Is it?
It should be obvious that if the material world were not created by spirit that everything that has unfolded in the evolution of space and time would have no intentional purpose.
Why do they need a "purpose"? I'm serious. Why does there need to be a "purpose"?
That it is just matter and energy doing what matter and energy do. Conversely, if the material world were created by spirit it should be obvious that the creation of the material world was intentional. After all in my perception of God, God is no thing
That's very close to my perception of God. Just no space in between those two words. (In reality I'm what is called a "weak atheist" because, unlike strong atheists who claim "There is no God", I prefer the much more logical "I fail to see evidence for God". Strong atheists are making a universal negative claim which cannot be defended. Universal negatives are a big no-no in logic.
and the closest thing I can relate to is a mind with no body.
Something you have never seen. Something that, arguably, has never been found.
Using our own experiences as creators as a proxy,
Cannot allow that. Since I am not a supernatural being beyond space and time eternal and all knowing I can't really compare my actions with that of God, whatever the conception.
we know that when we create things we create them for a reason and that reason is to serve some purpose.
Again, that purpose is nowhere required for nature.
So it would be no great leap of logic to believe that something like a mind with no body would do the same
Here's where you syllogism fails: you have jumped to a conclusion based on flawed assumptions (ie comparing my limited physical actions and brain with that of the eternal unchanging God of all creation.)
. We also know from our experiences that intelligence tends to create intelligence.
Does it though? My dog has "intelligence" yet he creates nothing and doesn't really do anything.
We are obsessed with making smart things
WE are, but we are not the only thing with "intelligence" on this planet.
. So what better thing for a mind with no body to do than create a universe where beings with bodies can create smart things too.
That sounds nice. Unevidence, but nice.
We have good reason to believe that we find ourselves in a universe permeated with life, in which life arises inevitably, given enough time, wherever the conditions exist that make it possible.
And that "life" is always made up of the same chemicals as the rest of the junk around us. In fact life's chemistry is nothing more than regular chemistry. "Life" isn't that utterly amazing, nor is it some mystical "thing" or "essence" apart from just plain ol' natural chemistry.
I'm going to go so far as to say that much of your mental state is drive in no small way by CHEMISTRY.
Yet were any one of a number of the physical properties of our universe otherwise - some of them basic, others seemingly trivial, almost accidental - that life, which seems now to be so prevalent, would become impossible,
This is an argument that actually runs "backwards". There isn't anything special about us existing...we do arise from this particular selection of physical laws, but if the physical laws were different life would likely be different. But even if a universe existed without life it would be effectively the same.
It's this 'Purpose' thing you get hung up on. There's no obvious NEED for a purpose. There may be a DESIRE on your part for a purpose, but no "need".
The biological laws are such that life is programmed to survive and multiply which is a requisite for intelligence to arise.
No it isn't. The earth existed for literally BILLIONS of years without life developing "intelligence" of any real sort.
If the purpose of the universe was to create intelligence
No such purpose is in evidence. Again, it may be your personal wish, but that does not make it
ipso facto real.
then a preference in nature for it had to exist.
I disagree with the predicate.
If we examine the physical laws we discover that we live in a logical universe governed by rules, laws and information. Rules laws and information are a signs of intelligence.
Really? So when an ice cube grows in the refrigerator and it creates a crystal with a repeating pattern of atoms lined up exactly and in accordance with the rules of thermodynamics and physics and chemistry it means that an "intelligence" is required?
In reality it's nothing more than "energy minimizing" and stacking atoms. Nothing more really.
The consequence of a logical universe is that every cause has an effect. Which means that everything happens for a reason and serves a purpose.
Predicate causes do NOT indicate "purpose". It simply indicates something happened before something else.
The very nature of our physical laws point to reason and purpose.
I profoundly disagree.
All we have done so far is to make a logical argument for spirit creating the material world. Certainly not an argument built of fairy tales that's for sure.
In a sense it IS an argument built on "fairy tales". But not the "supernatural kind", rather the fairy tales of our "wishes" overlaid on the physical world.
So going back to the two possibilities; spirit creating the material world versus everything proceeding from the material, the key distinction is no thing versus thing.
Where does spirit come from again?
So if we assume that everything I have described was just an accidental coincidence of the properties of matter, the logical conclusion is that matter and energy are just doing what matter and energy do which makes sense.
I like that.
The problem is that for matter and energy to do what matter and energy do, there has to be rules in place for matter and energy to obey.
Not sure that is a meaningful sentence. Since "existence is not predicate" as Kant noted in critique of Anselm's Ontological Argument, this sentence feels like it may be meaningless.
The formation of space and time followed rules. Specifically the law of conservation and quantum mechanics. These laws existed before space and time and defined the potential of everything which was possible. These laws are no thing. So we literally have an example of no thing existing before the material world.
Your concept of a "rule" pre-existing the thing is interesting conjecture. But conjecture is all it is.
The creation of space and time from nothing is literally correct. Space and time were created from no thing. Spirit is no thing. No thing created space and time.
I will agree that "Spirit is no thing" in that I fail to believe it exists. Given that reality does exist (at least to this observer) will then have to assume that "spirit" is not part of this. It is a wish of the human mind and nothing more. It's wholly understandable. We are "self-aware" to an extreme extent so, of course, we fear "not existing". But some of us actually kind of look forward to that eventuality.
