There Are No Reasonable Arguments for a God

Your arguments are versions of the (1) Teleological argument (the universe is complex and fine-tuned for life, so it must have been designed), and the (2) Cosmological argument (what caused the universe to begin to exist?). I will list my objections to those two.-(1) Evolution, Abiogenesis, and ChanceFirst of all, I would like to state that the complex life forms existent in our planet have not gotten here by pure chance/mere accident. There was a whole process of natural evolution that spanned across 4 billion years, that took place on Earth, which is not random at all: it is guided by the mechanism of natural selection, something that happens because there is fierce competition for food and shelter in the wild, so only a small percentage of animals actually leave descendants to carry on their genes: those who are the best adapted to the environment. So evolution, which is the most well-established scientific theory ever, explains how all complex life form originated from extremely simple self-replicating cells a few billion years ago. There is no need to summon god to explain that. A car, or a watch, needs an intelligent designer and a builder because its constituent parts do not naturally form bonds or replicate themselves, like some organic compounds can do (which are the constituents of life). All there needs to be for complex life forms to originate are (a) enough time, (b) a suitable planet, and (c) extremely simple self-replicating cells (which are then subjected to natural selection).Requirement (a) is a given (our Universe is 13.78 billion years old, so there is plenty of time). The fact that we have over 10^24 stars just in the visible universe - most of those with accompanying planets - already makes it so suitable planets are going to appear by the billions, even if they are statistically rare, so (b) is accounted for. The origin of (c) is still somewhat of a mystery, though we have very plausible models of how it could have formed: the field of study dedicated to this matter is called abiogenesis.So we can easily conclude that the formation of galaxies, stars, planets, life, and complex life forms can all arise naturally, without the need for divine intervetion. However, one might argue for is that the properties of the universe are such that it is possible for life to arise: why are the constants of the universe the way they are? They could be different, and there would be no life. This - the fine-tuning argument - would suggest an intelligent creator that set just the right parameters for our universe so there could be life. But this is merely special pleading for god, and I will tell you why I say this in the next section.-(2) God, Special Pleading, and Turtles All the Way DownYou ask me: what caused the Big Bang? What created the universe? It seems to be quite obvious that the universe could not have created itself, so it must have an external creator. I have two problems with this notion.One is a scientific problem: we don't know whether the universe has had a beginning or not. The Big Bang theory merely explains the development of the universe, up to a Planck Time after the start of its inflationary period. It is very much possible for the universe to have existed previously (what they call the age of the universe is the time elapsed since the Big Bang). We do not know for a fact if there ever was a beginning to our universe. Another point is that modern cosmology suggest the existence of an eternal multiverse, where our universe - and many others - simply appear into existence in it. There is no reason to suppose an eternal divine creator if we can suppose an eternal material reality.The second is a logical problem: god himself would also need a creator, for he is also extremely fine-tuned - he could have been different and not have all the wonderful powers he has. Using your own words, such a being could not have logically happened by accident - so the designer needs a creator. If you keep going, you will see that the creator needs yet another designer, and this designer needs another creator, and it keeps going on endlessly. "It's turtles all the way down!" - you cannot put a stop to this infinite regress by arbitrarily creating a stopping point at god. You could just do the same with the universe, or a multiverse: why god can simply 'eternally exist/create itself/be fine-tuned without design', but not the universe? This, my friend, is special pleading.-(3) Wrapping UpThe origin of everything is a big mystery. You want to summon god to solve this mystery, but there is a price: you create the mystery of god's own existence. You are explaining the unexplained (the universe) by something which is also unexplained (god), which amounts to no explanation at all! The God Hypothesis is an unnecessary and unwarranted assumption, for it does not solve any of the fundamental questions we were trying to solve by conjuring its existence in the first place.