SJ: This is plain false. Design can be superimposed on a backdrop of design
and still be detected as different. For example, a work of art can be
distinguished against a designed art gallery wall. Da Vinci's "Last Supper"
is actually part of a wall!
Still avoiding the issue that we have something to compare it against. How do you expect to find design in nature and distinguish it from apparant design? What about the witch circle? Mushrooms which grow in a circle. Design? Or apparant design
SJ: Human intelligent design can be recognised against a backdrop of God's
natural design. For example flowers spelling out words of a sign:
Human intelligent design can be often recognised, how we are to recognise God's design is another question.
SJ: Therefore, there is no reason in principle why God's supernatural design
could not be detected against a backdrop of God's natural design.
Then please provide us a way to detect his design and to falsify it? You are making a presumption without
any foundation in fact. Just because you believe that this can be done does not mean that it can be done.
Dembski and Behe tried and failed.
SJ: Hmmm my TV must be wrong. I could have sworn I saw somewhere that school
children were massacring each other in the USA and now all kids have to be
checked by a metal detector before entering school. Of course Australia is
not much better with a loner brought up on a diet of violent videos killing
23 people at Port Arthur in Tasmania. But apart from those `minor' problems
"materialist western society is doing pretty well"! :-(
You are focusing on incidents without any proof that supports your assertion. Why is that? What about the gangster killings in the 30's? What about WWI and WWII ? What about the witchcraft persecutions ? What about the crusades? If your argument is that in recent years violence has increased then you have to make a better case for it.
SJ: The fact is that this "cruelty to each other and a callous neglect" has
escalated as society becomes less Christian and more materialistic.
Unsupported assertion and unproven correlation. Dear Stephen, your faith needs some backing up with reality. Until then your unsupported assertions are worth little more than the paper they are written on.
What about the killing of abortionists by Christians ? What about the massacres in Serbia?
Christianity hardly has a reason to be proud of its track record and certainly there is no proof that christianity is more moral or that a christian society is more moral than a non-christian one. In fact, the Netherlands which is far less religious than the US has a far better track record.
Perhaps you should consider trying to get some facts?