What are your reasons for believing whatever you may believe about Christianity?

[Wesley Williams]

That's the weather trying to punish you for the carnal sin of misrepresenting modern physics.

The cruel irony is that my roommate is a physicist.

Might as well deliver on my promise of providing issues with the Big Bang and add evolution into the mix because why not. Guess I'll add creationism as well, although you guys should probably help me out as I'm on the wrong side of the fence for that one. I'll keep updating this post as people combat my points (which are probably flawed currently, I'm rather preoccupied with homework and haven't thought it all out).

The Big Bang
1) How did matter exist before the Big Bang so as to start it?
2) How did the matter have some kind of motion to start the Big Bang if time did not yet exist?
   a) If time is infinite, how is there a present?
Resources:
This sounds legit but a physicist should probably verify it.

Evolution/Origin of Life
1) It has been proven that amino acids could arise from conditions on the early earth, but the probability of RNA and other cellular structures forming is incredibly small.
2) When an organism develops a new organ, it will be a long, slow process. Each mutation must take the organ in the correct direction for it to eventually function properly in a beneficial manner. During the evolution of this new organ, the developing organ does not provide any advantage to the creature (in fact, a half-baked organ could be viewed as a disadvantage) and thus natural selection would not help in its development.
3) Why have we not observed any cases of evolution on a scale larger than microevolution? Shouldn't we be seeing some branch of a species in a transitional stage?
Resources:
Here's the Wikipedia page with a bunch of other fun arguments.

Creationism
1) God is not observable.
Eh you guys can probably think of better ones, help me out.

Christianity
Arguments for
Arguments against

[Ad Bot]

[Khaz°]

Overall: Evolution relies on a bunch of extremely small chances being lined up in the correct order.

isn't this established like everywhere though

[Snoop Da Dogg]

tbh wesley is sounding like jaden smith's tweets

[otto-san]

   a) If time is infinite, how is there a present?

this sounds purely philosophical and i'm really uncomfortable somebody make him stop he's going too deep

[Daswiruch]

tbh wesley is sounding like jaden smith's tweets

How Can Science Be Real If Our Faith Isnt

[Red Spy]

nothing exploded into something

Wait, hold up. Something exploded into something.you loving moron
Before everything exploded, everything in existence was a really tincy, tiny, little thing we like to call a singularity. I'm going to admit something: we don't know. THAT'S RIGHT PEOPLE!!!! WE DON'T loving KNOW HOW IT loving GOT THERE!!! Science doesn't have all the answers yet religion is no better.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say your believe in the god of the gaps, which I personally believe is brain dead stupid, but I digress. Intelligent people (like scientists) say
"We don't have all the answers yet. We're still doing research, tests, etc."
            
         And then a religious person comes in and says "YOU DON'T KNOW THEREFORE GOD!!"

1) It has been proven that amino acids could arise from conditions on the early earth, but the probability of RNA and other cellular structures forming is incredibly small.


Overall: Evolution relies on a bunch of extremely small chances being lined up in the correct order.

You put impossible and incredibly small in the same group
Evolution is a fact, get over it.
Edit: Facts don't need you to believe in them

[WaterOre]

The Big Bang
1) How did matter exist before the Big Bang so as to start it?
2) How did the matter have some kind of motion to start the Big Bang if time did not yet exist?

we don't know

   a) If time is infinite, how is there a present?

Time can go on forever, the present is just how far it's currently gone on

Evolution/Origin of Life
1) It has been proven that amino acids could arise from conditions on the early earth, but the probability of RNA and other cellular structures forming is incredibly small.
2) When an organism develops a new organ, it will be a long, slow process. Each mutation must take the organ in the correct direction for it to eventually function properly in a beneficial manner. During the evolution of this new organ, the developing organ does not provide any advantage to the creature (in fact, a half-baked organ could be viewed as a disadvantage) and thus natural selection would not help in its development.
Overall: Evolution relies on a bunch of extremely small chances being lined up in the correct order.

