Orchid XP v8 <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
> 2. Even if I accept that evolution is false, this does not prove that ID 
> is therefore true. DOES. NOT. FOLLOW.

  This is a very typical false dichotomy. It naturally goes like: "Either
evolution is true, or ID is true. Hence if we prove evolution to the false,
the only possible conclusion is that ID is true."

  This argumentative fallacy is really, really common. If someone wants to
"prove" that ID is true, what is by far the most common tactic? Try to prove
evolution as false.

  Creationists use several other false dichotomies as well, such as for
example "either the Universe was created by nothing, or it was created by
an intelligent being", and "either life was formed by chance, or it was
created by an intelligent being".

  Of course the argument is inherently more fallacious than that. Let's
assume for a second that the universe was indeed created by an intelligent
being. This raises many obvious questions: What kind of being? Where is this
being now? Does this being still exist? Where did it come from? Are there
more than one? Was this being also created by another intelligent being?
How did this being create the universe? What kind of powers does it have?
Is this the only universe that it has created?

  The whole premise of ID doesn't actually answer anything at all, much
less anything useful. (Exactly what is the use in knowing that some kind
of "intelligent being" created the universe? How does this knowledge help
us in any way or form? We can't know anything at all about this hypothetical
"being", other than speculate that perhaps it created the universe. How does
this help us?)

  Of course the creationist will then turn to try to explain how the Bible
allegedly contains things that the people of the time could not have possibly
known. Even if that were true (and that's a big if), that's another fallacy.
(Writing some information that the people of the time "could not have
possibly known" doesn't tell anything about where that information came
from. Claiming that "it must have been given by God" is another false
dichotomy. There are many other possible explanations.)

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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