Its when we throw phrases out there like "The universe evolved (or came into being) by chance.
But no-one
does say that; rather, liars put it forward as a strawman of the atheist position.
First of all, it is impossible for anything to at one time not exist and then to later exist.
Not only is that possible, it's usual.
This is an incorrect way to think about chance and.or use the term. Chance cannot cause anything because chance is of itself nothing.
Well, this is just playing with words. You could play similarly silly games with the words "by design" if you wanted to, but why would you want to?
To say "X happened by design" means "X happened as a result of a process directed by the intention of a sentient being". It does not mean that there's some non-abstract thing called Design that caused it to happen, and no-one would think it did mean that unless they were determined to play silly buggers. In the same way, to say "X happened by chance" is to say "X happened as the result of a process which had a possibility of turning out some other way".
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