There is a God who created the universe

And now we begin. .. <"I understand I have the burden of proof on me, but so do you. You have to prove their isn't a God, I have to prove there is. We are both equally challenged. "> No. As the claimant, my opponent is the one who carries the burden of proof -- I merely have to negate the arguments he puts forth. <"1) A painting requires an artist. Simply, because the universe exists it requires a creator. The Big Band Theory doesn't explain the creation of the universe, because, it states that everything came from one molecule in space a long time ago. However, the Big Bang Theory doesn't tell us how that molecule got there. How can something come from nothing? "> I have multiple responses to this: Firstly, the energy the universe is composed of and its forms have always existed; therefore, the universe has always existed, which consequently means it wasn't created, which clearly means there's no need for a creator, which means that a god creating the universe is entirely nonsensical. So that all means that there wasn't a "beginning" to the universe, because it has always been around. Although the idea of a creator has already been negated, this is only further helping that idea, because it's impossible to be around before something that has always existed. <"The universe is perfect. Our universe is governed by a set of laws that is never changing. Examples of these laws are the laws of motion, the laws of speed and time, etc. Since our universe is perfect, then it must have a perfect creator. "> So because we have laws of science, the universe is "perfect"; therefore, a god exists? Ok. .. well, we have laws of science, which means the universe is perfect; therefore, the flying spaghetti monster exists. Clearly, as the little adjustment I made to my opponents argument shows, his premises don't follow his conclusion; the above quote of his is a non-sequitur. (*) <"3) There are too many "coincidences" to be chance, a creator must have made these conditions. The Earth is the perfect distance from the sun, the "perfect" evolutionary history of the Earth led to human life, the atmospheric and meteorological conditions on Earth are "perfect" to sustain life, humankind played its cards right and it is now the master "perfect" species. Statistically, the odds of all these "perfect" coincidences are less than one millionth of a percent. "> Firstly, my opponents above point is a classic argument from incredulity. (**) Just because you have a hard time buying into it doesn't mean it isn't true. Secondly, earth's formation wasn't dictated by chance -- rather, by sciences. To clarify: take a sheet of grid paper with 26 squares, then write the alphabet from beginning to end. The chances of all of the letters appearing in that specific order on the grid are very, very, *very* slim; however, the letters being put into each specific square wasn't dictated by chance -- but by you writing them there. It's the same concept with the earth's formation; it was dictates by science. .. not math. Thirdly, the earth didn't adapt to suit our needs -- rather, *we* have adapted to *it. * <"4) Since humankind believes in a God, he must exist. Humankind has believed in a God since the very beginning of time. So the aspect of God is not simply a cultural aspect, but rather a trait that all humans share. Even though several cultures have been isolated from each other, they all believed in the idea of a God or gods. So humankind inherited a belief in God. Who did they inherit it from? None other than God himself. "> I also have multiple responses to this; for the sake of coherence, I'm going to address it point by point. <"Since humankind believes in a God, he must exist. "> Non-sequitur. (*) Humans commonly believe in all sorts of wacky things -- that doesn't necessarily make them true. <"Humankind has believed in a God since the very beginning of time. "> I'd like for my opponent to verify this. I have a hard time believing it, considering that my understanding is that the concept of the Christian God was brought forth *after* man had existed, meaning there had to be a period of time in which people didn't believe in "him. " <"So the aspect of God is not simply a cultural aspect, but rather a trait that all humans share. "> I'd think the fact that atheism exists is enough to debunk my opponents point. If a belief in the Christian god was something shared by all humans, then atheism wouldn't have came to fruition. And considering that the prominence of atheism generally varies from country to country, then I'd say that the belief in God is, indeed, cultural. <"5) The human body has instructions. And all instructions have intent. Human cells contain a code that consists of chemical compounds that scientist abbreviate as A, T, C, and G. Example: CTGAATGTA. These chemical compounds tell our cells how exactly to work and how to sustain our lives. They act like our instruction manual. Instruction manuals are written by people, our instruction manual is written by God. "> Yet another non-sequitur. (*) My opponents rationale can be used to support the existence of any of your mock-deities, such as the FSM, who I referenced earlier. <"6) I love therefore he is. The human being is the only known living organism on the planet that can experience love. Since the human being is the only organism that can feel love, it did not inherit that trait from any other living thing. The human being did not gain love through an evolutionary process. Instead, it was granted love. It was granted love by God. "> Firstly, we don't feel "love" because it's an inherited trait; we feel these profound emotions essentially because of advanced stimuli -- they enhance our range of emotions, and our sentience and sapience. Considering that we have an explanation as to how "love" came about, it's clearly illogical to believe that a god granted it to us. Secondly, that's *yet another* non-sequitur. (*) As I said previously, my opponents rationale can support the existence of any deity. (*) = . http://mw1.m-w.com... (**) = skepticwiki. org/index. php/Argument_from_Incredulity