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Bill O'Reilly doesn't understand tides, or is playing dumb

Since Silverman didn't mention it was the tides he may not have known it.

But regardless, Silverman missed a good opportunity for a good response. He should have pointed out that just because we don't know something doesn't mean that God did it and then give some examples...even if he didn't know about the tides then give some other examples. There are many things we know now but didn't know before so it wouldn't make sense to say "God did it" about these things in the past and similarly it doesn't make sense to say "God did it" about things we don't know today.
 
I don't think O'Reilly has ever really put all that much effort into it. I think he's content and comfortable being Catholic, and has a lot more important (to him) things to think about than rigorously figuring out the veracity of god & the church, or the science involved in how the world came to be. Politics are more important (and profitable) to him than detailed arguments about religion & atheism.
 
The tides are like the Pythagorean theorem, nobody can explain it.
 
This quote has been around the net quite a bit, and I think it needs a clarification.

O'Reilly isn't saying here that he is unaware that we understand the mechanism behind the tides and the sun, but that the fact that the laws of physics are so predictable as to produce such phenomena points to order in the universe, in his mind order can only come about intentionally, thus god.

It's still a very bad argument, it's still an argument from ignorance, but this:

Does he really not know?

Is not the issue.
 
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