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The Origin of Specious Nonsense. Twelve years on. Still going. Answer soon.

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  • Registered Users Posts: 14,615 ✭✭✭✭J C


    Never mi d immortality,.what harm has a 6 year old done? Why let an innocent child die a long slow agonising death?

    Your "god" if he does exist is a sadistic prick.
    ... You're blaiming the wrong person ... the two prime movers in our misfortune are Satan and Adam.

    Once evil was freely invited into the world by Adam ... then sin and physical death followed.
    We all die as a result ... and it is particularly tragic and upsetting when a child dies ... but when a much loved adult dies, particulary if it is a sudden death, it can be pretty devastaing as well.

    You can rail against God all you like ... but God has His reasons. I believe that He is minimising our suffering by allowing death in our Fallen World ... like I have said, the alternative is physical immortality, with thousands of people more evil that Stalin or Hitler amongst us ... and no way of calling a halt to their evil ... and this would be vastly worse IMO.
    Physical death places a limit on evil, that could otherwise not be imposed.


  • Registered Users Posts: 14,615 ✭✭✭✭J C


    Samaris wrote: »
    I don't quite get why there must be such an insistence on something utterly unprovable over and above what we can actually see.
    But we can actually see the evidence for the actions of God ... and we can't see evidence for the idea that pondkind turned into mankind via selected mistakes ... and it doesn't even make any sense.
    Samaris wrote: »
    Death is necessary for every living organism because either a population is immortal or it breeds, it can't really do both. Breeding, the introduction of new individuals is far more beneficial than being immortal, as every organism is subjected to wear and tear by its environment and its own systems.
    If they were immortal ... there wouldn't be any wear and tear. There are advantages to immortality in a world where evil and sin doesn't exist there ... but any advantages of immortality are outweighed by disadvantages in a Fallen World.
    Samaris wrote: »
    The introduction of all these gradual changes over time leads to some unhealthy mutations or genetic couplings (how genes express, not the pair involved!), which, along with environmental damage, manifests as disease, cancers, etc. That and other organisms evolving into niches that ultimately prove harmful to the host (pathogens).
    ... and that's basically all that can happen with deleterious mutagenesis.

    Samaris wrote: »
    Like, we can see this. We have been able to see it for millions of years. Why on earth would one reject all visible evidence to pin all ones hopes on something intangible, designed to be unprovable and thus stunt exploration of what problems can be solved?
    Why indeed ... but, you see the intangible, with either evidence or logic supporting it is actually biogenesis and spontaneous evolution as explantions for how we goit here!!!:)
    Samaris wrote: »
    Ultimately, the "God wills it" approach leads to the point of view that treating diseases (amongst other things) is arrogantly interfering in God's will, despite a complete lack of evidence. And there never can be evidence beyond talking around in circles regarding hypotheticals. It is..infantilising humanity to insist that they cannot or must not change "God's Will".
    No Chrisitian I know believes thta diseases are 'Gods will' ... and many eminent medical doctors are Christian ... and indeed some are also Creationists ... and they are actively involved in researching cures for various diseases. God never told us not to try and amelorate the effects of tha Fall ... indeed Jesus cured the ill and raised the dead when He was on Earth.
    Samaris wrote: »
    Surely if there is a loving God, He would want us to grow, learn, question, investigate, study and help others, rather than throw everything to Him, like toddlers utterly reliant on mammy rather than mature adults who can love their mammy but also get along with their own lives without needing to bring everything back to her to solve.
    I think that is exactly what He wants.
    I prefer to stand my world view on stuff that is actually there and able to be investigated. God did not create cancer. Satan did not create cancer. There was no actual Adam, it is a foundation myth to explain ultimate beginnings, just as all religions seek to explain. Science seeks to explain it too, but the essential difference is a reliance on what is tangible rather than what can never be more than hypothetical "what ifs".
    ... and your reasoning is impeccable, if there isn't a God ... but then if there is? ... and it seem like there is and He created us ... things are somewhat different.


  • Registered Users Posts: 6,544 ✭✭✭Samaris


    J C wrote: »
    I think that is exactly what He wants.

    ... and your reasoning is impeccable, if there isn't a God ... but then if there is? ... and it seem like there is and He created us ... things are somewhat different.

    Except the "it seems like there is". Why does it seem so? Certainly why does YOUR specific god exist, which, being a monotheistic religion (mostly), indicates that all other religions bar yours are also wrong. You have no evidence, no proof, just your gut instinct and what your religion tells you. Which is grand for you, you can believe whatever you like and no-one can prove you right or wrong, same as no-one can prove any of the other thousands of religions in the world right or wrong. Presumably you are all equally correct and equally incorrect since there's not a blind thing any religion can do to disprove another religion without also disproving their own. At least, not very logically. Grats, you all win and there's nothing more to discover, God(s) did it.

    So now what? You're in the A&A forum, so I don't think you're going to convince anyone that something to do with immortal original beings etcetera when that is just one of a bunch of different religions vs what anyone who actually studies the topic can see, touch, study, etc from the world around us. Your original immortal beings, literalistic interpretation of Adam and Eve and something to do with dramatic physical changes when a metaphorical incident in a mythical timeline happened just doesn't add up to a bowl of cabbage confronted with empirical evidence, let alone a coherent argument.

    Btw, I'm pretty live and let live about religions. Not going to knock a person's beliefs - but given Christianity is over there, I'm assuming that's what you're looking for in a forum dedicated to atheism and agnosticism!


  • Registered Users Posts: 25,580 ✭✭✭✭Timberrrrrrrr


    J C wrote: »
    ... You're blaiming the wrong person ... the two prime movers in our misfortune are Satan and Adam.

    Once evil was freely invited into the world by Adam ... then sin and physical death followed.
    We all die as a result ... and it is particularly tragic and upsetting when a child dies ... but when a much loved adult dies, particulary if it is a sudden death, it can be pretty devastaing as well.

    You can rail against God all you like ... but God has His reasons. I believe that He is minimising our suffering by allowing death in our Fallen World ... like I have said, the alternative is physical immortality, with thousands of people more evil that Stalin or Hitler amongst us ... and no way of calling a halt to their evil ... and this would be vastly worse IMO.
    Physical death places a limit on evil, that could otherwise not be imposed.

    Minimising suffering?

    Allowing people to die long slow agonising deaths? Allowing children to starve to death for want of water or a bowl of rice? Your "god" comes across as even more evil than "satan" because he has the power to stop this unnecessary suffering in an instantbyet CHOOSES to let people die for no other reason than he can't be bothered!


