt for creation. 45.

18. DNA is far too complex to just be thrown together without an intelligent hand behind it. This is just a classic faux pas. All this proves is the massive ignorance of theists and their vain attempts to undermine science. DNA is a complex molecule and arrived via simpler steps like RNA. 40.

19. The eye makes a mockery of evolution- it MUST have been created.
This is a hackneyed old Paley-esque argument isn't it? The eye is made of cells - there is no reason to pick on the eye any more than any other organ,even though it seems so suited to it's job - this is EXACTLY what evolution is SUPPOSED to do- tailor things to the environment- the fact is there are many sorts of eyes - the compound ones of insects - some sorts of sea creatures have "scanning eyes" - ours is only one type- evolution has made eyes to suit the purpose of the environment in the same way it made everything else.We might ask when we say "We are gathered here in the sight of the Lord"- exactly how the Lord has eyes when eyes are made of DNA and the Lord apparently is spirit - doesn't make any sense does it? The latest absurd ideas from Intelligent Design theorists is that Flagellums are inconsistent with evolution -  this is just the hackneyed eye argument all over again. 27.

20. Some creatures can re-grow limbs and humans cannot - so evolution MUST be wrong.
I was actually given this as a serious attack on evolution by a Christian - and I have never in all my born days been faced with such unadulterated ignorance.Such creatures as Axelotyl's that do indeed have this ability -have retained in those cells the capacity to re-grow a tail - this is also used as a survival tactic by some lizards - the stem cells now being used in research to possibly repair the human body show that the way this works is for specialisation to take place in sophisticated creatures such as humans - abilities such as that of lizards to re-grow limbs points to an ancient lineage where specialisation has not occurred so much - so the person making the above argument only displays his ignorance OF evolution - he has not shown any undermining of it - the tree of life has many branches- and many lineages and lines of descent - the mistake in thinking was to to think that there is a single line from base creature such as amoeba to man via monkey - a similar mistake is to think that we "evolved from monkeys"  - and then the anti-evolutionist asks "Why do monkey's still exist on Earth then?"- again this misunderstands evolution- monkey's are our cousins not out ancestors.28.

21. There is no evidence of evolution.
One might ask why God chose to invent the wolf twice and the lion twice - once in mammalian form and once in marsupial form- and why one died out and the other did not - or was God just allowing evolution to take place? Mitochondrial Eve also supports the evolutionary story - and since "humans" were very different in the past - we cannot have been made in the image of God. And what are dinosaur fossils if not evidence of evolution - and what is the Burgess Shale? I suppose God made THOSE creatures in his image too - get real. 29.

22. The Galapagos finches disprove Evolution.
The finches are an exemplary example OF evolution in action! In fact they are evidence of observed evolution - along with fruit flies and bacteria - so don't let anyone say evolution has NOT been observed. In fact evolution HAS been observed.30.

23. Evolution exists -but it is evidence of the divine hand at work.
This is a pathetic and lame argument.It is a contrived attempt to accommodate science and admit the power of reason whilst still clinging to ideas that are in gross contradiction with what was admitted. The whole process of evolution,adding in the complexity ideas of modern science and maths tells a story that is not requiring of any sort of deity.If one is going to admit evolution as a viable process to how organisms arrive then do not make a mockery of oneself by showing how ignorant an admission it is by saying "But God made evolution happen"...all it shows is the orator's inability to let go of a silly point of view,and also shows their inability to reason properly,if they cannot see the contradictions inherent in this admission then they ought to read more books.
What is happening here is that Creationists are changing their story to suit modern evidence - rather than accept what the modern evidence says of its own volition -that is - that there is no God - and no such being is required to explain anything at all. This position shows the complete lack of honesty of creationists.31.

24. "Intelligent Design" is a viable scientific alternative to Evolutionary Theory.
What utter rubbish - it only takes a moments thought to realise why -  The arguments used by Intelligent Design advocates are "Irreducible Complexity" - if something cannot evolve because it requires all it's parts - they say something like God must have made it - of course the same argument,means that God himself is subject to the same ruling - ie - someone is needed to make God - and so on ad infinitum - that is - "Intelligent Design" is a non-explanation - it is just a rouse to try and make God sound scientific because those of faith cannot understand how complex creatures can evolve and how complex systems can come about by chance - not chance ALONE mind you - this is not how it all works. The argument about the flagellum of single celled creatures is just the same hackneyed argument about the eye - which has long since been dealt with. No positive proof of God or showing that a creator is needed is ever proffered - all they do is try to undermine existing theory,because that is all they are able to do.
Another of the arguments for "Intelligent Design" is a false mathematical argument calculating odds - it is based on a fallacy - determining the odds that life arose by chance - this shows a fundamental misunderstanding of evolution.I am surprised that US PHd types seem to be so stupid when it comes to understanding this. The whole process of Intelligent Design is just a means to undermine science and advocate Christian religious faith in God. It's advocates have faith and think they can bring down science which has shown them the truth - there is no such thing as God - and they are basically mistaken in their beliefs.37.

