by Comatose 41 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
To those who think I have no clue about evolution:
Molecular biology is a discipline that spawns scientists who believe in some sort of theistic start to life because of the huge improbabilities involved, for instance the fact that to make an enzyme the protein needs to undergo seven simultaneous mutations or folds, of exactly the right type. The chance of this happening randomly is 10 to the power of 77 at a conservative estimate.
Comments like this are why people KNOW you have no clue.
You're welcome Julia.
You might enjoy some of the information on The Common Ancestry thread.
Entirely possible, what is,wrong with my statement? Please tell me. If I am clueless, rather than using such epithets, tell me where I am wrong. I'm not being a smart alec as I am re-evaluating everything I've ever believed. I'm new to ttatt and I am searching. I did say on my first post on this thread something to the effect I didn't believe evolution but I will reconsider it...again.
Entirely possible, what is,wrong with my statement? Please tell me. If I am clueless, rather than using such epithets, tell me where I am wrong
Well, for one, I didn't use an epithet....
Cofty already covered it. It's NOT random. It's chemistry and physics. When people start using the "chances of this happening randomly" comment it's a clear sign that they are repeating a bad claim without understanding WHY it's bad. For example....
It's like trying to say it's a miracle that snow from the top of a mountain ended up in the river in the valley because of all the possible directions it otherwise could have gone. Well, no, because if you take into account gravity and the shape of the terrain there were actually very few directions. Same things with chemicals combining. If you understand chemistry and physics on that level, no, the chances AREN'T astronomically high that you would get certain combinations, it's actually pretty likely that at some point you would.
As they, in a universe sufficiently large and on a time scale long enough, the odds of ANY given thing happening approaches 1 as long as it isn't explicitely forbidden by physics.
in a universe sufficiently large and on a time scale long enough, the odds of ANY given thing happening approaches 1 as long as it isn't explicitely forbidden by physics.
Agreed
I'm reading a good book on this subject written by a biology professor named John Janovy, Jr. It's called Intelligent Designer: Evolution for Politicians. He claimes that scientific illiteracy is a public health hazard. I'm about half way through and it is interesting. Maybe some on here would enjoy reading it....
Mrs. Thor
It sounds like an intersting read Mrs Thor.
I don't want to cause offense but there does seem to be a worrying distrust and ignorance of science in the old colony - much of it religiously motivated.
I don't want to cause offense but there does seem to be a worrying distrust and ignorance of science in the old colony - much of it religiously motivated.
http://www.gallup.com/poll/155003/hold-creationist-view-human-origins.aspx
Oh dear!
I think that must put the USA on a par with a number of Muslim countries.
Julia,
It seems most of your concerns have been addressed but I just want to add one thing to Cofty's post above.
Although enzyme - substrate chemistry is "lock and key" not all enzymatically catalyzed reactions are 100% specific and active sites do not have to be an "exact" shape to work. A "close fit" active site can still function albeit less efficiently that the "perfect" active site. Also, different enzymes have diffferent levels of specificity, some enzymes are absolutely specific for just one substrate whilst others react with substrates with similar functional groups or peptide chains. Some enzymes are so aspecific that they will react with a particular functional group no matter what it is attached to. The more specific enzymes have been selected and refined from these less specific ones by the process of evolution. This selection process reduces the odds often quoted by creationists dramatically because you don't need immediate perfection for your reaction to work, the perfection can be obtained over time, incrementally, by natural selction over many generations.