  • Registered Users Posts: 28,568 ✭✭✭✭looksee


    J C wrote: »
    ... You're blaiming the wrong person ... the two prime movers in our misfortune are Satan and Adam.

    Once evil was freely invited into the world by Adam ... then sin and physical death followed.
    We all die as a result ... and it is particularly tragic and upsetting when a child dies ... but when a much loved adult dies, particulary if it is a sudden death, it can be pretty devastaing as well.

    You can rail against God all you like ... but God has His reasons. I believe that He is minimising our suffering by allowing death in our Fallen World ... like I have said, the alternative is physical immortality, with thousands of people more evil that Stalin or Hitler amongst us ... and no way of calling a halt to their evil ... and this would be vastly worse IMO.
    Physical death places a limit on evil, that could otherwise not be imposed.

    And that (bolded) is the bottom line. You believe, therefore it is so. But just because you believe, with no evidence, it doesn't provide any basis for the rest of us to be convinced. You have been instructing us for 10 years and I am not aware of one single person who has said, JC, your arguments have convinced me!


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  • Registered Users Posts: 14,615 ✭✭✭✭J C


    looksee wrote: »
    And that (bolded) is the bottom line. You believe, therefore it is so. But just because you believe, with no evidence, it doesn't provide any basis for the rest of us to be convinced.
    Had you read the rest of my post you would have found the reason for my belief ... I said that I believe that God is minimising our suffering by allowing death in our Fallen World ... like I have said, the alternative is physical immortality, with thousands of people more evil that Stalin or Hitler amongst us ... and no way of calling a halt to their evil ... and this would be vastly worse IMO.
    Physical death places a limit on evil, that could otherwise not be imposed.
    You are free to disagree with my argument ... but please don't say that I haven't backed up my stated belief ... because I have provided a cogent argument supporting it.
    looksee wrote: »
    You have been instructing us for 10 years and I am not aware of one single person who has said, JC, your arguments have convinced me!
    I wouldn't call it 'instructing' myself ... just presenting the truth ... and laying the choice of Salvation before the unsaved.
    After that, it's between each person and God, whether they choose to act on it.
    That's what freedom is all about.


  • Registered Users Posts: 14,615 ✭✭✭✭J C


    Minimising suffering?

    Allowing people to die long slow agonising deaths? Allowing children to starve to death for want of water or a bowl of rice? Your "god" comes across as even more evil than "satan" because he has the power to stop this unnecessary suffering in an instantbyet CHOOSES to let people die for no other reason than he can't be bothered!
    It's certainly not that He can't be bothered ... He loves us and is very concerned for our welfare ... but, for His own reasons, He generally avoids interfering with the Laws of Nature and our free-will.

    ... and I don't particularly want Him to start messing with the Laws or nature or my free-will ... yes, the price that I will ultimately pay is my death ... but then Heaven awaits anyone who wants it, at that stage ... so I'm happy with the overall package ... of having my freedom in a World underwritten by law and eternal bliss in the next world.


  • Registered Users Posts: 25,580 ✭✭✭✭Timberrrrrrrr


    J C wrote: »
    It's certainly not that He can't be bothered ... He loves us and is very concerned for our welfare ... but, for His own reasons, He generally avoids interfering with the Laws of Nature and our free-will.

    ... and I don't particularly want Him to start messing with the Laws or nature or my free-will ... yes, the price that I will ultimately pay is my death ... but then Heaven awaits anyone who wants it, at that stage ... so I'm happy with the overall package ... of having my freedom in a World underwritten by law and eternal bliss in the next world.

    Typical JC cop out answer.


  • Registered Users Posts: 6,544 ✭✭✭Samaris


    J C wrote: »
    I wouldn't call it 'instructing' myself ... just presenting the truth ... and laying the choice of Salvation before the unsaved.
    After that, it's between each person and God, whether they choose to act on it.
    That's what freedom is all about.

    So if a person politely tells you that they are quite happy as is and do not wish to be repeatedly proselytised at in the interests of being converted, I assume you would accept that and stop as that is what freedom is all about?


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,021 ✭✭✭mickrock


    robindch wrote: »
    A fallacy which has been debunked philsophically and biologically.

    Evolution supposedly has no direction or goals but the language used by biologists is very teleological.

    Rupert Sheldrake says of Dawkins and his Selfish Gene concept:

    'In Dawkins’s words, “DNA moves in mysterious ways.” The DNA molecules are not only intelligent, they are also selfish, ruthless and competitive, like “successful Chicago gangsters.” The selfish genes “create form,” “mould matter” and engage in “evolutionary arms races”; they even “aspire to immortality.” These genes are no longer mere molecules.'

    'What Dawkins does is to project on to the DNA molecules the purposive
    vital factors of vitalism, trying to squeeze the soul into chemical
    genes, which are thereby endowed with instructions, plans, purposes
    and intentions they cannot possibly have. He admits that these are
    metaphors, adding, “Incidentally, there is of course no ‘architect’.”
    But despite occasional disclaimers, the entire force of his argument
    depends on anthropocentric metaphors and molecules that have come to
    life. He is a vitalist in molecular clothing.'


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  • Registered Users Posts: 28,568 ✭✭✭✭looksee


    J C wrote: »
    Had you read the rest of my post you would have found the reason for my belief ... I said that I believe that God is minimising our suffering by allowing death in our Fallen World ... like I have said, the alternative is physical immortality, with thousands of people more evil that Stalin or Hitler amongst us ... and no way of calling a halt to their evil ... and this would be vastly worse IMO.

    You keep repeating this non-sequitur, I cannot see how your 'explanation' for your belief makes it any more convincing. It is still a belief - your belief. Something you think, in your head, which may make sense to you but does not to any one else.


  • Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 28,804 Mod ✭✭✭✭oscarBravo


    mickrock wrote: »
    Evolution supposedly has no direction or goals but the language used by biologists is very teleological.

    Rupert Sheldrake says of Dawkins and his Selfish Gene concept:

    'In Dawkins’s words, “DNA moves in mysterious ways.” The DNA molecules are not only intelligent, they are also selfish, ruthless and competitive, like “successful Chicago gangsters.” The selfish genes “create form,” “mould matter” and engage in “evolutionary arms races”; they even “aspire to immortality.” These genes are no longer mere molecules.'

