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Newsgroups: talk.origins,alt.atheism
Subject: Re: >>> Atheists, non-theists, etc. - What happens when you die?
From: nyikos@math.scarolina.edu (Peter Nyikos)
Date: 5 Jul 1996 21:06:15 GMT

Ken Shackleton <kshackl1@ent.agt.ab.ca> writes:

>> >>"If we assume that the universe is fine-tuned for life (and
>> >> it is, because I say that cosmologists say that it is), then
>> >> that means that it was created intelligently. And if the
>> >> universe was created intelligently, then it must have been
>> >> done by my version of the Judeo-Chrstian God. There; I've
>> >> just proven the existence of God!"
>> 

>If I may jump in here. I have been lurking ariund for some time now, and 
>I feel that this is a good spot to jump in.
>The initial assumption stated here is flawed, and the conclusions drawn 
>from the initial assumption are therefore WRONG. 

You have not even come close to showing that.

>The universe is not finely tuned for life! The universe does not care on 
>rip about life, it simply acts in ways as dictated by the laws of 
>physics; whether or not we fully understand those laws.

But the point is, those laws make it possible for life to exist
and evolve in the first place.  Change the basic constants of
physics even slightly, and the result is chaos.

The rest of what you wrote misses this point completely, hence is
deleted.

Peter Nyikos                      -- standard disclaimer --   
Professor, Dept. of Mathematics
University of South Carolina
Columbia,  SC  29208