1: yes
2: if the new half-baked organ allows a creature to survive and therefore reproduce, it's beneficial
additionally, the amount of baked an organ is depends on the creature that has the organ: a human's single stomach seems half-baked compared to a cow's four-step digestive process, but it's fully baked from a human's perspective and being able to better digest and handle toxins or various other substances like complex carbs would allow for people to have more food sources and therefore more food
overall: yes

[Foxscotch]

they think that nothing exploded into something

uh... no
quite a lot of something, in a very small amount of space, exploded into something

[Nonnel]

Overall: Evolution relies on a bunch of extremely small chances being lined up in the correct order.

when all the "extremely small chances" have such a long time and huge area to work themselves out, it's not something you should call a near-impossibility.

[otto-san]

the problem i have with using christianity as a scientific basis is that it cannot ever be truly scientific. the would-be theories provide no predictions and do not establish a basis for additional research. it eventually comes full-circle back to the fact that a compelling force exists which made it come to be. i'm fine with that i guess if science isn't offering any explanation, but it isn't an answer. it's simply settling for the unknown. the great thing about science is that when you find a rule, you know it works everywhere, and you can apply that rule. in a weird way, god works the same, but not scientifically. likewise, of course, science doesn't really have any bearing on religion. there's no scientific way to investigate the supernatural; science deals exclusively in the natural. i'm perfectly happy leaving the two spheres on their own and not having to worry about how my religious beliefs interact with my scientific beliefs.

[Wesley Williams]

isn't this established like everywhere though

Yup, it's a very valid point when you think about how drastic the probability gets. Apparently with enough time, life is supposed to be able to arise, but I don't think it would be possible no matter how much time you throw at it if the probability is small enough. I'm quite possibly wrong though, would need to try some kind of probability simulation.

Time can go on forever, the present is just how far it's currently gone on

Time can be infinite in the future, but not infinite in the past. If we have an infinite past it would be impossible to have a present. Imagine if you had an infinite family line leading up to your birth. You can't have such a thing, because no matter how many children are born, infinite more are necessary for your birth.

the problem i have with using christianity as a scientific basis is that it cannot ever be truly scientific. the would-be theories provide no predictions and do not establish a basis for additional research. it eventually comes full-circle back to the fact that a compelling force exists which made it come to be.

Well if God exists outside the laws of nature how can religious theories ever be "truly scientific"?

[XR-7]

Wait, hold up. Something exploded into something.you loving moron
Before everything exploded, everything in existence was a really tincy, tiny, little thing we like to call a singularity. I'm going to admit something: we don't know. THAT'S RIGHT PEOPLE!!!! WE DON'T loving KNOW HOW IT loving GOT THERE!!! Science doesn't have all the answers yet religion is no better.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say your believe in the god of the gaps, which I personally believe is brain dead stupid, but I digress. Intelligent people (like scientists) say
"We don't have all the answers yet. We're still doing research, tests, etc."
           
         And then a religious person comes in and says "YOU DON'T KNOW THEREFORE GOD!!"

You put impossible and incredibly small in the same group
Evolution is a fact, get over it.
Edit: Facts don't need you to believe in them

That's not what I was saying at all. I basically went the long saying that from a secular point of view, it sounds just as plausible that an intelligent deity created the things that we know over a blob exploded into a multi-billion light years across environment that can spawn complex life forms.

uh... no
quite a lot of something, in a very small amount of space, exploded into something

That's where you continue reading to the part where I address a "something"

Even if there was indeed something that exploded into the universe as we know it today, where could that something have come from? And where could that something have come from? Matter cannot be created and it cannot be destroyed either. With a theory involving a creator, you have a solution to where matter could've come from, but you can't scientifically test that. That creator would also have to have existed infinitely, be of infinite or unfathomable size, and live in another dimension, which you would just kind of have to accept.

[otto-san]

Well if God exists outside the laws of nature how can religious theories ever be "truly scientific"?

exactly, u got it bud

[Red Spy]

Time can be infinite in the future, but not infinite in the past. If we have an infinite past it would be impossible to have a present. Imagine if you had an infinite family line leading up to your birth. You can't have such a thing, because no matter how many children are born, infinite more are necessary for your birth.

Are you saying there was time before the Big Bang?

[XR-7]

Are you saying there was time before the Big Bang?

There was never truly nothing so...yes. As far as we know to this point, everything that exists existed at a time.