    'What Dawkins does is to project on to the DNA molecules the purposive
    vital factors of vitalism, trying to squeeze the soul into chemical
    genes, which are thereby endowed with instructions, plans, purposes
    and intentions they cannot possibly have. He admits that these are
    metaphors, adding, “Incidentally, there is of course no ‘architect’.”
    But despite occasional disclaimers, the entire force of his argument
    depends on anthropocentric metaphors and molecules that have come to
    life. He is a vitalist in molecular clothing.'

    I don't know how Dawkins could make it any clearer in The Selfish Gene that he's using artistic licence in anthropomorphising genes. I'd go so far as to say he labours the point.

    The accusation of "a vitalist in molecular clothing" is a polite way of calling him a liar, which - considering just how often and how pointedly he makes it clear that he's speaking in metaphors - is, to be generous, disingenuous.


  • Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 24,417 Mod ✭✭✭✭robindch


    oscarBravo wrote: »
    I don't know how Dawkins could make it any clearer in The Selfish Gene that he's using artistic licence in anthropomorphising genes. I'd go so far as to say he labours the point.
    Here's the relevant quotation - from the first, second and fourth pages of text in the book. One would like to think that self-appointed critics would make it at least to page four, but it seems they weren't able to.
    Many critics, especially vociferous ones learned in philosophy as I have discovered, prefer to read a book by title only. No doubt this works well enough for The Tale of Benjamin Bunny or The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, but I can readily see that 'The Selfish Gene' on its own, without the large footnote of the book itself, might give an inadequate impression of its contents. [...]

    The Selfish Gene has been criticized for anthropomorphic personification and this too needs an explanation, if not an apology. I employ two levels of personification: of genes, and of organisms. Personification of genes really ought not to be a problem, because no sane person thinks DNA molecules have conscious personalities, and no sensible reader would impute such a delusion to an author. [...]

    Personifying an organism could be more problematical. This is because organisms, unlike genes, have brains and therefore really might have selfish or altruistic motives in something like the subjective sense we would recognize. [...]

    I really believe that these two levels of personification are not confusing if read in context and in full. The two levels of 'as if calculation' come to exactly the same conclusion if done correctly: that, indeed, is the criterion for judging their correctness. So, I don't think personification is something I would undo if I were to write the book again today.


  • Registered Users Posts: 14,615 ✭✭✭✭J C


    Samaris wrote: »
    So if a person politely tells you that they are quite happy as is and do not wish to be repeatedly proselytised at in the interests of being converted, I assume you would accept that and stop as that is what freedom is all about?
    Yes, I will not proselytise somebody who makes it clear that they have no wish to know about God.
    However, this is never the case on the A & A, ... this forum has many threads on religion and issues that impact directly on religion ... so it is to be expected that religious Theists and religious Atheists will contribute to these threads.:)


  • Registered Users Posts: 14,615 ✭✭✭✭J C


    Typical JC cop out answer.
    ... that is so irrefutable that you can make no criticism of it other than a 'hand wave'.:)


  • Registered Users Posts: 14,615 ✭✭✭✭J C


    Samaris wrote: »
    Except the "it seems like there is". Why does it seem so? Certainly why does YOUR specific god exist, which, being a monotheistic religion (mostly), indicates that all other religions bar yours are also wrong. You have no evidence, no proof, just your gut instinct and what your religion tells you. Which is grand for you, you can believe whatever you like and no-one can prove you right or wrong, same as no-one can prove any of the other thousands of religions in the world right or wrong. Presumably you are all equally correct and equally incorrect since there's not a blind thing any religion can do to disprove another religion without also disproving their own. At least, not very logically. Grats, you all win and there's nothing more to discover, God(s) did it.

    So now what? You're in the A&A forum, so I don't think you're going to convince anyone that something to do with immortal original beings etcetera when that is just one of a bunch of different religions vs what anyone who actually studies the topic can see, touch, study, etc from the world around us. Your original immortal beings, literalistic interpretation of Adam and Eve and something to do with dramatic physical changes when a metaphorical incident in a mythical timeline happened just doesn't add up to a bowl of cabbage confronted with empirical evidence, let alone a coherent argument.
    ... but the empirical evidence is pointing to an intelligence of Divine proportions behind it all ... and I have yet to hear a coherent argument for the spontaneous evolution of pondkind to mankind ... plenty of 'just so' stories that are underpinned by imagination ... and not logic.
    Samaris wrote: »
    Btw, I'm pretty live and let live about religions. Not going to knock a person's beliefs - but given Christianity is over there, I'm assuming that's what you're looking for in a forum dedicated to atheism and agnosticism!
    The A & A seems to be as concerned about religion, as the Christianity Forum, all be it mostly in a mocking / negative sense (as measured by threads dedicated to religious topics) ... and this naturally concerns Christians ... especially when stuff is said that seems to be wrong.
    What is said on the A & A is also of concern due to the increasingly vocal lobbying by atheists of our government on issues that directly impact on Christians and Christian Institutions ... using many of the arguments that are regularly aired on the A & A forum.
    If you guys start bad-mouthing my God, I reserve the right of reply to your unfounded prognostications ... and ditto, if you make criticisms of my Faith.


  • Registered Users Posts: 25,580 ✭✭✭✭Timberrrrrrrr


    J C wrote: »
    ... that is so irrefutable that you can make no criticism of it other than a 'hand wave'.:)

    How is your post "irrefutable "?

    You post what you THINK your "god" is doing you post your OPINION of what your "god" is thinking but you have no PROOF that this is the case, it's just speculation on your behalf!


  • Registered Users Posts: 25,580 ✭✭✭✭Timberrrrrrrr


    J C wrote: »
    ... but the empirical evidence is pointing to an intelligence of Divine proportions behind it all ... and I have yet to hear a coherent argument for the spontaneous evolution of pondkind to mankind ... plenty of 'just so' stories that are underpinned by imagination ... and not logic.[

    The A & A seems to be as concerned about religion, as the Christianity Forum, all be it mostly in a mocking / negative sense (as measured by threads dedicated to religious topics) ... and this naturally concerns Christians ... especially when stuff is said that seems to be wrong.
    What is said on the A & A is also of concern due to the increasingly vocal lobbying by atheists of our government on issues that directly impact on Christians and Christian Institutions ... using many of the arguments that are regularly aired on the A & A forum.
    If you guys start bad-mouthing my God, I reserve the right of reply to your unfounded prognostications ... and ditto, if you make criticisms of my Faith.

