Christians: If I "look around me," why am I to assume that the world was made by your God?

Question

In the "atheists are fools" thread, I noticed a few Christians saying that we ignore what is around us. Ok, I'll humor you. If I look around me at the (subjective) beauty, splendor, and complexity of nature and thought that there was a designer involved in it, what scripture-unrelated reason would I have to derive that the Christian God was responsible for it? Why not a God we have not yet conceived of or may never conceive of? Why not Krishna, or Uranus, or Odin? Why NOT the Flying Sphaghetti Monster?

In light of this, is the "look around you" argument really valid? Should you reconsider?

Answer 1

It's easy for someone who already believes in God to look around them and see the evidence of His existence.... I am a believer.... It's easy for me to look at the mountains, the oceans, the majestic beauty of the earth, and say "wow, God created all of this".

"Look around you" is an argument that is valid if you already believe, or if you *think* you believe, and are wavering... but for a non-believer, no, it is not a valid argument.

I will not reconsider my own beliefs.... for myself, they are right. For myself, they give peace and hope. But I will never force my beliefs on another person. We all have the right to choose for ourselves what we believe, and I respect every person who honestly does so.... whether they believe in God, or not. I may not agree, but I respect, and do not argue the point. I have said before.... a person truly set in their beliefs will not be swayed by arguments.  

Answer 2

God is Love, Love is God.

Trust Love.

Peace, love, calm and positivity to all.

Answer 3

Try and think with your brain as hard as you can how the earth was created real quick......You can't even fathom it can you? Isn't it way over your head? Whenever you try to think "evolution" you will eventually be going"well if that made that, then what made that, and if that made this, then what made this", and so on. The "what made this and what made that" will keep going forever until you realize there is no beginning. And evolution has no beginning. Thats so supernatural. No one will ever figure out how this whole thing was made. Man has the answer to everything except evolution because God created it. Your choice. Pick one. I have already picked one. And my choice is God. There is a creator for everything and I stand behind that.

Answer 4

Wow I'm amazed. No scientifically valid, factual and educational answers so far. Surprise, surprise.... ..I think I lost a few IQ points while reading through a half of the "enlightening" answers here.

Answer 5

God cannot be simply man made. Man kind can create a new God every day from any whim if they wanted. A true Supreme Being (God) has always existed and created all of us.  

Answer 6

Good point. To that end,  the only validity would be intelligent design. You don't have to necessarily attribute it to one religion's concept of God.  

Answer 7

The "look around you" argument is one of the big ones that turned me off of religion.  I never did see anything terribly supernatural when I looked around.  

Answer 8

Don't even bother. Christians are so stubborn, they won't listen.

Answer 9

The first step in getting an atheist to believe in God is to admit that the universe isn't the product of chance. Then we go from there. There are several lines of reasoning to use, and some are more convincing than others. Some people need to hear all of them before being convinced, and some just won't be.

Answer 10

It sounds like they're employing "The argument from personal incredulity, also known as argument from personal belief or argument from personal conviction, refers to an assertion that because one personally finds a premise unlikely or unbelievable, the premise can be assumed not to be true, or alternatively that another preferred but unproven premise is true instead."

~

Answer 11

Since religious people have no proof, not a shred, that is a common response. "look around you". Like that's supposed to answer something.  

They have automated responses to most things thrown at them.

Religion isn't an explanation, it's a non explanation, anyway.

Answer 12

YES! and it is true all of it. "Accept jesus and live"

God loves you....God bless

Answer 13

Of course it is not valid.  That is what makes it so funny.  They have no valid source of proof to use.

Answer 14

Maybe they could tell us what it would look like to us if a god didn't make it.

Answer 15

It all depends on what you were raised to believe.  As a Christian, I call my "designer" or higher power God. But as passionately as I believe, others will call theirs Budda or Mohammad or whatever they believe. Our rules are the Bible, Quran, etc. depending on your faith.

Only in the end will we see who is actually correct or whether we all are, or maybe even none of us. You can't tell me that in a world like we have today that you don't hope and pray, and take comfort in believing someone or something is listening and looking after us.

Take a class in Comparative Religion and exercise your right to believe as you please.  

Answer 16

...first of all, God (YHVH) is not a "Christian" God/god.

He is God of all...(you don't have to like it or believe it.)

...and, He's been around long before Krishna, or Odin or the FSM (all praise to his noodley appendage)

Answer 17

I don't get it either - they could be proving *me* right for all anyone knows.

Answer 18

Obviously if we had evolved to fit our environment, we would not consider it to be beautiful nor would we notice the complexity or be so finely tuned to it.

*sarcasm*

Answer 19

The teleological argument is fundamentally flawed in that it doesn't identify the designer. Furthermore, we know that natural selection can give the appearance of design. Therefore, anywhere that it is stated that there is an appearance of design, we can always note that such an appearance may be the result of natural processes and therefore the teleological argument will always fail unless it identifies the designer, which it doesnt.  

Answer 20

This is how it works:  The God of Abraham (what you call the "Christian God") inspired millions to create the world you live in (unless you're in Somalia, Gaza or Pakistan).  Where you find the dried up, starving, wasteland of the poor thrid world, you'll find that God is "not there".  The people are angry, drunk, resentful, diseased.  God has truly been chased away by angry people.  Good living has been chased away, as well as good health.  There is no love.  People kill each other at the slightest insult.   It's rough living without God.

But, who knows, maybe the Flying Sphaghetti Monster is really the one who gave us the good life.