I was sent a series of questions/comments by a creationist on the comments section of an article in The Telegraph on The Oldest Signs of Life on Earth Found. I have supplied a selection of his relevant comments at the end, to which this is my response.
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I am a product of my genes and of my experiences (in other words long term and short term environmental influences). The architecture of my brain reflects both of those and is a direct product of them.
Remember the brain is nothing like a computer. It doesn't have hardware and software. The hardware *is* the software. The structure of the brain changes according to outside influence or what we would call learning (in it's widest sense).
The atoms (which are constantly changing due to metabolism) that make up the neurons in my brain are also directly from the environment. Indeed, originally from the matter that accreted to make the solar system and the earth. That matter came from some long-dead star that exploded. Which, in turn, came from singularity (which has the rather inappropriate name of The Big Bang as it was neither big, nor did it make a bang).
What happened "before" that? No-one knows (or, for the moment, can know). What we do know is that time, as a dimension of the space-time continuum, came into existence at the big bang so the word "before" is somewhat inappropriate too.
So you see, "Andrew Wilson" came from the environment. I came directly from it as a product of it and will return to it. Indeed I am very temporary
If you really want a far more poetic and beautiful answer than I can give then watch this 4 minute video from a fellow non-believer.
We Are Going To Die.
If you think there is more to "Andrew Wilson" or indeed "Andy Preston" than the material things of the world from which we are made then it really is up to you to demonstrate it.
It matters not a bit to me if love is "just" neurons and hormones reacting to outside stimuli. If that's true then it's true (and the evidence suggests it is). It doesn't lessen the experience one jot. Indeed it heightens it.
Here's another fellow unbeliever on that very topic.
Ode to a Flower.
I have no other answer for you. I follow the evidence.
p.s. Colour-blind people can see rainbows and rainbows are a physical phenomenon that happen as a direct result of physical light interacting with physical water and air molecules.
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His comments.
"So Andrew, unless you know for sure and can tell me where Andrew Wilson came from, and how your self was made - and I don't mean just your outward name /parents/birth cert/education/ profession -"
"then you are surely in a position, as we all are, of seeking knowledge about your existence rather in the manner of a person in a vast dark cavern, possessing only a thin beam pencil torch with which they can illuminate only a tiny area at a time - and quite unable to perceive the vastness unilluminated all around them.
"It then behoves all of us surely, to be modest about our judgement of other seekers, and the manner in which we address their understanding."
" ... asking someone for 'proof' of God /a creator is not unlike asking someone to 'prove' that - that vital component of human existence - of 'love' exists
or you being a colour blind person, demanding that another 'proves' that a rainbow exists."