    Pretty much like your "god did it" posts.


  • Registered Users Posts: 14,615 ✭✭✭✭J C


    How is your post "irrefutable "?

    You post what you THINK your "god" is doing you post your OPINION of what your "god" is thinking but you have no PROOF that this is the case, it's just speculation on your behalf!
    I have His written word for what God thinks in the Bible ... and I have His spoken word in what He has created.
    I am fully au fait with both God's written word (as one who has studied the Bible) and His spoken word (as one who has studied His creation) ... so I'd say that when I speak ... it's much more than mere speculation on my part.


  • Registered Users Posts: 14,615 ✭✭✭✭J C


    Pretty much like your "god did it" posts.
    Whilst I'm glad that you have now come to a point where you recognise an equivalence between Creation and Evolution ... the 'just so' stories of evolution are not in the same evidential or logical league as the evidence for Direct Creation established by Intelligent Design studies.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 1,236 ✭✭✭jigglypuffstuff


    J C wrote: »

    The A & A seems to be as concerned about religion, as the Christianity Forum, all be it mostly in a mocking / negative sense (as measured by threads dedicated to religious topics)

    This does seem to be the case...however to be fair there are some people who do welcome, facilitate and consider good discussion..it's that which keeps me interested in what goes on in here

    Perhaps the most interesting thing of all is that peoples attempts to apply science based on materialism to a topic that is not material whatsoever..this only takes things away from the truth, not towards it

    It's senseless tbh...which is ironic considering many here claim to be advocates of the opposite


  • Registered Users Posts: 14,615 ✭✭✭✭J C


    pone2012 wrote: »
    This does seem to be the case...however to be fair there are some people who do welcome, facilitate and consider good discussion..it's that which keeps me interested in what goes on in here

    Perhaps the most interesting thing of all is that peoples attempts to apply science based on materialism to a topic that is not material whatsoever..this only takes things away from the truth, not towards it

    It's senseless tbh...which is ironic considering many here claim to be advocates of the opposite
    It all depends on what your starting beliefs or axioms are.
    If you believe that God created all things, including living organisms ... then, this implies that God was physically invoved in this process.

    If God was physically involved, then there should be physical evidence of His involvement i.e. all of creation (and especially living organisms) should bear the physical signature of God's act of creation.

    For example, we would expect to find the signature of God's applied intelligence i.e. vast quantities of very high quality complex functional specified information (which is the 'hallmark' of all applied intelligence) ... and this is what we actually find.
    Romans 1:20 confirms this fact ... that God's invisible qualities, like His intelligence, power and divine nature can be clearly seen from looking at His Creation i.e. 'what has been made' ... and the evidence is so strong, that people who deny that it exists, are without excuse, for their denial.


    Romans 1:20New International Version (NIV)
    20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.


    It is a mistake to believe that science never deals with the results of virtual phenomena ... this is actually the 'stock in trade' of forensic science ... which concerns itself with evidence of applied intelligence at crime scenes ... evidence of intelligent action (rather than random or spontaneous) phenomena.

    ... and materialists not only apply science, but claim scientific validation for their 'creation story' ... namely biogenesis and spontaneous evolution ... neither of which are replicable in our own time-space continuum ... so again, we're back to applying forensic science to the problem ... with out much success, in the case of biogenesis and spontaneous evolution.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,594 ✭✭✭oldrnwisr


    J C wrote: »
    I think that he is wrong on this ... because functionality is observed to be related to a specific sequence that is neither produced deterministically nor randomly.
    To illustrate, a word in the English Language is neither a repeat of letters (HHHHHHHHHH) nor a pattern of letters (THTHTHTHTH) it is specific sequence of letters (HAT AND CAT)
    ... and there are similar specific sequences of base pair 'letters' within the language of DNA.

    It's nice to see that you think a creationist can be wrong about something but in this instance he isn't. You see as many problems as there are in Dembski's CSI notion between maths, logic and the applicability of information theory to biology, the idea of algorithmic specified complexity just isn't one of them. Dembski's finalised concept is this:

    -log2[2^500 x ɸs(T) x P(T|H)]

    where ɸs(T) = 2^[K(T|H)]

    However, Dembski's idea is unnecessarily convoluted and can be restated much more simply as:

    C(T|H) - K(T|H) - 500

    where C(T|H) is the physical complexity of the sequence given background hypothesis H, K is the algorithmic specified complexity given background hypothesis H and 500 is the UPB expressed in bits.

    As you can see, although Dembski's filter takes into account sequences which match his particular specification by using an appropriate (from his perspective) background hypothesis, the quantification of specified complexity still relies on the efficiency of description of the sequence K(T). Without K(T) you wouldn't have any way to exclude chance or regularity from the search space.

    J C wrote: »
    OK ... so are you agreeing with me on this, then?

    No, as I demonstrated in my last post and again above, efficiency of description is a necessary step in Dembski's idea. The fact that you reiterated the point twice doesn't make it any less wrong the second time.

    J C wrote: »
    ... but we are talking about Human Beings ... and were effectively stuck back somewhere around short-chain biochemicals, using random processes, before we reach the UPB.

    OK, two points here.

    Firstly, like I said you are either accidentally or deliberately conflating two distinct and mutually exclusive creationist arguments, one dealing with the supposed probability of proteins being assembled by chance on primordial Earth and the second dealing with the current supposedly "tightly specified information" that is present in the human genome and how mutation destroys this. In the context of the point you were replying to we were talking about the first argument, not the second.

    Secondly, with specific regard to the point you were replying to, you were saying that taking the number of actors as 10^6 and attempts as 10^7 does nothing to dent the vast improbability of tossing 1000 heads in the coin toss example. I then pointed out that although the numbers are small in the coin toss example, in real examples the numbers get very big very fast. I then demonstrated that the number of possible actors and attempts make the naturalistic abiogenesis argument only slightly, not highly, improbable. And this is if we accept the two creationist restrictions i.e. that the proteins form by chance and that they are of length similar to modern proteins. When we look at a more plausible scenario the creationist chance argument crumbles completely.

    However, when I demonstrated this explicitly, your only response is "but we are talking about human beings". Please try to be less wrong JC, it's very time consuming going back over these mistakes of yours.

    J C wrote: »
    ... and the 'set of instructions' were your words, that I borrowed to make my point that deterministic or random natural/spontaneous processes are incapable of producing these instructions ... and the only known sytem for doing so is intelligent action - so the best available explantion for how these tightly specified instructions came about originally, was through the appliance of intelligence.

