It is rational to say that a higher power (AKA God) exist.

I shall start by showing that my opponent's argument is not convincing. Firstly, observe that statement 4 does not follow from statements 1 - 3. Even if we accept, for the reasons given, that the universe had a cause, my opponent gives us no reason to conclude that this cause was a personal being - he simply asserts this as a fact without meaningful justification. The justification he does give is that the cause chose to create the universe and therefore must be a personal being, but this is clearly circular reasoning - how does he know that the cause chose to create the universe? Furthermore, I would not accept that my opponent has convincingly shown that the universe even had a cause. Even the source he has provided contradicts this view. He argues that the universe began to exist; however, the source claims that at the moment of the Big Bang, time itself (as well as space) came into existence. If time did not exist, then there was no 'before' in which the universe did not exist, and therefore it makes no sense to say that universe 'began' to exist. So for these reasons, I would argue that my opponent has not given us convincing reasons to believe in the existence of a conscious being of a higher power. Now I shall justify why I consider a belief in such a being to be irrational. If this universe were created by a conscious being of a higher power, then it should display evidence of having been designed. My opponent evidently thinks that such evidence exists, because he claims that 'only intelligence could create what we see'. If he is referring to the incredible diversity that we see amongst the millions of species on this planet, then this apparent design is explained perfectly adequately by the Theory of Evolution and Natural Selection, without the need to appeal to any kind of 'higher power'. [1] Given that the Theory of Evolution is broadly accepted by the overwhelming majority of the world's scientists [2] and my opponent has not chosen to criticise it, I see no reason to spend time in this response defending it in detail; but I will be happy to do so in my final response, should my opponent take issue with it. I will bring up a related issue however. Can my opponent explain, if this universe were in fact designed by a conscious higher power, why that design is so clearly full of mistakes? For example, why do human beings have an appendix? The appendix serves no function in the human body, and can be safely removed without any ill effects. [3] Why would a conscious higher power give us a body part that serves no function, and which we do not need? Of course, the Theory of Evolution gives a perfectly sound explanation - namely that the appendix served a purpose long ago in man's evolutionary history (namely that of digesting tough material) but that due to our evolutionary development, we now no longer eat such material and thus do not need it. But at least the appendix, in general, does not harm us. Can my opponent explain the existence of genetic diseases such as Cystic Fibrosis for example, which is caused by harmful genetic mutations, and for which there is no known cure? [4] Why would a conscious higher power include such diseases in his divine creation, and even if he somehow made a mistake and included them by accident, why does he not correct his mistake and remove them? For a being outside time and space who created the universe, eradicating genetic disease should not be a challenge. Finally, can my opponent explain the existence of asteroids that have the potential to wipe out mankind, should they collide with our planet - in the same way that one asteroid collided with earth 65 million years ago, wiping out the dinosaurs? [5] Again, like genetic mutations, there is surely no reason why a conscious higher power would include these things in his creation, and no reason why he wouldn't remove them, had they been created by mistake. For these reasons therefore, I claim that not only is it not rational to believe in a higher power, but that it is positively irrational to do so, given that the universe we live in is not what we would expect it to be if it had indeed been designed. A far more logical conclusion, therefore, is that there is no conscious being that created the universe that we live in. [1] = http://evolution.berkeley.edu... [2] = http://www.talkorigins.org... [3] = http://www.bbc.co.uk... [4] = http://learn.genetics.utah.edu... [5] = http://science.howstuffworks.com...