AtheistDebates - Argument From Design, Part 1: Order and Purpose

A brief look at the Argument From Design in its early formats, focusing on order, purpose and the appearance of design.

Part 2 will focus on fine-tuning, probability, alternate universes and more.

[Aaron-lrdi]

For god so loved the world that he created it with 75% salt water...

[CRPierre]

Matt, you were the first person I saw speaking openly about Atheism on the Atheist Experience. That was a bit over a year ago and since then, I've found The Thinking Atheist, Ra-Man etc.. and I have left go of the lingering fear that 'god' would punish me for considering that I didn't believe he existed. Thank you for all that  you do. It IS making a difference. I'm 61 years old.. and pretty new to accepting it's way okay to say.. I don't know!. 

[Tukket]

Oh, yeah. Everything is intelligently designed, such as how our air passages and food passages are interconnected, causing thousands to die each year by choking when eating. Such brilliant design!

[infidelcastro]

This Fine Tuning ‘argument’ has always struck me as a total non-starter.
If things were slightly different to how they are, either we wouldn’t be here to remark on the fact because the universe wouldn’t exist, or we’d be here as life ‘fine tuned’ to however the universe turned out.
Douglas Adams’ Puddle Analogy puts it perfectly.

[smitty]

I enjoyed this video very much and was reminded of the cult film:

The bushman finds the coke bottle thrown from an airplane and Gods Must be Crazy"*   =]

[AlbertaGeek]

The watchmaker argument in a nutshell: "This watch is clearly designed because it is so different from the natural world.  Therefore, the natural world is designed."

[TheSnoopy]

Another excellent video Matt!

"God is an ever-receding pocket of scientific ignorance that's getting smaller and smaller and smaller as time goes on"
-- Neil deGrasse Tyson

[truthtrumpsdumbness]

beautiful calm stuff, Matt - it's easier to posit the truth when you are not being assailed by dullards - excellent  

[christianverley]

Matt I would like to thank you for being an honest and graceful atheist when it comes to developing your arguements. For this I much appreciative.

[AlbertAguirre]

Matt, a sincere thanks for these videos. Excellent work.

[while.coyote]

When you watch Matt Dillahunty you can see what all preachers would look like if Christianity *really* loved and cared about truth over deception.

[abrahamvanhelsing]

I suspect that most ID advocates have never designed anything in their lives.   Designing something that has never existed before requires a lot of trial and error to get it right, even by experienced designers.   When it comes to biology, nature is very good at trial and error, and has been doing it for a lot longer than we have.

[jinxyable]

Great video Matt! The most damning thing about intelligent design is that creationists think everything was designed.

If everything was designed you have no way to tell anything was designed. Designed as opposed to what?

[VAPEFOGReviews]

Mind blowing and amazing as usual Matt. This video series is fantastic! Keep'em comin' man. Take care. 

[Cthulhu]

These are very professional, Matt. I hope they continue.

[EdGloss]

I credit Matt and Jeff (and later, others from the show) for getting me to really examine what I believed and why which ultimately led to me becoming an atheist. Over the years I have noticed that Matt has become increasingly smug and I began to dislike that attitude. However, I don't think he is actually smug as it's likely extreme confidence from being successful at being able to get people to think skeptically about their religious beliefs and to think skeptically generally. So what looks like smugness is probably mostly confident sprinkled with a bit of smugness but I suppose I'd be a bit smug too in his position. He has a gift for consistently putting forth sound and valid arguments, particularly when explaining more common arguments for the existence of a deity. Many people can repeat a definition but Matt can explain it while demonstrating a deep understanding. And his greatest skill is listening and catching every fallacy however small and instantly providing a valid rebuttal. After watching hundreds of episodes, reading scores of books and hundreds of articles related to fallacies in arguments and then putting what I've learned into practice both in actual conversations with people and while watching debates or speeches, I've been able to sharpen the skill quite well. A lot of that has to do with what I learned by watching Matt on the show. What these videos have done is allow me to further refine my listening and thinking skills so that I can better respond to those who make fallacious arguments. This series adds another level to this learning process and is invaluable.

[flaviusclaudius]

I am really enjoying this series. You've done really good work!

[sup]

Deep thoughts... With Matt D.... Good stuff!

[primitivepatriot]

Wow. A straight up video from Matt! Awesome. I guess this Patreon thing has some merit after all.

[spinosauruskin]

Now this was helpful. Thank you Matt. I may be able to use this when speaking to creationist preachers.