25. To be homosexual is to be against God.
To take one's morality from an espousing messiah who has not been proven to have the authority is an act of unreason. What is right is not subjective - and this is why Holy Wars are fought - which actually contradict the axioms of the supposed morality (ie DO NOT KILL) - morality is not for the individual or group of people to determine,and neither should it be based on an arbitrary tome,any more than I would base my morality on The Rupert Bear stories,or Dr Suess,although to be sure,both of those I would use before referring to the Koran or the Bible. Morality cannot be based on a belief by faith,this leads to bigotry and arrogance.9.

26. The bible contains a mysterious code,which shows there is something "odd" about it.
Some believe the Bible contains a code that reveals mysterious predictions,I will show that this is as much the case in any other book,and is a "mirage" and moreover does not make any sense if a viable rational deity were to have supplied such information.10.

27. The evidence of Christ as a divine son of God is incontrovertible and therefore the basis of faith.
Arguments maintain that because certain events in the bible are unexplainable or provided by unassailable "eye witnesses" we must conclude that Jesus Christ was divine,the son of God and therefore to believe the bible.I maintain that such events are explainable,require us to use Ockham's Razor,conclude that something ELSE happened other than what was stated by the "eye witnesses" because their conception of the world was erroneous,and Jesus Christ was nothing more than a people's leader,a magician and philosopher,of the likes of Ghandi coupled with Derren Brown/Paul Daniels - and the inability of the populace to see how or why they may have been duped led them to believe in something they should not have. Any supposed PROPHECY that they suppose is based on a fallacious understanding of how the human mind can be duped - I can predict a plane crash will happen next year - if it happens then I look gifted with foresight - the subject is far too complex to be rendered into the simple argument "Christ's life was the subject of prophecy - so he was the son of God" - one needs to think more deeply than that. 11.

28. Freewill is a real process,but it is the realm of the divine and cannot be explained by physics.
Believers like to believe their mind is free,saying this is a God-given capacity and that the machinations of the brain are not enough to explain what happens in a MIND - that a SOUL inhabits the body - and that after death the force that maintains life will continue and that it will do so maintaining the guise of the person who was alive.The notion of predestination runs into problems with freewill and seemingly believers are confused as to whether they can have freewill and live in an open universe,or whether there is some sort of fatalistic future over which they have no control and therefore their own freewill is a myth. I will attempt to dispel their confusion.12.

29. There is such a thing as "SOUL" and the mind/body problem has not been solved.The animation of a human being is God-given.
It seems that believers (and others) are confused as to what causes the animation in a biological being and renders us more mobile than an inanimate object like a rock.This they see as the "life force" inside the body that somehow exists after death. I will show that this is an ignorant and dated viewpoint,and if they maintain that they reason,anyone doing so should accept the evidence and update their beliefs and not stick dogmatically to what they would prefer to believe. 13.

30. The notion of a prime moving deity is not at odds with scientific evidence.
Those who do reason among believers maintain that even with all the scientific evidence,that there is still room for God and that they can consistently both accept the scientific evidence AND believe in God- that they are NOT mutually exclusive. I will examine this argument and show that there IS an inconsistency and therefore if one is to maintain integrity as a reasoning being that one should NOT believe in God.14.

31. The power of love and truth is something beyond our ken and will conquer all.
It is held that such metaphysical notions as LOVE are beyond physical explanation and cannot be brought into the material realm. Love is a product of chemical processes and experiences, desires and needs - there is no need to put it outside in a spiritual dimension. Truth is a matter of reasoning and believers are not really in a position to say what is true since they defeat reason and prefer to believe what satisfies their feelings and wishes.15.

32. God is my heavenly father  - thy will be done.
The concept of heaven is a mythology deriving from history- God as the father is a Freudian requirement in lieu of being able to stand on one's own two feet in an evolutionary,red in tooth and claw universe.It is a notion used as an emotional crutch and a coping mechanism. If it were only used for those purposes,then fine - but it is not - people maintain that it IS the truth,without proving it,and worse still - pushing the burden of proof upon reasonable men to show them they are wrong,and then denying what is uncovered,because they cannot let go of their "father's" hand.A psychologically healthy human being has no need of a father's hand.and accepts the randomness,chaos and uncertainty in the cosmos. Often believers would prefer security,certainty and tradition - the nature of the world is dynamic and changing,an evolving being knows this and takes account of it - stand still (mentally or physically) and you perish.16.
 
33. Death offers the possibility of life everlasting and seeing the world as the Creator sees it.
There is no such thing as an afterlife and no possibility of knowing "The Mind of God" other than using The Theory of Everything /GUT.Afterlife is a contradiction in terms.Consciousness is due to material processes,and therefore death is the cessation of consciousness,there is no ghost in the machine.It is rather odd that Christians who seem to think we exist after death,have the most trouble dealing with death and loss,I maintain there is a psychological error in their belief system which causes this to be the case.17.

34. Everything we witness as Reality is only in our minds and therefore we should leave everything to God.
Reality,whether or not it happens to be in some sense "constructed" by the mind,exists,and as such it is the only indication of what is "out there" and so this does not allow relaxing of personal responsibility,nor does it mean that one can say that what is ACTUALLY out there maybe something very different that what is witnessed by a brain- ie that Gods and spirits exist.These are phenomenological arguments and are often used as a ploy to allow Gods and spirits to exist.18.

