{"id":320,"date":"2011-06-29T03:53:18","date_gmt":"2011-06-29T03:53:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.faultorfeature.com\/?p=320"},"modified":"2011-06-29T03:53:18","modified_gmt":"2011-06-29T03:53:18","slug":"explain-this-argument-against-design","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.faultorfeature.com\/?p=320","title":{"rendered":"Explain this argument against design?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><i>Question by weezijian<\/i>: Explain this argument against design?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>George H. Smith, in his book Atheism: The Case Against God, points out what he considers to be a fatal flaw in the argument from design<\/p>\n<p>Consider the idea that nature itself is the product of design. How could this be demonstrated? Nature, as we have seen, provides the basis of comparison by which we distinguish between designed objects and natural objects. We are able to infer the presence of design only to the extent that the characteristics of an object differ from natural characteristics. Therefore, to claim that nature as a whole was designed is to destroy the basis by which we differentiate between artifacts and natural objects. Evidences of design are those characteristics not found in nature, so it is impossible to produce evidence of design within the context of nature itself. Only if we first step beyond nature, and establish the existence of a supernatural designer, can we conclude that nature is the result of conscious planning. (p. 268)<br \/>\nEh&#8230; I&#8217;m not in a philo class or anything&#8230; So this isn&#8217;t my homework.. I stumbled upon it on wikipedia and need help understanding it&#8230;<br \/>\nThanks guys<\/p>\n<p><strong>Best answer:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><i>Answer by jammin7000<\/i><br \/>Therefore George H. Smith argues on behalf of the trees, but has no use for the forest?  Btw, the whole is greater than the sum of the parts&#8230;(forest is greater than the sum of the trees: God is greater than the sum of his creation)<\/p>\n<p>For every effect, there is a cause- fundamental science axiom.  Nature is the effect, what is the cause? xyz?   xyz = God?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Question by weezijian: Explain this argument against design? George H. Smith, in his book Atheism: The Case Against God, points out what he considers to be a fatal flaw in the argument from design Consider the idea that nature itself is the product of design. How could this be demonstrated? Nature, as we have seen, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[478,78,11,73,112],"class_list":["post-320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-design-flaws","tag-against","tag-argument","tag-design","tag-explain","tag-this"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.faultorfeature.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.faultorfeature.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.faultorfeature.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.faultorfeature.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.faultorfeature.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.faultorfeature.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.faultorfeature.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.faultorfeature.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.faultorfeature.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}