rationalskepticism.org

Shrunk wrote:I haven't watched the video, and I'm not sure I will, but Jerry Coyne has posted an excerpt on his blog that seems germane to our (or, at least, my) current discussion:

[Interviewer]: What is your best evidence there is no God, and what’s the best evidence there is a God?

Craig: Well, I would say that the best evidence that there is a God is that the hypothesis that God exists explains a wide range of the data of human experience that’s very diverse. So it’s an extremely powerful hypothesis. It gives you things like an explanation of the origin of the universe, the fine-tuning of the universe, of intelligent life. But also the presence of mind in the cosmos, an objective foundation for moral values and duties, and things of that sort—it’s a wide range of data that makes sense on a theistic worldview.

See, that's exactly the kind of argument that could support the existence of my automotive fairies. True, standard materialistic auto engineering can answer most questions, but not all of them.

Why did my gas line rupture today, and not two days ago? Fairies.

What is causing that knocking sound that I hear every time I drive, but which seems to disappear whenever I take the car to the garage so the mechanic can hear it? Fairies.

And so on.

Clearly, the existence of automotive fairies is also a hypothesis that explains a wide range of the data that’s very diverse.

And that's the strongest argument Craig has for God. The same argument that can be used to demonstrate that there are fairies living in your intake manifold.