    No, again as I pointed out in post 2672, RNA which is the set of instructions used by a cell to assemble proteins can be formed from simple chemicals by purely naturalistic chemical processes. Each step of this process including the base assumptions has been backed up by hard evidence including research papers. At the same time you haven't meaningfully engaged with any of the evidence, instead choosing to label the whole process as "highly speculative" without anything to support your baseless assertions.

    J C wrote: »
    Yes RNA could be produced artificially, using very significant inputs of intelligent design ... but it would be very difficult if nit impossible to produce spontaneously ... and the instructions carried on it can only be produced by intelligence.

    Except we're not talking about artificial RNA, we're talking about a scientifically sound mechanism for a naturalistic process by which we can go from a plausible abiotic Earth to self-replicating RNA sequences.

    Look it's been said before on this thread, sometimes in jest, sometimes not but I would honestly and earnestly recommend that you buy one or all of these books and at least get a handle on the topic under discussion.


    Physical Chemistry


    Physical chemistry - A Very Short Introduction
    Atkins' Physical Chemistry


    Biochemistry/Molecular Biology


    Lehninger Principles of Biochemistry
    Molecular Biology - A Very Short Introduction


    I've tried to include a pop-sci book along with an early (i.e 1st/2nd year) university textbook for each of the two main categories.

    J C wrote: »
    ... all still very specualtive ... but they aren't them main issue ... even granting, for the sake of argument that they could be produce ... there is no theory, no matter how speculative, on how the vast quantities of high quality tightly specified information was infused onto the DNA and, in turn, RNA molecules ... and the information in the Human Genome, if printed out on standard sheets of paper would result in a stack of paper with a height greater than the Statue of Liberty

    http://bio4.us/biotrends/human_genome_height.html
    Comparisons with the Windows 10 programme on a CD, pale into comparison with the Human Genome.

    I've highlighted a section of your argument in bold above because is exemplifies everything which is dishonest, idiotic and downright wrong about creationist arguments. Everything about the statement is wrong and each component of it is as wrong as the overall idea.

    Firstly, and going in reverse order, it has been explained on thread before that the amount of information is actually meaningless since it is in no way related to the specificity or complexity of the information or the organism. The human genome, for example, has 3x10^9 base pairs. Your woefully out-of-date link makes the human genome seem ridiculously large but then that was 2005 when a 3gb file would have seemed massive given people were still using zip disks and the first perpendicular magnetic recording HD was only just introduced. However, in today's reality 3gb is relatively insignificant given that streaming 4K content from Netflix uses 7gb/hour and an increasing amount of current gen AAA games are around 80gb. Also, by comparison with the human genome, a whisk fern has around 2.5x10^11 base pairs or around 80 times more information in its genome. The amount of information in a genome isn't an argument for anything.

    Oh, and another thing, the windows 10 analogy fails completely. It doesn't pale into comparison with the human genome. A text document listing all the base pairs in the human genome is 3.16gb (3.15576 if you want to be precise). Windows 10 isn't sold on a CD because it's also 3gb in size:

    "An internet connection is required to perform the upgrade. Windows 10 is a large file -- about 3 GB -- and Internet access (ISP) fees might apply."


    Even then we're only talking about the installer size. The install size of Windows 10 is about 16gb (12, if like me, you trim it down manually). Of course, even a direct comparison fails because the Windows 10 download is a compressed file compared with an uncompressed text document. You could probably get the data size of the human genome down to 300MB or so if you finesse the compression.

    Secondly, your point that "the vast quantities of high quality tightly specified information was infused onto the DNA and, in turn, RNA molecules" is doubly wrong. First, it gets the science backwards in that it was, in all likelihood an RNA first world. The process detailed in my post (2672) details a mechanism for starting with an abiotic chemical soup and ending with self-replicating RNA molecules. DNA is a later development. The idea of RNA first has gained widespread support because of the increasing amounts of research evidence to support it. Like these:

    The "strong" RNA world hypothesis: fifty years old
    The origin of the RNA world: co-evolution of genes and metabolism
    The RNA World and the Origins of Life

    Second, your making this really awful ontological argument by assuming information as some kind of separate entity which was grafted onto the chemical structure of DNA and RNA. It isn't. The "information" in RNA and DNA is it's chemical structure.

    Finally, with regard to your idea that no theory exists even a speculative one, you're wrong. Firstly, a hypothesis does exist, I've outlined it for you already. There are also many other less successful but well thought-out abiogenesis hypotheses, like panspermia, for example. Secondly, we are not really talking about how the information arises at all, we are talking about how the small amounts of information on something like a primordial Earth can become the large amounts of information we see today. There are two ways to look at this idea.
    Firstly, let's look at language. Language is a great analog for understanding biological concepts. The "information" you keep banging on about is written in a language using letters, just like English, albeit with only 4 letters instead of 26. These letters are arranged in the genome in hierarchical groups. The human genome is a book, arranged in 23 chapters (chromosomal pairs). Each chapter contains numerous paragraphs, some of which tell a story (exons) and some of which are just ads (introns). These paragraphs are made up of sentences (genes) which are made up of words (codons). Now, in the days leading up to the publication of the first dictionary the OED estimates that there were 21,800 words in the English language between 1500 and 1575. Today there are over 600,000 words in the English language. However, there is nothing different today about the basic alphabet that we use. It's just that we have arranged new groupings in the language that weren't there before. The different sources of new words show us how information develops in biological systems too.
    Firstly, there are portmanteau words like mansplaining where two words are spliced together. Similarly in evolution, human chromosome 2 was formed by the fusion of two ancestral primate chromosomes. Secondly, there are new words which have arisen through old defunct words taking on new meanings like clue. In the middle ages a clue was used to refer to a ball of twine. Similarly, in biology new uses can be found for previously defunct genes like the development of nylonase. Then you have loanwords, words borrowed intact from another language like confit or schadenfreude. Similarly in biology we have sequences like ERVs (endogenuous retroviruses) which originate from ancient viruses. In the same way that the English language has swollen over the last 500 years, the information in the human genome has, through naturalistic processes like mutation coupled with natural selection has done the same but on a much larger timeframe.
    There is, as I said, another way to look at this too. Imagine you have a group of people (let's say 10) stranded on a desert island. One day these people come across an abandoned ship which is grounded but functional. None of these people have any particular speciality but basic skills like reading, writing, maths etc. This group decide to use the ship to get home. Now, let's suppose that this is a particularly slow ship or a particularly large planet and it takes them 20 years to get home. The ship is so big that one person can't do all the jobs by themselves. You need one person to steer and navigate, one person to work the engine, one person to look after the sick, one to cook etc. etc. So we started off with 10 people all with the same basic skills, but by the end of the voyage these people will be completely different. Each will have had to be responsible for a single speciality for 20 years, dealing with the nuances of, say, engine maintenance for 20 years. So by the end, none of them could swap jobs with another. They've simply accumulated too much specialist knowledge to begin again. This is what happened with life on Earth. We started with simple unicellular organisms with the ability to self-replicate. With time and the ability to respond to changes in the environment, this accumulated learning is what we now have as the biodiversity on Earth.