35. The ten plagues are evidence of God.
What utter rubbish.These are easily explained...just click the link.19.

36. Thou shalt have no other Gods beside me.
In our world there are various beliefs,sometimes presuming various Gods,as Richard Dawkins maintains,the most likely explanation is that all  are false Gods.Christians have no monopoly on the truth.To presume that ONLY their God exists is an absurd position,if they maintain all other faiths are wrong in their beliefs,then they are wrong for the same reason. Christianity holds no special place.Either all religions are false,or they are all correct. The latter cannot be the case as they are mutually exclusive,therefore they are all false.21.

37. Science supports the existence of God.
I shall have more to say on this - but for now let me just say that people will go to any lengths to justify their bizarre beliefs,including plagiarising,assassinating and misusing scientific concepts - such as Chaos Theory .22.

38. Jesus Christ died to save us from our sins.
What a waste of effort - we are still "sinning" - so he died in vain. God gave us freewill (so it is said)- we can choose to not obey him,it's his own fault if we choose to do as we will. My life would be qualitatively worse by acceding to a God that cannot even respond to suffering or even manage to quell sin in so called sinners - God is pointless and impotent.It's a known fact in physics that God did not even have the freewill to decide how the universe turned out - so he is hardly in a position to determine whether things have freewill or not. The recent revelations about the Da Vinci Code suggest that Christ may not even have died on the cross and his descendants may still be alive. There are ways of explaining the so called disappearance of Christ's body from the tomb.23.

39. Anselm and Thomas Aquinas can prove God exists.
These arguments are out of date and proven to be erroneous in the light of modern knowledge.24.

40. Miracles are evidence of God's existence.
Miracles do not occur.These are people's misinterpretation of rare events or spates of coincidences. The mathematical "Clustering Effect" explains what people see as miracles in the cases of rare events or conjunctions.Any other sort of miracle is a defeating of what the eye witnesses or the of what the brain comprehends.25.

41. Angels are proof of God and of an unearthly presence.
What a crock  - no one has ever seen such a thing - without proving they weren't batty as a fruit cake...but there are better arguments against angels. Not least is that we are presumed to have one each - and since people have evolved there could never have been a point where angels decided to take up with a "person" because the notion of a person is a recent invention - God presumably arrived a little later,when people's brain's were sophisticated enough to manufacture lies and ignorance about the universe. 26.

43. The probability of a scientific explanation is so low that God must be the only remaining solution.
Creationists often make out that the given explantion is improbable and this in itself is reason to disbelieve a theory and favour creationism. Even if this were so (which it isn't) we need not conclude a God or the Christian God is the prime mover.32.

44. Science says there is an Adam and Eve,surely this proves the bible story?
I am afraid not  -what the evidence shows is that Mitochondrial Adam and Eve are the two people who may represent the chain of DNA that led to today's population - it does not mean no other people were alive at the time,only that modern people's lineage can be traced to them - it also does not negate other evidence of pre-history such as fossils.33.

45. Jesus walked on water so he was divine.
Be serious.He could just as well have been an alien being with powers we don't understand - if he was anything more than a man.The evidence  suggests if we are talking about anything at all more than man - it is alien intervention - NOT divinity.There are certain species of Grebe that can walk on water and so can the Water Boatman - does this prove they are divine? 34.

46. Some scientists believe in God,so science and religion are not incompatible.
This is an absurd and illogical notion.Science has systematically undermined religions notions for hundreds of years.Individual scientists may be able to reconcile their rationality and stupidity - but for the most part the example of a scientist who believes in God is a Creation scientist who is out to undermine science because of a convicted belief in an untrue idea. 35.

47. Without God there is no morality.
I had occasion to see a programme called "Dark Enlightenment" which says that the spiritual malaise in the past led to the rise of Hitler.Whilst I admit that we ARE in a spiritual malaise and that people's morality IS directionless,I do not think Christianity is the solution - it is part of the problem.People should deduce what is right from first principles - not be instructed by a book which is 2000 years out of date and pretty much advocates divine retribution for half it's pages.36.

48. The World is only 2000-10000 years old because it was computed so from the ages of biblical characters.
This is an old gem isn't it? And where do dinosaur fossils fit into this story? Radio Carbon dating tells us how old things are and it does not give figures in this range. 38.

49. Consciousness is needed for the big bang. A modern take on creationism. The BB needs an observer to collapse the first wave function. Nope. Consciousness is a product of biological complexity and so consciousness can't precede the universe. This is just trying to exploit physics to shoehorn god back into it.

50. Life was thrown together randomly. No,that's a stupid myth of uninformed theists. Life was formed the same way water and snowflakes are,by complex chemisty and emergent complexity.Merely trotting out the Hoyle fallacy proves nothing but their own ignorance of science. 42.

51. Life cannot come from non-life. Sorry - wrong. Not only can it - it did - as that is the only way it can. If Theists understood emergent complexity and spontaneous order they'd not be using distinctions that fail to address facts.