while tooth decay definitely sucks, phlegm can be fun! my best long distance lugies come from phlegmy shots.

You mean you LIKE the thought that you've been created especially to worship your creator, and after you die you'll honor it throughout eternity? That's your purpose in existence--to be a cosmic cheering squad for a deity so vain and insecure that it needs constant reassurance that it's supreme? No thank you!

--Aviva (on alt.atheism)

Well, on man's side it sucks, so does death. But on God's size it's just Nature's process. Another anthropomorphic view of God, I fear, even if Heller is a great writer.

You atheists just never give up do you. Did it ever occur to you that pleghm and tooth decay might have been brought about as part of the evolutionary process and, thus, have essential biological functions?

You atheists just never give up do you. Did it ever occur to you that pleghm and tooth decay might have been brought about as part of the evolutionary process and, thus, have essential biological functions?

Just in case you're not joking...

It may be part of the evolutionary process, but if an argument is made for divine intervention/design, I'd say it was quite poorly thought out especially if it is supposed to be made by a so called "Infallible Supreme being"

Oh Lord…why do I have nipples?

Boogers are just gross, divinely created or not.

Ick.

and, thus, have essential biological functions?

It's essential to note that certain characteristics we may find in certain species, including ours, might have been useful at some point in our history, but often times we will encounter useless things that we need not anymore. What intelligent being would keep producing a whale with thigh bones it no longer uses or our pilomotor reflex (goosebumps)?

Go here to see the Top 10 Useless Limbs

What is so difficult to understand? But of course you CAN'T understand because God's divine plan is always IN PROCESS. God has simply laid out the blueprint far in advance of seeming necessity. These vestigial organs you speak of may be of use several hundred years from now; perhaps for use in surviving the next great flood or plague.

But of course you CAN'T understand because God's divine plan is always IN PROCESS.

So what we can understand is that you happen to know the plan of the creator of the universe. Really…

God has simply laid out the blueprint far in advance of seeming necessity. These vestigial organs you speak of may be of use several hundred years from now;

Actually it's the complete inverse of that. It's not that these vestigial organs were planted there for future use (like airbags to protect likely accidents in the future), rather they were of use in our ancient past. As we evolved (which by the way does not mean to “become better” but rather “adapt” to our new environment), these traits become of no use anymore.

perhaps for use in surviving the next great flood or plague.

One would have to wonder why a being so allegedly intelligent—all-knowing mind you—and so powerful, not to mention caring, would not have ridden of these natural disasters in the first place! Why create seatbelts if you could get rid of car accidents in the first place? Like Harris has pointed out, there's essentially two ways you could look at the world. One is where you look at incidents like the Tsunami tragedy of '04 and say that this is the work of an omni-benevolent, omnipotent, omniscient being. Or you could say it's compatible with such a view. You've clearly taken the latter route and simply added caveats to hide the embarrassing reality that we aren't some special creation as our egos would like to believe.

I really hope you were kidding when you posted.

You can't possibly understand unless you have the love of Christ in your heart. So we have organs that are no longer in use. Trust that God ordained a use for these parts in the future. How do you know that the appendix won't evolve into an underwater scuba apparatus in a few decades. Let me guess. You DON'T, do you mr. atheist? How bleak life must be for you. Open your heart. I don't know WHAT the plan is. I only know that there IS a plan. By the way, in twenty years evolution may decide that we don't need a heart for a few centuries. Think about it.

This life is simply a test. It is a soulmaking process. The hardships we endure in this lifetime are a trial for a chance at everlasting life and paradise! A harsh training ground, yes; perhaps akin to Michael Vick's care for his dogs, but a necessary conditioning program nonetheless. It's so obvious if you would only SEE. Have faith.

"[. . .] Include such phenomena as phlegm and tooth decay in His divine system of creation?"

I was thinking almost the exact same thing yesterday! I bit down too hard on a steel fork and chipped off a tiny piece of one of my lower teeth. (Luckily, it isn't noticeable at all.) I thought, "Man, too bad a God doesn't exist... If one did, I bet he'd make teeth out of diamond or something."

"You can't possibly understand unless you have the love of Christ in your heart."

And you know this, how? You can't use the Bible to back up your claims, because the Bible is what we are trying to prove/disprove. So, in short, you don't know this whatsoever, even if you think you do.

"By the way, in twenty years evolution may decide that we don't need a heart for a few centuries. Think about it."

That would be one enormous evolutionary jump in just a few centuries... Anyway, the Bible claims that God created all species perfectly the first time, and that they are static/unchanging. How can evolution, then, occur at all? I guess what I'm asking is, how can you ignore that part of the Bible, the supreme word, and believe that evolution occurs?

"This life is simply a test. It is a soulmaking process. The hardships we endure in this lifetime are a trial for a chance at everlasting life and paradise!"

Yeah, so says the Bible, but it's unproven, so you can't know this, either.

"It's so obvious if you would only SEE. Have faith."

Things are not obvious if one has faith; they're faithful. It's impossible for anything faith-based to be obvious.

The tooth decay quote gets to the heart of the matter. If humans are the crowning creation of a perfect being, he/she/it is a bit of an underachiever.

Most people who believe in a divine creator ascribe to he/she/it the trait of omniscience. The thing about omniscience is that it precludes the ability to be surprised. In other words, if humans were created by an omniscient being, he/she/it knew at the outset what their shortcomings would be, both as a species and as individuals. If you buy that, it follows that a great many of us were created for no better reason than to live out our lives, fail he/she/it's little salvation challenge, then suffer eternal torment. One would think that a perfect being could find something better to do...

Though I tend to disbelief, I was confronted with an odd bit of evidence for divine intelligence in that just moments before checking this blog and seeing those words, I was reading this very passage as quoted by Norman Mailer in his book, "The Spooky Art." The passage goes on: "Why in the world did He ever create pain?"

Mailer's response: "If we have an immortal soul, some of us come close to it only through pain. A season of sickness can be preferable to a flight from disease, for it discourages the onrush of a death which begins in the center of oneself."

Something to think about.

There's no evidence for a soul, much less an immortal one.

No no no Nate, evolution "thought" that it would be a great fucking idea to take your hand out of the fire when you're a monkey and don't know better.

Jesus loves you even if you believe in this evolution stuff. But rest assured that you have reservations in the burning fire pit of fucking hell!

Yours in Christ ...

"Jesus loves you even if you believe in this evolution stuff. But rest assured that you have reservations in the burning fire pit of fucking hell!"

What a charming fellow!

By the way, Nate, do you happen to be the same Nate that used to post on neoflux a few years back?

How do you know that the appendix won't evolve into an underwater scuba apparatus in a few decades. Let me guess. You DON'T, do you mr. atheist?

LOL Mitch.

But rest assured that you have reservations in the burning fire pit of fucking hell!

LOL again. Mitch says this and thens follows up with "Yours in Christ" as if he's all loving and shit.

Too funny.

In fact, his comments are so ridiculous, I'll bet that this is just someone pulling our legs.