    J C wrote: »
    It isn't at all ridiculous ... all specified functional information degrades as random changes are made to and random changes are never observed to improve it ... because the useless combinatorial space is almost infinitely greater than the useful combinatorial space.
    ... and that is why mutagenesis will rapidly kill you by degrading even a tiny number of critical DNA sequences.

    You shouldn't try to linguistically weasel your way out of an argument. The point here is not about the information but the consequences of altering the information for the prospects of the organism. You're trying to escape the implication of beneficial mutations by talking about degradation to the information. For example, you mention that random changes are never observed to improve specified functional information. How would such an improvement manifest itself? Let's take an easy example. Here is the aa sequence for Trp-Cage one of the smallest observed proteins in biology (found in the saliva of Gila monsters)

    N L Y I Q W L K D G G P S S G R P P P S

    What would an improved sequence look like? Obviously, if your idea is correct, an improvement even if it's only hypothetical would have to be possible, otherwise your just making a fallacious unfalsifiable assertion. So how would you improve this sequence, or even another sequence of your choosing.

    Getting back to the main point, it isn't about preserving the sanctity of the information. The creationist argument is that the information itself is so "highly specified" that random changes only ever lead to deleterious consequences. As I pointed out in my last post, this is doubly wrong since most mutations have no effect at all and of those that do, some are beneficial to the organism, destroying the idea that the information was perfect to begin with.

    J C wrote: »
    ... and yet mutagenesis, which alters the genetic sequence ... and therefore the aa sequence causes disease and and death.
    Yes, there is a degree of 'plasticity' built into the sequences that produce proteins ... to cope with environmental assaults ... but these are limited ... and when mutagenesis occurs the results can be devastating.

    ... 9 out of 10 deleterious and 1 out of 10 beneficial ... some estimates are thousands to one beneficial ... but if, for the sake of argument, I accept this 10 to 1 figure ... it implies that you would have 'run away' deleterious effects the further along the mutagenic curve you go ... which would certainly kill you ... and the one in 10 'beneficial' mutations wouldn't save you.

    OK, so now I need to explain natural selection again. Woohoo!:rolleyes:

    OK, firstly we're talking about a 9 to 1 (not 10 to 1) ratio of functional mutations which are a subset which makes up less than 2% of all mutations. So this runaway idea is stretching the truth a tad. Anyway, there's a major obstacle to your runaway model, namely natural selection.
    You see, deleterious mutations don't really hang around in the long term because they get weeded out of the population. For anyone interested here's a brief synopsis.
    Let's say you have a population of 100 animals all the same. Let's start with some basic conditions. Each animal has a lifespan of 50 years and a fertile lifespan (i.e. time between maturity and menopause) of 20 years. Each breeding pair has a litter of 2 once per year. So one breeding pair will leave behind 40 offspring (environmental effects not withstanding) by the time they die. Now let's suppose that one of these animals undergoes a mutation which increases their muscle density (like the bone density mutation in humans I noted previously). The consequence of this mutation is that the animal can hunt faster and for longer than others in the population. Because of this the animal is better fed, taking in more nutrients than the others. Consequently, it lives 10 more years and is fertile for 10 more years than the others. This means that it leaves behind 20 more offspring than any other breeding pair. 10 of these offspring (based on the odds) will also have this mutant gene and will leave more offspring. Soon, the number of animals with the gene outpaces the number without as those with the gene leave more descendants.
    Conversely, a mutation which decreases bone density has the opposite effect. Even without having to consider disease or ill-health, a negative mutation will be weeded out of the population. The negative mutation makes the animal leave behind less descendants and is more likely to be the victim of a predator thus increasing the chances that it leaves no descendants.

    The only time we see deleterious mutations accumulate is where inbreeding occurs over repeated generations, where the deleterious mutations have no escape route and there is no influx of new DNA. In reality, we don't see runaway deleterious mutations either in theory or in practice because of NS.

    J C wrote: »
    What we see with mutagenesis, is rapid degeneration and death ... and this would be even more rapid, were it not for the furious work of auto-repair mechanisms within living cells ... that are themselves tightly specified ...and therefore placed there originally by intelligence.

    And we're back where we started. Again. Firstly, let's talk about DNA repair. There are many types of DNA repair such as base excision repair, nucleotide excision repair, microhomology-mediated end joining, homologous recombination, translesion synthesis etc. etc. However, these processes are mostly aimed at correcting point mutations. Like I've already said, point mutations aren't the only mode of mutation so things like gene duplication obviate your point.
    Also, like I said, mutagenesis doesn't lead to degeneration, rapid or otherwise or death. Let's repeat slowly: MOST MUTATIONS ARE NEUTRAL AND THERE ARE BENEFICIAL ONES TOO.


    ... yes the Red Queen is a children's fable ... just like evolution allright.:)
    ... in the case of Sicle Cell Anaemia ... something that would kill you in it's homzygous manifestation makes you sick in its hetrozygous manifestation and protects you from Malaria ... which sounds like the 'cure' is only marginally better than the disease.:eek:
    It certainly doesn't go anywhere in explaining how almost perfect Human Beings came to be Human Beings.[/QUOTE]

    One minor point to begin with. The heterozygous manifestation of the sickle-cell trait doesn't make you sick. There have been rare complications but you could count those cases on one hand. Most of the time people with sickle cell trait don't even know they have it because having only one copy of the gene means that their body produces both normal and mutated cells.
    The Red Queen effect doesn't explain how almost perfect Human beings came to be human beings. You're right there. But then it wasn't meant to and that wasn't my point. My point was that all mutations, beneficial or deleterious end up being watered down over time. The Red Queen effect states that organisms must constantly evolve in order to gain an advantage over their competition.
    While the Red Queen effect doesn't explain the origin of H.sapiens, we can, of course explain said origin without recourse to God did it. But where would you like to begin? Your starting point is this idea of almost perfect Human beings. Is it Homo ergaster or maybe Homo heidelbergensis or maybe Australopithecus afarensis. Here, I'll make it easy for you.

