Debate: Is there God?
Side: No

Really I don't mind someone holding a position they do as long as untestable positions do not masquerade as science or trying to sneak it into public schools. When you keep asking 'why' something is think of how you would test the answer you want to give. why is it that the one who sits on the top of the food chain is the one who has the least weapons and the only one who can formulate a religion?Because our situation isn't about having more 'weapons' as this is another subjective measure. For instance I would argue that our intellect is also a weapon, perhaps the deadliest weapon. It isn't about more of anything it is about quality.There doesn't need to be a 'why' for us forming religion. I mean we can answer it by noting many primitive cultures didn't have ways to fully explain why it rained and used deities to fill in the blanks but I think you are alluding to more towards the answer you have for yourself. We also assume other species cannot form these complex ideas but do not know with absolute certainty. I do agree though that it is unlikely that other species have formed any religion, just saying this is an assumption. These differences are not a sign that we were designed or that there is a deity, as our differences only show that we differ. Reading through the posts in this thread I see other debaters have pointed out that a creator does not logically follow a question we can not say 'why'. Dont you find it odd that only humans has the ability of reasoning and keeps track of time?I don't find it odd at all. Again these examples are centric to us (and slight assumptions), this is us thinking the sun revolves around us. We have time keeping tools that are tooled for how we want, animals have similar time keeping tools that are tooled for how they want. For instance dogs know their owners come home around a certain time. They tell time differently than we do, and their method is centric to them. Using that measure is hubris at work (which can be explained via evolution too...). You keep asking 'why' is something how it is and many of these things can be explained why it likely got to where it 'is'. You keep asking for deeper meaning where their may be none though. It is like asking why an electron has a negative charge. While some of the inner workings are not explained yet tacking a deity on to a "is' type question as the 'why' requires a jump in logic and is lazy thinking. You failed to explain the reason for having a belief system, philosophical rule. Our History is also ridden with dark tales such as slavery, genocide and slaughter homosexuals. It does not contribute to our survival rate, and yet it exists.I told you how it would start. The reason it is there is because it was a bunch of beneficial things that started to accumulate over time. There really is no other why that is needed out of necessity to explain why it is how it is. We know how the mechanism works, it doesn't need a 'purpose' it just is a product of what works best in the situation. Tacking a 'purpose' above the why it works is superfluous, it is looking for meaning where it is already explained. It is there because it helped the group in some way and it became selected for as the behavior allowed those who practiced it more chances to mate.Also things like slavery genocide and the like are also easily explained in evolutionary terms. Again having to do with resources and reciprocity. Social species share with those that are close or more similar to them, kin groups etc. The further away from each other the species gets the less likely they will get to share with the other group. This helps protect the core groups by ensuring the group doing the best stays that way as long as conditions favor them. In times of scarce resources this is exactly what happens and still happens today. It is easy to exclude members of the group if they do not have close relations to them. People enslaved their neighbors not their family, they enslaved members of a perceived lower class, or a different religion, not their brothers and sisters. It helps the survival rate of specific groups, the ones benefiting from the disproportionate 'sharing' of the groups resources. We see this in forms of commerce even. Where core groups benefit from the work of others world wide. Most people don't care about the work conditions from where their clothes are made, they are far removed from that reality. It is easy for large groups to take advantage of other groups if they are perceived to be dissimilar to them. It helps the group on one end of the deal.Many of these are just rehashed questions I opposed before and my same answers still apply. Basically the idea of using our strengths as a measure for this already has the preconceived answer you want, but adding a deity as the answer of why to 'is' type answers is a jump in logic. Again if you wish to convince anyone in my position you will need to think of someway to test your answer because the 'this is a mystery therefore there is a god' approach doesn't do well with my group. We may never agree as we value different types of logic/evidence.