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Consider the Lilies.
Do You Think They Came Down Like Rain?
This article is one of a series of articles introduced by Flawed Reasons to Believe in God. If you’re new to the series, you should read the Introduction before (or after) reading the material below.
“Consider the lilies” is one of a large class of apologetic arguments in the form “Consider the ______.” where the blank is something in nature or the cosmos that the theist thinks can only be explained by a creator deity. The argument involves the divine fallacy, AKA the argument from incredulity or ignorance. In today’s world, where search engines catalog human knowledge, and the explanation for lilies is only a click or two away, there is no excuse for such ignorance. Nonetheless, it flourishes in theists who don’t want to know how naturalistic explanations have displaced beliefs that only a deity could have produced such a wonder. Sadly, many such believers are prone to the Dunning-Kruger effect. They reject expert explanations because they are sure they are better informed than the world’s leading authorities.
I recall watching an atheist call-in show on YouTube® when a Christian called and asked, “What about the trees?” Despite the show hosts correctly explaining how things like trees evolved, the caller insisted that only two possible explanations exist for trees. You must either believe…