    Figure-7-Hypothetical-cladogram-a-and-phylogenetic-tree-b-of-evolution-within-the.png

    Here is the cladogram for the Homo genus (roughly speaking). You pick a point on it and I will explain the evolutionary changes from there to H.sapiens. Sound good?

    Now as for your other points:
    J C wrote: »
    ... the psychopaths on the power trip were Adam and Satan ... both creatures lovingly created by God ... who became so egomaniacal, that they began to think they were God !!!smile.png
    Since then, God has been offering man His love and mercy ... and in many cases, having His offer thrown back in His face.

    I'm sure that He feels something like the 'nice guy' who has his love rejected by a woman he loves ... only to see her go off with the local 'bad boy' ... who will inevitably live up to his 'bad boy' reputation with her as well. The dynamic is something similar ... Satan is exciting and dangerous ... and God is safe and reliable.
    ... but God has the consolation to also be loved back by many more people than reject Him.

    See, there we were having a nice, albeit meandering conversation about science and real physical evidence and then you have to start bringing fictional literary characters into the mix. Can we please leave Satan where he belongs, in the realm of myth? Besides which Satan doesn't start out in the bible story as evil, he just gets recast as the villain because Christianity needed an archetypal trickster God, so they borrowed the nascent Satan character that had been developed during the Second Temple period.

    Oh, and while we're on the subject, how come Adam gets the blame? What about Genesis 3:13. Surely it's Eve's fault for listening to a talking snake in the first place.

    J C wrote: »
    God designed Humans to be perfect and immortal (and therefore never to get cancer).
    Death and Cancer entered the world at the Fall ... because immortal men and women, now with access to evil, would have made life on Earth a Hell for each other ... and if you doubt me, just think what it would be like to life on an Earth poulated by milliuons of immortal Stalin and Hitler-like people ... who could never be controlled by injuringor killing them.

    We're all paying the price for Adam's Fall ... but, quite frankly, this isn't much consolation ...
    However, the fact that we can look forward to immortality in Heaven, after our brief sojurn here on Earth, may provide some consolation for some, but obviously not all, people.

    I know you creationist types are wedded to this "no death before the fall" but seriously? So Adam and Eve didn't eat anything before the fall. No plants, Adam didn't even get to have a nice steak before Eve ****ed everything up.
    On a serious note though, do you really think that God would ever have really designed humans to be immortal? OK, let's explore that idea. If humans were immortal before the fall and God intended them to marry and have children (i.e. Genesis 2:24) then you would originally have had an exponentially increasing immortal population. Therefore you would have needed immortal resources to sustain said population. So you would need magically self-repleneshing plants and animals who are also immortal. So, if death then entered through the fall, then it also entered for plants and animals and such. After all if mutation is the genetic consequence of the fall in humans (i.e. a corruption of a once perfect template) then plants and animals, who also experience mutations and death, were also punished by God for the actions of one individual of one species. So plant species who couldn't choose to disobey God even if they wanted to are punished because a woman listened to a talking snake?



  • Registered Users Posts: 1,236 ✭✭✭jigglypuffstuff


    Out of curiosity..do you think that cladogram is complete?? rather it would look something like this imo

    barr1b.gif


    I think there's far more to be said from this..Arthur young is overlooked and underappreciated

    pg86.jpg


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,594 ✭✭✭oldrnwisr


    pone2012 wrote: »
    Out of curiosity..do you think that cladogram is complete?? rather it would look something like this imo

    Well, it's complete for the moment. We may yet discover fossil evidence which may add a member to the clade or merge two existing members, swap places of two or more existing members or change the relationship between any number of members. For example, it was thought for a long time that Homo Neanderthalensis was a direct ancestor of Homo sapiens but now we know the relationship is more like a cousin than a direct ancestor. Also, no it doesn't/shouldn't/wouldn't look like the image you posted. The cladogram I included is more of an older style of diagram not used very often now but it was fairly high up on my Google image search so it was good enough at short notice. However, most cladograms are now are constructed like this:

    images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQh1t5vrol7VN0mXDPHCEVKC67sZ5UV8g7YeoU2V2HWw82uCHYYfw

    Cladistics or systematic phylogenetics has no relationship at any level to Arthur Young's idea of "the theory of process". Cladistics is real demonstrable science as opposed to the rantings of a brilliant yet totally delusional man.

    pone2012 wrote: »
    I think there's far more to be said from this..Arthur young is overlooked and underappreciated

    Well, no. It's a nice diagram but all the information contained in it is wrong where it's not totally out of date. Young classifies everything into a sevenfold system and yet the information we now have shows that a seven tier system is totally inadequate for Young's categories. For example, protozoa is filed under animal. This used to be true. Protozoa was, for a long time classed under animalia owing to it's motility and observed predatory behaviour. However, with the introduction of genetics and morphology protozoa was reclassified and now belongs as its own kingdom separate to animalia within the domain Eukaryota. Then there's the fact that the groups reading across the animal category are totally arbitrary. You have one kingdom outside animalia (protozoa), one superphylum (coelentera) four phyla (annelida, porifera, arthropoda and chordata) and one subphylum (mollusca). The animal level is distinguished from the vegetable level on the basis of symmetry with animals being ascribed the property of bilateral symmetry and vegetables radial symmetry. However, there is an entire class of animals which are not bilaterally symmetrical, the clade Radiata which includes two extant and one extinct phylum. This clade includes things like jellyfish, for example. Then you have bacteria categorised as a subgroup within vegetable when in reality bacteria is a separate domain, one of three primary divisions of life along with archaea and eukaryota. Then there's the fact that bacteria are placed in the vegetable column along with organisms which only have one degree of freedom in that they can grow but not move or make choices. Except that bacteria are motile and can move forward at speeds of up to 200 microns/second (that's fast if you're a bacterium). Then there's the idea that each of the seven steps in any given level represent some kind of stage of progress. But they don't. Protozoa isn't a first stage in becoming a sponge anymore than a spider is an intermediate stage in becoming a horse.
    The amount of stupid in that diagram is hard to explain in a single post. It's what Alexander Pope referred to when he said "a little learning is a dangerous thing".


