[tortoise]

Atheists who think it best to deal with it by ignoring it are indeed fools, because if nothing else, that which we do not know exists today as a very powerful force in the world if only because so many people realize they don't know what they don't know. It is the atheist who is in the absurd position of admitting both that he doesn't know what he doesn't know, and at the same time claims he knows what it is.

This is an obviously false characterization. An atheist/agnostic/whatever doesn't have the answer, so they don't make one up to fill the gap i.e. they can no more accept "God did it" as an answer to something they don't know than "the Leprechaun did it". There are an infinite number of stupid answers for every undiscovered correct answer. There is nothing in "God did it" that distinguishes it from the huge set of stupid reasons. If there was, it could be considered as a useful theory. As it stands, "God did it" is utterly undistinguished as an answer. Evolution (which has nothing to do with the existence of God, no matter how many people try to frame it that way) distinguishes itself in a number of ways from "the set of all stupid answers".

That is actually what the argument is about. What distinguishes "God did it" from the myriad of other apparently stupid reasons? If we could answer this, life would be easy.

[VadeRetro]

There is nothing in "God did it" that distinguishes it from the huge set of stupid reasons. If there was, it could be considered as a useful theory. As it stands, "God did it" is utterly undistinguished as an answer. Evolution (which has nothing to do with the existence of God, no matter how many people try to frame it that way) distinguishes itself in a number of ways from "the set of all stupid answers".

Very nice and I couldn't agree more!

[gcruse]

That pretty well nails it.

[jennyp]

That is actually what the argument is about. What distinguishes "God did it" from the myriad of other apparently stupid reasons? If we could answer this, life would be easy.

Well put!

[Quila]

That is actually what the argument is about. What distinguishes "God did it" from the myriad of other apparently stupid reasons? If we could answer this, life would be easy.

One of these days, I'll be able to write this clearly.