God Most Likely Does Not Exist

Religions and God are Man-Made:Thank you for the interesting post. To clarify my beliefs, I am a Christian. I'll be responding to your arguments in bold to avoid confusion. I've shortened some of your points for brevity but I don't believe I've skipped over anything. If I have let me know. 1) Either all religions are false or one religion is true. All religions cannot possibly be true because they all conflict one another (non-conflicting religions can be true as well but I find it unlikely for anyone to argue for this proposition). God is love. Regardless of culture, social differences, and religion, God knows your heart and accepts you for believing in Him and acknowledging that He died on the cross for your sins. There are differences in religion that still acknowledge Jesus Christ as savior. I do not believe that entrance into heaven is limited only to Christianity, and I believe that differences in religion resonate better with people of different cultures - every believer is furthering his development and by having differences in religion it helps relate with culturally diverse people. 2) If you do in fact believe you have witnessed a miracle please ask yourself what is more likely: that the natural order of the universe has been suspended in your favor, or that you have made a mistake? Rather than altering physics, a miracle can be being present in the right place at the right time. Many extraordinary events happen everyday.3) God also seems to not care at all about a human consensus towards religions, theistic evidence, and even interpretations of scripture. It is what one would expect if you assume these holy texts to be man-made.This could be to help reach people of different backgrounds and cultures with the end result of being brought closer to God.4) "All miracles, stories, and myths from holy books are indoctrinated into children at an early age. If you have Christian parents, you are most likely to be a Christian if you have Hindu parents then you are most likely to be a Hindu, and so on... Skepticism and logical inquiry is the greatest path to truth in both science and life... Ideally, [from reviewing evidence] they should ultimately become skeptical of all religious beliefs and concede that scientific evidence is our best bet. The same could be true of atheists, too. A wise person will apply skepticism and logical inquiry to everything they believe. Evolution trumps Intelligent Design Evolution through natural selection along with abiogenesis is the best theory with predictive power which explains how life could have begun, and how species develop over time. Intelligent design is the theory that the universe was designed by an intelligent being rather than a naturalistic process such as natural selection. In any case intelligent design cannot be considered as a scientific theory (like evolution and natural selection) because it does not meet the following criterion (http://en.wikipedia.org......):1. Consistent2. Parsimonious (see Occam's Razor)3. Useful (describes and explains observed phenomena, and can be used in a predictive manner)4. Empirically testable and falsifiable (potentially confirmable or disprovable by experiment or observation)5. Based on multiple observations (often in the form of controlled, repeated experiments)6. Correctable and dynamic (modified in the light of observations that do not support it)7. Progressive (refines previous theories)8. Provisional or tentative (is open to experimental checking, and does not assert certainty) It is impossible for anyone to disprove the proposition that God did create the universe with intelligent design. Therefore intelligent design is unfalsifiable by principle, rendering it an untestable and unscientific theory. Furthermore, if God did create all species with intelligent design than why didn’t he make them optimal beings? It seems that God supports poor design by allowing humans to choke from the same hole we breathe with. We have too many flaws in our design to have been made by a perfect all-loving God.While God cannot be scientifically proven in a controlled setting, He has left evidence for us to see - the reason He did this is so believers would have faith in Him. God Cannot be Omnipotent or Omnibenevolent in any Logical Sense 1) The omnipotence paradox is as follows: If a being can perform any action, then it should be able to create a task which this being is unable to perform; hence, this being cannot perform all actions. Yet, on the other hand, if this being cannot create a task that it is unable to perform, then there exists something it cannot do (http://en.wikipedia.org......)." Can cannot create a rock so massive he cannot move it because that would contradict his omnipotence.This is more of a semantic argument. It's like asking to draw a square circle. God cannot sin, and it would be sin to contradict Himself. He is perfect and infinitely more complex than anything conceivable by the human mind. God cannot be omnibenevolent (all-loving, or infinitely good) as well. To put it plainly: 1) If an all-powerful and perfectly good God exists, then evil does not exist. 