God is smart; Religions are stupid

First, let me provide the reason for my opponents R1 argument to be contradictory and thrown out. 1. ) As my opponent states, the resolution created by him is faulty. "Further proof of God's lack of originality comes from the fact that the more closely two species resemble each other, the more genes they usually have in common. " "Now, perhaps the Title/Resolution of this Debate should have been "If God is as smart as Religions claim, then Religions are stupid". However, the Title/Resolution is actually "God is smart; Religions are stupid", so I shall stick with that. " 2. ) My opponent is indeed attempting to prove that God IS Smart. "Obviously, what I most need to do in this Round is show that God is smart. " Secondly, I will show that in the R1 argument, my opponent's arguments were clearly arguing for god's stupidity. 1. ) My opponent goes on a long ramble about God's various ineptitudes . .. . quite lengthy, so I give only a portion here. "God did not know that the Big Bang could produce clouds of hydrogen gas, so He had to Create them, Himself. God did not know that Gravitation could coalesce the clouds into galaxies and stars, so He had to Create them, too. God did not know that if some of the stars were very big, they would shine very brightly, use up their hydrogen very quickly, create heavy elements in the process, and finally explode, seeding Space with clouds of dust, so He had to Create the dust clouds, Himself. . .. . And God is so unoriginal with His Creation that He had to maintain the same amino acids and genetic code, from viruses to bacteria, through every plant and animal. Further proof of God's lack of originality . .. . " Clearly, a god knowledgable enough to create an ENTIRE universe, establish the physical laws that govern it, and still remain ignorant of the various statements my opponent puts forward, MUST be unintelligent. I see where perhaps my opponent had skewed his resolution (here, it is apparent: If God is truly smart/knowledge-able, then God would have known . .. Religion Is Therefore Stupid". But my opponent has already conceded to argue the given resolution. ) Rebuttal to R2 1. ) True various claims made by Religions about God's actions (such as the idea that humans are a result of Intelligent Design). An error appeased by the poor wording of the resolution. If we are accepting God to exist (it was not stated that you were merely arguing the concept. I assumed you were arguing a theistic God that indeed exists, as you didn't really define the parameters of the debate). 2. ) "Con actually helps my own earlier argument, because if Religions claim that God is the sort of Intelligent Designer Who made all the mistakes that Con pointed out, then how smart can Religions be, to have made such claims about God? " False. The fact that Religions were able to do everything aforementioned without providing a detailed explanation for the holes in the God argument is actually ingenious. They basically uncovered conspiracy theory [1] , giving people a general picture that they themselves filled in. 3. )"Now, as for showing that God is indeed smart: Let me begin with the overall notion that God Created the Universe. In Round One I pointed out how God only needed to "set the Universe in motion" with the Big Bang, so to speak, and because God is supposed to be smart and knowledgeable, God would have known in advance about certain inevitable consequences, such as stars and planets and Life beginning to exist, without any extra effort required on God's part. " Understood. The flaws in the Universe and in life itself still provide for God's ineptitude. Take for example, the car. We have created the car, but it still is an extremely inefficient machine, that pumps disastrous amounts of pollution in the air, on the whole. The design itself is still pretty faulty, and it really didn't take much of a genius to create it. You can create something dumb initially that seems smart (ergo, the Universe). 4. ) Now, why would that be? That is, why would God play dice with the Universe? My answer is, "Because God is smart! " A smart man doesn't play dice. (I was going to go on derailing my opponents tenuous grasp of Quantum Mechanics, but I see no need, as the argument is a pretty out of place). 5. ) "Therefore it should now be obvious that God built total randomness into the Universe to make it unpredictable and non-boring. " Only a child would play with the Universe like it was a toy, to stave off boredom. 6. ) " Even so, our bodies are well-enough evolved for them to qualify as "suitable vehicles for souls". " I'm not sure that a smart man settles for "well-enough". 7. ) ". .. this Debate will focus on various claims made by Religions about God, and how [Religions] are stupid because [the claims] are self-contradictory, factually flawed, and/or irrational. " --Con wrote nothing to explode that part of my Round One post. " I responded here, pointing out that Religion understood that those flaws and contradictions would surface, but would iron themselves out because the human mind is designed to look for patterns and make things fit of their own accord. [1] Sources: 1. ) . http://www.ted.com...