Essay:My Response to a Creationist Troll

Hello all. I've recently started posting on Yahoo Answers, and encountered a creationist asking a troll question. I thus answered the question in the best way I was able. As I am young (18) and new to online debating, I would like input as to how I handled it. All comments welcome (and desired!) on the talk page!

Asker's Question: Ok... which is more logical... a loving and all powerful God created us so we could serve him and love him and live with him... or that there was nothing and nothing happened to nothing and then nothing magically exploded for no reason creating everything and then a bunch of everything magically rearranged itself for no reason what so ever into self-replicating bits which then turned into the universe as we know it, orderly, logical, and nearly perfect... try to explain what you athiests believe to me cuz I have no idea how you could possibly think! =)

My Response: No atheist actually believes that nothing created everything. We don't know. We have the humility to admit that we do not and cannot know everything. We can explain how and why things got the way they are to a startling degree of detail thanks to advanced technology and scientific study. But the answer to the origins of the universe is impossible for us to know at this juncture. And if the greatest scientific minds with the greatest tools cannot determine the cause of everything, then why should you have the arrogance to claim to know? You rely upon books that are thousands of years old that were written by people in the bronze age! And how can you reconcile your notion of a loving and all-knowin and all-powerful God with the realities of disease and natural disasters that a real God would have to have created? What loving God would make such a universe? And why would that God also create a cosmic prison full of eldritch horrors to torture unbelievers for all eternity? Personally, I think that the universe is a naturally occurring event, the result of some natural occurrence outside of the universe, as I don't think the universe could have always existed I certainly don't think that it is guided by an intelligent entity, never mind one that has our best interests at heart.

I'm sorry if I'm rambling, but an intellectually adequate answer to your question cannot be made in 10 words or less.

Original post is here: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20101210173820AAgmhHn&cp=2