2) Evil exists. 3) Therefore, an all-powerful and perfectly good God does not exist. Evil is not from God. Mankind fell by their own free will and thus evil entered into the world. The same way darkness is the absence of light, evil is the darkness in absence of God. You Must Believe This if you Believe in Evolution and God I do not believe in evolution. The Origins of the Universe is Unknown In reality, nobody knows the true origin of the universe and therefore we must keep our possibilities open: 1) The universe and the Big Bang could have been created by completely naturalistic causes. 2) The Big Bang could have been created by uncaused causes. Uncaused causes seem to occur all the time through spontaneous quantum phenomena such as radioactive decay (http://en.wikipedia.org......) and quantum fluctuations (http://en.wikipedia.org......). 3) The universe could have always existed. 4) God always existed, and created the universe. Again, it is better to adopt the universe explanations as the universe is less complex then God and therefore more likely to be correct. It is up to Con to prove that (4) is more likely than all other possibilities.4) We know that matter is not created nor destroyed. The logical explanation is that God created the matter that makes up the universe. Why Does God do Irrational Things?:No compelling evidence for any God has ever been presented to this day, if there was then there would be a consensus between atheists and theists. If God is omnipotent, omniscient, and perfectly good then why does he constantly do irrational things, things that can be easily explained if you assumed that they are man-made. There are millions of nonbelievers and people from different religions that are good and rational people. If God's doctrines truly do benefit mankind, then why doesn't God just pop up and prove his existence to all nonbelievers and believers in the wrong faith to finally progress the human condition? Why doesn't God seem to give any notable benefits to his "true" believers? Why doesn't God heal amputees? Why doesn't God stop religious wars and controversy and grant his followers their rightful peace? Why does God allow so much suffering in our world, to even starving and innocent children? Why does gratuitous evil exist? Why does God seem to spread his truth in the irrational manner of anecdotal evidence through holy books? The best and easiest answers to these questions are either that 1) God does not exist or 2) God does not care for humans (The third option is that God does care but does not have the power to intervene in human affairs. However this option must be discarded as the definition agreed upon includes an all-powerful God). Through all the arguments explained thusfar I find it much more likely that (1) is true. I thank Con for accepting this debate and await his rebuttal.God doesn't do irrational things, humans do. Sin entered the world after mankind disobeyed God. War, human suffering, hatred... Evil of all kinds are not from God. It shows us how much we need His love. By living a life of sin, that is the result. Reasonable evidence for God's existence: Taken from this website - I am using the arguments of John Clayton, the author of the website. - http://www.doesgodexist.org..."1) Hydrogen"-Hydrogen is the base of all matter in the cosmos. Hydrogen is a non-renewable resource. The amount of hydrogen in the universe is continuously decreasing. Thefore the universe is not eternal."2) The universe is expanding"- The evidence shows that the universe started in "a small/space time called a singularity". The continuous expansion of the universe suggests that it had a beginning."3) The second law of thermodynamics"- The cosmos are in a constant state of increasing disorder. Stars eventually reach what is called "heat death" once the disorder disrupts the heat process. An eternal universe is impossible given there would be no energy left.Another section for the points below: http://www.doesgodexist.org...;1) The argument of: "intuitive design"The natural order of the universe is incredible. The intelligence found in living organisms is masterfully made. Here is a compliation of processes where life would not be sustainable by a change in order: http://www.doesgodexist.org...2) The argument of: "Beauty"Beauty is something our mind appreciates without always having a useful function. Architecture is one he uses as an example.3) The argument of: "Mathematical design"Life is created with mathematical paramaters. The odds of every particle interacting to create the universe we live in now is astronomical. Link to a table of Biblical accuracy: http://www.doesgodexist.org...SOURCE:http://www.doesgodexist.org...;