"God exists because it is illogical to believe otherwise, as God would be the creator of the Universe. And there must be a creator, after all- if one located a watch upon the beach, would one say that the watch merely came into being? No, of course not. One would say a man built it!"
The first sentence lacks any foundation whatsoever, presuming both an anthropomorphic "creator" and a "logic" to that presumption. I believe the technical term for such a statement is "hogwash".
I thought the tired old "argument from design" had dispensed with the watch-on-the-beach story ages ago: argument by analogy has always been a sign of desperation. Nevertheless... when one encounters a watch on a beach, one recognizes it as an
artifact as opposed to a natural object. Why? Because of its simplicity - not its complexity. It is composed of geometric circles and lines, it's parts move with a regular, predictable rhythm, the markings on its face are placed at equally spaced intervals, it is ergonomic and
efficient.
Further, it has a definite
purpose and its design is both knowable and capale of being reproduced. With enough skill, the man on the beach could "create" a similar watch. Could he similarly manufacture seaweed? Could he build a mollusk? We assume the watch was "created" precisely because it is
unnatural.
We can not, on the other hand, say that those things attributed by analogy to the "Architect of the Universe" are in any way simple or efficient. The natural world is, by comparison to a watch, a bloody mess. Irregular forms are abundant, inefficiency flourishes, entropy and atrophy abound. Granted, there are some things in nature which might almost lead us to believe that they are artifacts - crystals, for example. But open up any living thing and what do you find? Foul-smelling chaos.
Take the "pinnacle of creation" (uh, that would be Man) as an example:
homo sapiens is among the worst designed machine in the known universe. Our eyes are "designed" with a blind spot; our spines were "designed" for quadrupeds, provide appalling structural support, and are prone to failure and injury; our ribcages were "designed" to leave many vital organs unprotected; the male urethra was "designed" to run
through the prostate gland (which can cause death) and his inguinal canal not only leaves his testes exposed, but also leaves a weak spot prone to herniation; the female body was "designed" to make bearing large-brained children life-threateningly difficult,
To claim that the universe is an "artifact" created by God is to claim that God is a sloppy, inept, amateurish
clod. If this guy were watch-maker, no one would
ever know what time it was.
The notion of a personified Creator is hardly the
only theory of the origin the universe - it's just the most illogical.