The Rockmaker Argument

Picture this, you are walking on a beach and all you see for miles is sand. Then, out of nowhere you find a perfectly formed rock. How do you suppose it got there? How could a rock have formed naturally?

Well shit, rocks form naturally all the time. In fact, that is the only way rocks actually form, right? Well, not according to many religious believers. Religious believers often use this same analogy with a watch instead of a rock, but it really doesn’t make much difference because to the believer, intelligence was required for both of them.

If we found a rock on the beach, it would be the most natural thing in the world and yet religious believers argue that it must have been created by their super intelligent deity of choice. What are the chances of a rock eroding slowly over time near an ocean? God must have done it!

My point here is that we all already recognize that watches were created by watchmakers so it really isn’t so odd to conclude that a watch found on a beach (or anywhere else for that matter) was created by a watchmaker. That’s kinda how watches are made.

Rocks are made naturally through a slow process of erosion. This is the accidental process of water slowly breaking down the rock over a long period of time. No one in their right mind would dispute the fact that water plus time on a rock cliff will equal a smaller eroded chunk of rock but if we just look at the water hitting a rock cliff once, we can laugh and ignorantly point out that the water just hits the rock cliff with little to no effect.

Evolution is a slow process just like erosion. Through the process of natural selection, small changes over time add up. Each small change allows a species to have a better chance of survival. Human beings weren’t designed by some intelligent deity; we evolved over time just as rocks erode over time. While water is the mechanism of change for erosion, natural selection is the mechanism of change for evolution.