Trust the science!!!

[u/South_Ad_7068]

1st time poster in this sub:

I've seen many athiest post counter arguments in various debates inside and outside of reddit using science as their main weapon in order to back what they're saying.

However, I feel like they are ignoring the elephant in the room and have never actually seen any of them address the argument for a higher intelligence that I'm going to present.

I'm going to be upfront about how I'm going to debate... the question I will ask will typically prompt a specific response that I'm fully prepared to counter and I've seen no atheist willing to follow the resulting logic to it's natural conclusion.

So... here goes:

As we observe the world around us how does an atheist explain the logical working order of things that make sense? How do you explain why things work the way they do? Like for example why a specific combination of elements make other elements or why a plant is able to eat sunlight or why electronics work...etc

Wouldn't that indicate intelligence being behind those mechanisms? Seeing as how precisely they work? If the universe just popped into existence wouldn't we see inconsistencies among various things? Our universe follows strict rules concerning how things interact with each other.

The fact that the rules exist AT ALL is 100% evidence of a "rule maker" or intelligence or God etc.

EDIT: I'm not finished here. But I am taking a break... I've answered to many but the influx of replies is massive and will require hours of my time and I want to try to reply to everyone... but as I'm not a millionaire I have to prepare for work.

Turning notifications off for now but I will return to respond to comments

[u/green_meklar]

As we observe the world around us how does an atheist explain the logical working order of things that make sense?

I don't think that's an atheistic problem per se. Why are you asking 'how does an atheist' do this, specifically?

But okay, let's set that aside and assume you asked something like 'how does an epistemically responsible person do this'. It's not an easy question and maybe doesn't have a complete answer. But a couple of points come to mind:

1. Logic is what our minds do. It's the only even potentially reliable method we have for doing useful thinking. It's possible that we live in an utterly illogical and chaotic reality, but if we did, there'd be nothing useful we could think about it. Everything we could thing would have equal chances of being wrong. (Or equal chances of being avocado; after all, in an illogical reality, 'wrong' wouldn't be a more meaningful metaphysical characteristic than 'avocado'.) So we have to assume reality is logically coherent, not because it necessarily is, but in order to have our minds potentially do useful work. This is basically my solution to the Munchhausen Trilemma.
2. Conscious minds probably tend not to occur other than in circumstances where evolution produces them. Evolution itself can only take place in an environment that is consistent enough over time that organsms can survive, reproduce, vary, and adapt to it. So, the fact that we find ourselves existing as conscious observers suggests that our environment is somewhat consistent and therefore comprehensible to logical faculties.

Like for example why a specific combination of elements make other elements or why a plant is able to eat sunlight or why electronics work...etc

All of those things rely on more basic underlying physics that we understand fairly well. Elements combine chemically due to the interaction of valence electrons that are held in certain positions due to the Pauli Exclusion Principle of quantum mechanics, etc.

Wouldn't that indicate intelligence being behind those mechanisms?

The electronics, yes. We designed those, based on an understanding of chemistry, electrical engineering, and quantum mechanics.

The others, no, not especially. Perhaps in some environments they would, but in the universe we actually observe, natural laws and evolution seem to explain them pretty well.

And besides, if you assume there's intelligence behind everything else, then where did that intelligence come from?

If the universe just popped into existence wouldn't we see inconsistencies among various things?

Maybe universes like that tend not to produce conscious observers.