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,236 ✭✭✭jigglypuffstuff


    oldrnwisr wrote: »
    Well, it's complete for the moment. We may yet discover fossil evidence which may add a member to the clade or merge two existing members, swap places of two or more existing members or change the relationship between any number of members. For example, it was thought for a long time that Homo Neanderthalensis was a direct ancestor of Homo sapiens but now we know the relationship is more like a cousin than a direct ancestor. Also, no it doesn't/shouldn't/wouldn't look like the image you posted. The cladogram I included is more of an older style of diagram not used very often now but it was fairly high up on my Google image search so it was good enough at short notice. However, most cladograms are now are constructed like this:

    images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQh1t5vrol7VN0mXDPHCEVKC67sZ5UV8g7YeoU2V2HWw82uCHYYfw

    Cladistics or systematic phylogenetics has no relationship at any level to Arthur Young's idea of "the theory of process". Cladistics is real demonstrable science as opposed to the rantings of a brilliant yet totally delusional man.




    Well, no. It's a nice diagram but all the information contained in it is wrong where it's not totally out of date. Young classifies everything into a sevenfold system and yet the information we now have shows that a seven tier system is totally inadequate for Young's categories. For example, protozoa is filed under animal. This used to be true. Protozoa was, for a long time classed under animalia owing to it's motility and observed predatory behaviour. However, with the introduction of genetics and morphology protozoa was reclassified and now belongs as its own kingdom separate to animalia within the domain Eukaryota. Then there's the fact that the groups reading across the animal category are totally arbitrary. You have one kingdom outside animalia (protozoa), one superphylum (coelentera) four phyla (annelida, porifera, arthropoda and chordata) and one subphylum (mollusca). The animal level is distinguished from the vegetable level on the basis of symmetry with animals being ascribed the property of bilateral symmetry and vegetables radial symmetry. However, there is an entire class of animals which are not bilaterally symmetrical, the clade Radiata which includes two extant and one extinct phylum. This clade includes things like jellyfish, for example. Then you have bacteria categorised as a subgroup within vegetable when in reality bacteria is a separate domain, one of three primary divisions of life along with archaea and eukaryota. Then there's the fact that bacteria are placed in the vegetable column along with organisms which only have one degree of freedom in that they can grow but not move or make choices. Except that bacteria are motile and can move forward at speeds of up to 200 microns/second (that's fast if you're a bacterium). Then there's the idea that each of the seven steps in any given level represent some kind of stage of progress. But they don't. Protozoa isn't a first stage in becoming a sponge anymore than a spider is an intermediate stage in becoming a horse.
    The amount of stupid in that diagram is hard to explain in a single post. It's what Alexander Pope referred to when he said "a little learning is a dangerous thing".

    Oh yes indeed...I must apologise I did not explain the context in which I posted that...actually it was based on the "fall" that you spoke of

    In that sense, I was referring to the whole... Not the details.. If you want to look for information about the "fall" of man...I'd be more inclined to picture that second diagram as a ladder going from light right down to being man..

    Tell me, Are you of the opinion that there is plant DNA in humans??


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,594 ✭✭✭oldrnwisr


    pone2012 wrote: »
    Oh yes indeed...I must apologise I did not explain the context in which I posted that...actually it was based on the "fall" that you spoke of

    In that sense, I was referring to the whole... Not the details.. If you want to look for information about the "fall" of man...I'd be more inclined to picture that second diagram as a ladder going from light right down to being man..

    Tell me, Are you of the opinion that there is plant DNA in humans??

    Well, that would depend on what you mean by plant DNA. All plant species are members of the kingdom plantae which is a separate kingdom to animalia where we are. However, both kingdoms are part of the domain eukaryota in that our cells are nucleic (as opposed to prokaryotes like Bacteria and Archaea). The exact relationship looks like this:

    cgmrRNA.gif

    There is a degree of shared heritage between plants and animals, so yes there are some shared DNA sequences between plants and animals. But since these are shared sequences it would not be correct to say that it is plant DNA in humans anymore than you could say that there's human DNA in plants. The shared DNA between plants and animals would mostly consist of DNA related to cell structure and development to DNA replication and repair, things that we would have shared before the two taxa diverged.

    I hope this explains things but you're touching on a subject which straddles genetics, systematic phylogenetics and about 1.5 billion years of evolution. If you'd like me to clarify anything or explain something in more detail let me know.


  • Registered Users Posts: 14,615 ✭✭✭✭J C


    oldrnwisr wrote: »
    There is a degree of shared heritage between plants and animals, so yes there are some shared DNA sequences between plants and animals. But since these are shared sequences it would not be correct to say that it is plant DNA in humans anymore than you could say that there's human DNA in plants. The shared DNA between plants and animals would mostly consist of DNA related to cell structure and development to DNA replication and repair, things that we would have shared before the two taxa diverged.
    ... or DNA related to cell structure, DNA replication and repair, things that would be used by a common designer when creating us.:)


  • Registered Users Posts: 8,573 ✭✭✭spacecoyote


    J C wrote: »
    ... but the empirical evidence is pointing to an intelligence of Divine proportions behind it all

    What empirical evidence exists that Divine intelligence is behind it all (saying its written in the bible doesn't qualify as empirical evidence)? This seems like a completely ludicrous statement.
    J C wrote: »
    I have His written word for what God thinks in the Bible ... and I have His spoken word in what He has created.

    So, if you look at something like the Bhagavad-Gita, the universe is created when God breathes out, and will be destroyed again when he breathes in (but it takes him an enormous length of time to take one breath). This is written in a holy text and as such should hold as much merit as the old testament writings on the creation of the world. Do you have an opinion on the variety of different creation stories that exist across multiple religions, as well as the vast amount that is plagiarised within the story of Jesus from older religious texts?

    If I say that I created the world yesterday, and that I implanted every person in the worlds memories & thoughts and that I formed the entire universe the way I felt it should be. You can't argue with me that I'm wrong. Its a written piece of text, and I'm saying that its the word & truth. You can dispute it, but by your standards I can just dismiss it & say its the written word, so that's all the evidence that's needed.

    Its completely impossible to debate the point with you in relation to this, because your argument back is always...God said so, and I have a book that backs it up. Writing something doesn't prove its true


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  • Registered Users Posts: 6,544 ✭✭✭Samaris


    Fascinating reading, oldrnwiser - sounds like this is your area. Do you work in it or is this from interest?

    Also, I like the language analogy.


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