Wake me up

Today I woke up still rather stiff, but I worked that out with a trip to the gym. I went and had lunch at the Cracker Barrel, and read the short story that helped make the movie: Million Dollar Baby. Man. The movie is going to be a real ass-kicker if it is anything like the short story.

The rest of the afternoon was spent finishing my pesky php homework assignment. Oh, code errors are like papercuts. So annoying, and you manage to hit one every time. Well, if you're a chump coder like me, anyway.

I have the rest of my evening to myself. Part of me wants to see a movie, part of me wants to read more.

Of course, I should write a little bit more about that minister.

He apparently minored in philosophy and wanted to discuss my points of view. We really didn't get anywhere, but where he was coming from was that he needed a higher moral authority (like God) in order to know that various sins (lying, cheating, stealing, etc.) were wrong. My perspective is that I know they are wrong, they cause harm, they cause problems. Having some unknown being "guarantee" that for me is of no solace. I know myself if an individual is a failure as a human being. I don't need a God to show me that.

Interesting observation: he is a young minister working at an elderly church here in town. He doesn't like San Antonio. He prefers Dallas, and feels it is a much more beautiful city. Also, he feels the women are more beautiful, there. He cited San Antonio as one of the more obese cities in America. He was rather embarassed to admit that, however. Now, if I were a ruthless lass, I would have queried him on that as to why he felt bad about admitting that. Part of it was probably because he was sitting there talking to an obese female like myself.

Ohhh, this book is pissing me off

Okay, I'm trying to give Lee Strobel a chance to make a good case for Intelligent Design. But it just can't happen.

His book is full of examples like this:

[anne's note: the biosphere story here is part of a previous example about astronauts landing on mars finding a biosphere on the planet.]

1. “Okay,” he replied. “Set aside the issue of how the biospherethere got there in the first place. Let’s say when you found it, there were twelve
dials that controlled the conditions inside the dome. Each dial had an
incredibly huge range of possible settings. When you departed, you left
the dials at random and as a result no life was possible in the biosphere.
“Then you come back a year later. When you look at the dials,
you’re amazed to find that each one of them has been carefully calibrated
to just the right setting so that life is flourishing in the dome.
Twelve dials, twelve different factors—all optimally set for life.
“Do you know what the headline would be in the newspaper the
next day? It would say: EXTRATERRESTRIAL LIFE EXISTS. We would take
that as proof that an intelligent being had landed and set those dials
precisely where they needed to be for life.
“And I’m saying that the dials for the fundamental properties of
the universe have been set like that. In fact, the precision is far
greater. This would be totally unexpected under the theory that random
chance was responsible. However, it’s not unexpected at all under
the hypothesis that there is a Grand Designer.”

Or this:
2. “I’ll give you another illustration,” he continued. “Let’s say I was
hiking in the mountains and came across rocks arranged in a pattern
that spelled out, WELCOME TO THE MOUNTAINS ROBIN COLLINS. One
hypothesis would be that the rocks just happened to be arranged in
that configuration, maybe as the result of an earthquake or rockslide.
You can’t totally rule that out. But an alternative hypothesis would be
that my brother, who was visiting the mountains before me, arranged
the rocks that way.
“Quite naturally, most people would accept the brother theory
over the chance theory. Why? Because it strikes us as supremely
improbable that the rocks would be arranged that way by chance, but
not at all improbable that my brother would place them in that pattern.
That’s a quite reasonable assumption.
“In a similar way, it’s supremely improbable that the fine-tuning
of the universe could have occurred at random, but it’s not at all
improbable if it were the work of an intelligent designer. So it’s quite
reasonable to choose the design theory over the chance theory. We
reason that way all the time. Were the defendant’s fingerprints on the
gun because of a chance formation of chemicals or because he
touched the weapon? Jurors don’t hesitate to confidently conclude that
he touched the gun if the odds against chance are so astronomical.”

So, let's look at number one: Has it ever happened? No. Lee, a word of advice. If you're going to give us an example that makes sense to us, try to ground it in reality. I know, I know, he's trying to show us that perfectly sensible people would, at such obvious signs of intelligence, would conclude that aliens lived on mars. Strobel forgets to add that one of those dials probably cues up a intergalactic porno movie.

Have we frickin' found the control room that controls our climate that allows us to live? No!

Okay, so Strobel reaches in his ass and pulls out another analogy: The Mischievous Brother analogy. This would be great, except, unlike God, we could find more tangible evidence that Collins' brother exists. What if the rock formation said, "Robin, this is God. Stop Masturbating so often." Would anyone buy that God left that rock formation? Probably not. Why? Because plenty of other people are capable of telling Robin to stop jerking off. Surely God in all his magnificence would not stoop to tell Robin to stop touching himself. Besides, some of that was probably covered in Leviticus.

As for juries ruling over whether the defendant's fingerprints were on the gun comment, at least the defendant would be present in a court of law to answer to the accusation. If the defendant's defense was that he was innocent, and that God made him touch the gun so that his prints would be on the gun, how would the Jury vote in that instance? I don't think so. In fact, I think the jury would find that highly improbable.