An Atheist brain teaser

[HonestJoe]

Conservation of Mass for the win. Actually, the answer for our sensitive player so he can relate it to Atheism and feel good about it being here is:

I'm not going to apologies for being "sensitive". Threads from new posters with obscure questions and evasive follow-ups are usually posted with an ulterior motive. They're usually trolls seeking to be disruptive rather than engage in any kind of normal discussions or debates. You didn't help yourself given that, however much you denied it, there was a catch to your question (asking which is the creator and answering that neither of them are).

It's not meant to be a trick as the answer is pretty straight forward if you answer the question as it is asked. But it leads to interesting philosophical and theology based wrong answers.

I disagree that there were any "wrong" answers. There clearly was a creator and a destroyer in the scenario - the question itself refers to the artist creating the painting in the first place. It's a question of context. I still don't think the scientific context you tried to apply was appropriate given the terminology (which ultimately led to the "point").

It's still nothing to do with atheism though. Demonstrating that the word "creator" doesn't apply in a specific hypothetical context does nothing to affect the various claims for the existence of gods, creator or otherwise.

 

[The Sum of Awe]

Give us a hint.

 

[Me Myself]

I think it's more accurate to call both of them creators and destroyers. Even if the constituent matter doesn't increase or decrease, with each act, an old arrangement of that matter is destroyed and a new one is created.

A drop of water may hold all the materials needed to make a snowflake, but it is not a snowflake itself.

pretty much my point from the start

 

[Shadow Wolf]

An artist creates the greatest masterpiece the world has ever known. The next day a diabolical hater of art burns the masterpiece to ashes.

From a purely scientific standpoint, who was the creator and who was the destroyer?

From a purely scientific standpoint, the artist manipulated pigments, clay, marble, wood, or whatever the medium into what we call art, and the arsonists simply caused a chemical reaction that permanently altered the physical properties of the art medium. Nothing was created and nothing was destroyed: the appearance and physical properties of the matter in question was altered. Nothing more, nothing less.

 

[gseeker]

The artist destroyed a clean canvas and the destroyer destroyed a work of art. The artist created art and the destroyer created a work of destruction. The artist is a destroyer and the destroyer is an artist. They could both be the same person.

 

[Kfox]

An artist creates the greatest masterpiece the world has ever known. The next day a diabolical hater of art burns the masterpiece to ashes.

From a purely scientific standpoint, who was the creator and who was the destroyer?

Science does not determine what is, or is not art. If you define creator as the one who painted the art, then the artist is the creator; if you define destroyer as the one who set fire to the painting, the hater is the destroyer

 

[Mock Turtle]

This reminds me - of all those wonderful moments at the beach, and my beautiful sandcastles - all washed away by the nasty tide, and me not winning a prize, but where my older brother invariably did. Never trust tides, or brothers.

 

[Kfox]

The Title is "Atheist brain teaser", but then it asks a question about science; as if atheism and science are somehow connected. Most of the people I know who dig science are Christians! How come this couldn't be called a Christian brain teaser? Or perhaps more appropriately a science brain teaser?

 

[Joshua Pryce]

An artist creates the greatest masterpiece the world has ever known. The next day a diabolical hater of art burns the masterpiece to ashes.

From a purely scientific standpoint, who was the creator and who was the destroyer?

The destroyer is the person who the atheist gave access to the masterpiece. The creator is the person who designed and made good the artist masterpiece.
The point is we are masterpieces and we choose to give spiritual evil access to our lives by staying away from the creator. The creator can make another masterpiece but as long as we give the destroyer access and stay away from the creator the cycle will keep repeating itself.