I didn't think it was a distraction, I thought you had an idea about how it would happen. Genuinely interested Cofty because it had never occured to me that a rock planet could work any other way and that people would always die in earthquakes.
The Pastor of my Old Church Tried to Re-Convert Me Yesterday
by cofty 2596 Replies latest jw experiences
-
-
Ucantnome
i read somewhere that lightning strikes the earth so many times a second. some times this causes forest fires and loss of life. animals die.
i also saw a programme about elephants and how the young miss their mothers when she is killed. so maybe God as a loving creator needs to adjust a few things.
A new heavens and a new earth maybe.
-
cofty
Xanthippe - Plates move contantly as molten rock pushes up at fault lines deep below the oceans.
The plates on either side of the fault are pushed away from each other. Think of them as being like two roller doors going in ooposite directions. The continents that we live on are simply areas of thicker rock that are above the water level. At the furthest end from the source of the plates they are pushed against other plates. In some cases the glide past each other or one plate might be pushed under the other - subduction - which as you said causes mountains to rise.
The plates don't move smoothly though. They get stuck and huge pressures build up. When these shift suddenly we get earthquakes. When these happen under the ocean we may get a tsunami.
I can see potential for better design. Can you imagine if the plates always moved smoothly the believers would be shouting about intelligent design.
Apparently it was too big an engineering challenge for god.
-
snare&racket
Xanthipipe, if god created the atom and the laws of physics that constrain it, then there are no rules. He could simply create a planet without need forperilous tectonic plate movements. Or maybe if he isnt much of an ideas guy, there could be a huge warning noise formed a week before so all know to move away! Its a bit of a microsoft update, bodge job, but better than dying babies.....
Would you build the planet this way xanthipipe? Remember, there are no constarints as YOU designed the whole universe, everything.
-
KateWild
marked
-
jgnat
I thought Cofty summarized the ethical dilemma some time back. The resolution I offered knocks god off the pedestal and essentialy changes faith. Without an all-powerful, intervening God at our beck and call, how does that change what we do?
-
cofty
jgant - Are you proposing a god who lacks power or one who withholds his help for a greater good?
-
Xanthippe
Yes according to Wiki 'Recent studies, and seismic events such as the 2012 Indian Ocean earthquake, suggest that the Indo-Australian Plate may be in the process of breaking up into two separate plates due primarily to stresses induced by the collision of the Indo-Australian Plate with Eurasia along the Himalayas'.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-Australian_Plate
So I suppose plates could glide under and over one another and then when they overlap they could then break up and move away from each other, as these two plates may be about to do. Which presumably could take thousands of years as they're only moving about four cm a year. Interesting but yes too big an engineering challenge for God.
Snare, I am an atheist you may be 'preaching to the choir'. I was just really interested in Cofty's idea.
-
snare&racket
Sorry xan :( xxxx
I guess if god was smarter and there was no other way but tectonic plates and their movement , he could have solved this issue with larger surface areas, dissipating the energy overgreater distances.
-
Xanthippe
Snare that's ok. Sometimes things tug at my mind and I think that sounds right but is it just a glib statement and not actually possible in the real world. I know to believers God is supposed to be able to do anything but he 'canna change the laws of physics Jim' :)
I guess if god was smarter and there was no other way but tectonic plates and their movement , he could have solved this issue with larger surface areas, dissipating the energy overgreater distances. - Snare
Yes bigger planet and perhaps a bigger star. So there could be a planet somewhere where life thrives without earthquakes perhaps? Without being created obviously I hasten to add. Totally off-topic but fascinating!