> To anyone but an atheist, these are not "dangerous questions."
Nor are they "dangerous" to atheists.
Consider:
Q1: " there was a beginning, an uncaused cause, i.e. God!"
A1: i.e.... somethign entirely else. "I don't know" does not equal God.
Q2: "i.e. a life force"
A2: Scientists ahve made living things (polio virii) from non-living molecular components. No "life force" was injected.
Q3: "Why does the organism have a will to live?"
A3: Because if it didn't, it wouldn't live, and thus wouldn't reproduce.
Q4: "the incredibly delicate physical constants, physical laws ..."
A4: Change the laws, and we become impossible. But change the laws and something *else* becomes possible.
Q5: "why our vision and mind are tuned to a particular selection of four coordinates"
A5: These are the ones that are useful for perception of our environment.
Q6: "He'd have to explain how biological semiosis arose through natural means."
A6: Look up the experiments of Urey, and the follow-on experiments of Fox.
Q7: "i.e. cardiovascular without the lungs, nervous system without the brain"
A7: Lungs and Brains aren't needed for life; note your nearest amoeba.
Q8-a: "explain how eyes developed concurrently across phyla – i.e. vertebrates and invertebrates "
A8-a: Vertebrates evolved from invertebrates after the development of eyes. Look up Pikaia.
Q8-b: "virtually no new body plans since the Cambrian Explosion"
A8-b: Because optimums can be reached. There's a reason why really fast submersibles tend to look like fish, and why subsonic aircraft look like birds or insects (helicopters). Natural forces mean that certain forms function better than others. How effective would a fish shaped like, say, a mastodon be?
Q9: "He’d have to have a natural explanation for qualia "
A9: Without them you die and don't reproduce.
Not a one of these means either that God exists or doesn't exist. The ability to answer does not negate God, the inability to answer does nto make God inevitable.
> I often wonder about the psychology of atheism, what motivates it, and what atheists hope to achieve/obtain from it.
What do you hope to achieve by believing that the world is round, or that the Earh goes round the sun? It makes no difference to the lives of the vast majority of people. You believe things because they are, to your judgement based on the evidence at hand, so.
A better thign to wonder about is the psychology of those who demand that anyone who believes very differently about the supernatural is somehow sick or evil.
Not so, obb -- my understanding is this marvel was accomplished by using a living molecular base for some super-added components. [Voila!!! Polio!] So far as I am aware, there have been no successful experiments in manufacturing a living system entirely from non-living matter.
I'd love to continue with the rest of your responses; but my lunch hour is about over, and I must get back to work.
Maybe later. Thanks for your reply!