# Was It All An Accident...Or Did An Intelligent **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [January 19, 2013, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-it-all-an-accident-or-did-an-intelligent/647721 "2013-01-19T17:18:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 34
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2013, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-it-all-an-accident-or-did-an-intelligent/647721/661 "2013-02-18T03:30:24Z")
> [@NormalDude](#): > > Intelligence cannot form out of nothing. Why not? Where did god come from? ---
**Author:** ![NormalDude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7993a0/32.png) [@NormalDude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NormalDude)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2013, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-it-all-an-accident-or-did-an-intelligent/647721/662 "2013-02-18T03:34:37Z")
Only God knows… 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2013, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-it-all-an-accident-or-did-an-intelligent/647721/663 "2013-02-18T03:36:28Z")
> [@NormalDude](#): > > Only God knows… 🙂 In other words, Occams’s Razor trumps Pascal’s Wager. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2013, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-it-all-an-accident-or-did-an-intelligent/647721/664 "2013-02-18T03:38:14Z")
To paraphrase: “You’re very clever, young man, very clever. But it’s gods all the way down!” ---
**Author:** ![NormalDude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7993a0/32.png) [@NormalDude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NormalDude)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2013, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-it-all-an-accident-or-did-an-intelligent/647721/665 "2013-02-18T03:41:03Z")
> [@NormalDude](#): > > Intelligence cannot form out of nothing. > > A planet swimming in “premordial soup” and constant sunlight isn’t going to somehow create any intelligent organization despite how many eons of time that pass. Best you can hope for is an occasional accidental rudimentary glimpse of limited order among predominant randomness, and it cannot sustain its ordered structure due to the tendancy to greater randomness. Can the human mind even imagine the quantum leap that would have to occur to make order from chaos? ANd then somehow survive and add to itself. There is no process that can naturally make this occur. I may revise my original conjecture and say that intelligent order is so cpmplex it is probably mathematically closer to “order-squared-squared”. A very complex structure of matter-energy. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2013, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-it-all-an-accident-or-did-an-intelligent/647721/666 "2013-02-18T03:44:26Z")
Do you know what a “quantum leap” is? ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2013, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-it-all-an-accident-or-did-an-intelligent/647721/667 "2013-02-18T03:45:27Z")
> [@NormalDude](#): > > Can the human mind even imagine the quantum leap that would have to occur to make order from chaos? ANd then somehow survive and add to itself. There is no process that can naturally make this occur. Congratulations. You have just proved that god cannot exist. ---
**Author:** ![NormalDude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7993a0/32.png) [@NormalDude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NormalDude)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2013, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-it-all-an-accident-or-did-an-intelligent/647721/668 "2013-02-18T03:46:42Z")
Nonsequitor ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2013, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-it-all-an-accident-or-did-an-intelligent/647721/669 "2013-02-18T03:47:17Z")
> [@NormalDude](#): > > Nonsequitor Desperation. ---
**Author:** ![NormalDude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7993a0/32.png) [@NormalDude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NormalDude)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2013, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-it-all-an-accident-or-did-an-intelligent/647721/670 "2013-02-18T03:50:01Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Do you know what a “quantum leap” is? I’m not talking quantum mechanics here; I’m using the colloquiel adjective to illustrate something occuring spontaneously that has greater complexity and emanating from an earlier state of simplicity. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2013, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-it-all-an-accident-or-did-an-intelligent/647721/671 "2013-02-18T03:52:35Z")
> [@NormalDude](#): > > I’m not talking quantum mechanics here; I’m using the colloquiel adjective to illustrate something occuring spontaneously that has greater complexity and emanating from an earlier state of simplicity. And the god of your sect of your religion is the answer, right? ---
**Author:** ![NormalDude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7993a0/32.png) [@NormalDude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NormalDude)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2013, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-it-all-an-accident-or-did-an-intelligent/647721/672 "2013-02-18T03:55:04Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > Desperation. I do detect the desperation in what you’re saying. At least you’re being honest. But hey, take that lightly. Nobody else on the planet knows the answers to that mystery. Even theists don’t _know_. They go on faith to fill the void of not knowing. A different mode than pure knowledge, but it provides for a much more hopeful existance. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2013, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-it-all-an-accident-or-did-an-intelligent/647721/673 "2013-02-18T03:57:21Z")
> [@NormalDude](#): > > I do detect the desperation in what you’re saying. At least you’re being honest. I know you are, but what am i? That the best you’ve got? ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2013, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-it-all-an-accident-or-did-an-intelligent/647721/674 "2013-02-18T03:57:22Z")
> [@NormalDude](#): > > I do detect the desperation in what you’re saying. At least you’re being honest. > But hey, take that lightly. Nobody else on the planet knows the answers to that mystery. Even theists don’t _know_. They go on faith to fill the void of not knowing. A different mode than pure knowledge, but it provides for a much more hopeful existance. Because false hope is better than no hope at all? That just doesn’t sound right, even if it were true…and it certainly isn’t. ---
**Author:** ![NormalDude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7993a0/32.png) [@NormalDude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NormalDude)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2013, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-it-all-an-accident-or-did-an-intelligent/647721/675 "2013-02-18T03:58:58Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > And the god of your sect of your religion is the answer, right? Anything wrong with that? No better definitive answers have been discovered; it’s a safe, harmless and hopeful place; nothing to lose and potentially much to gain. ---
**Author:** ![NormalDude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7993a0/32.png) [@NormalDude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NormalDude)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2013, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-it-all-an-accident-or-did-an-intelligent/647721/676 "2013-02-18T04:01:47Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > I know you are, but what am i? That the best you’ve got? Grow up. Obviously you have nothing left to say. ---
**Author:** ![NormalDude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7993a0/32.png) [@NormalDude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NormalDude)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2013, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-it-all-an-accident-or-did-an-intelligent/647721/677 "2013-02-18T04:04:22Z")
🙂 > [@Czarcasm](#): > > Because false hope is better than no hope at all? That just doesn’t sound right, even if it were true…and it certainly isn’t. You cannot “prove” it is a false hope. And to close the remark with “certainly” presumes you are omnicient, and certainly you or any other human are not. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2013, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-it-all-an-accident-or-did-an-intelligent/647721/678 "2013-02-18T04:06:14Z")
> [@NormalDude](#): > > You cannot “prove” it is a false hope. You can’t prove it is not a false hope. ---
**Author:** ![NormalDude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7993a0/32.png) [@NormalDude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NormalDude)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2013, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-it-all-an-accident-or-did-an-intelligent/647721/679 "2013-02-18T04:08:18Z")
You are absolutely right! But I’d rather be on that side of the ledger than the other side. ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2013, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-it-all-an-accident-or-did-an-intelligent/647721/680 "2013-02-18T04:08:34Z")
> [@NormalDude](#): > > nothing to lose and potentially much to gain. If you’ve got the wrong religion, you actually have a lot to lose. This isn’t much of an argument. Pascal did it much better, and even he understood the flaws in his Wager. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-it-all-an-accident-or-did-an-intelligent/647721.md?page=33) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-it-all-an-accident-or-did-an-intelligent/647721.md?page=35)