skeptic2

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Posts by skeptic2

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  42

  another evolution thread...

  by anakolouthos in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i've been scanning thru geronimo's recent thread on evolution, & have really enjoyed reading all the fascinating responses.

  i was going to post in there, but was worried it might get buried.

  many may not know me here, as i've barely posted, but in a nutshell, i'm still in the org (somewhat trapped at the moment) but consider myself a christian with somewhat leftish leanings.

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  skeptic2

  peacefulpete - reminds me a of a Penn and Teller quote: 'A million to one shot happens 8 times a day in New York City.'
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  91

  Evolution still bugs me

  by Geronimo in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i know there are a lot of threads on evolution and creation and i've read a few here and there.

  how can complex systems arise of themselves in the face of entropy?

  one evolutionist book i read used snowflakes to show this is possible.

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  skeptic2

  Hi Geronimo. Yes the pictures are cool aren't they. Sorry I wasn't actually aiming this post at you. Confusing as it seems I think I was answering a hypothetical person who had the same question as your thread title, for posterity.
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  42

  another evolution thread...

  by anakolouthos in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i've been scanning thru geronimo's recent thread on evolution, & have really enjoyed reading all the fascinating responses.

  i was going to post in there, but was worried it might get buried.

  many may not know me here, as i've barely posted, but in a nutshell, i'm still in the org (somewhat trapped at the moment) but consider myself a christian with somewhat leftish leanings.

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  skeptic2

  This is a great reminder of how big our universe actually is:

  Hubble looks further than ever before

  Given the size and complexity of our universe, that self-replicating molecules arise from molecular interactions on a planet is no long shot, you might even consider it pretty much guaranteed to happen somewhere. How many times it has happened we don't know. Give that self-replicating molecule long enough and eventually the complexity of the interactions will increase. And eventually, way down the line, you have me typing on this keyboard - a multi-cellular dna propagation machine.
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  42

  another evolution thread...

  by anakolouthos in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i've been scanning thru geronimo's recent thread on evolution, & have really enjoyed reading all the fascinating responses.

  i was going to post in there, but was worried it might get buried.

  many may not know me here, as i've barely posted, but in a nutshell, i'm still in the org (somewhat trapped at the moment) but consider myself a christian with somewhat leftish leanings.

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  skeptic2

  I should ask how and why did our planet get blessed by all the right chemical reactions so that life could not only appear but flourish? It does seem like the earth was made for us humans and animals and plant life.

  This logic is known as the 'Goldilocks fallacy'. Paleogeekgirl does a good job here of describing the fallacy:
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  42

  another evolution thread...

  by anakolouthos in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i've been scanning thru geronimo's recent thread on evolution, & have really enjoyed reading all the fascinating responses.

  i was going to post in there, but was worried it might get buried.

  many may not know me here, as i've barely posted, but in a nutshell, i'm still in the org (somewhat trapped at the moment) but consider myself a christian with somewhat leftish leanings.

  1. 
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  skeptic2

  The difficult thing I have to reconcile is that living matter came from complete nothing. Life from nothing is what I have trouble with. Other than that many people believe that evolution is the natural selection process, and adaptation process that God created so that life would flourish and change over time suited for the environment. We now have intelligent design theory which I think shows that even some scientists believe there is an "intelligence" to life and our galaxy, etc. Some call this "IT" God, some call it nature, others do not know what to call it.

  You say life from nothing is a problem. Where does the universe come from? Where does your god come from?

  Life from 'nothing' is a misnomer. Life has arisen out of the complexity of interactions of basic elements of the universe. So it's not life from nothing but life from the universe.

  But your god from nothing, that's a real nothing.

  I still don't understand how people find life arising from the universe hard to swallow, yet god from nothing sails by them as totally unnotable. Banging head on wall. Once you accept the existence of an invisible omnipotent being surely you can accept anything?

  Here is what talk.origins says on the probability of abiogenesis ('life from no life'):

  Lies, Damned Lies, Statistics, and Probability of Abiogenesis Calculations
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  42

  another evolution thread...

  by anakolouthos in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i've been scanning thru geronimo's recent thread on evolution, & have really enjoyed reading all the fascinating responses.

  i was going to post in there, but was worried it might get buried.

  many may not know me here, as i've barely posted, but in a nutshell, i'm still in the org (somewhat trapped at the moment) but consider myself a christian with somewhat leftish leanings.

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  skeptic2

  This short video makes my point very well, about the inanity of the alternative to evolution:

  http://youtube.com/watch?v=iVFEbUXKVTw
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  43

  Telephone Telapathy

  by lonelysheep in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060905/od_uk_nm/oukoe_uk_britain_telepathy

  has anyone ever experienced this?

  i have, as well as with emails and especially text messages.. do you think there's any chance this could be real-that there is a valid, unspoken connection between people who reach out to each other?

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  skeptic2

  Here's why you should take Rupert Sheldrake's 'research' with a healthy pinch of skepticism:
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  42

  another evolution thread...

  by anakolouthos in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i've been scanning thru geronimo's recent thread on evolution, & have really enjoyed reading all the fascinating responses.

  i was going to post in there, but was worried it might get buried.

  many may not know me here, as i've barely posted, but in a nutshell, i'm still in the org (somewhat trapped at the moment) but consider myself a christian with somewhat leftish leanings.

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  skeptic2

  Or consider caterpillars. A caterpillar has no obvious resemblance to a butterfly. The disparity in engineering is huge. The caterpillar has no legs, properly speaking, certainly no wings, no proboscis. How did a species that did not undergo metamorphosis evolve into one that did?

  Please see: http://www.talkorigins.org/indexcc/CB/CB311.html
• 
  42

  another evolution thread...

  by anakolouthos in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i've been scanning thru geronimo's recent thread on evolution, & have really enjoyed reading all the fascinating responses.

  i was going to post in there, but was worried it might get buried.

  many may not know me here, as i've barely posted, but in a nutshell, i'm still in the org (somewhat trapped at the moment) but consider myself a christian with somewhat leftish leanings.

  1. 
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  skeptic2

  But on the other hand, it seems a very great stretch to believe that nonlife spawned life, in any form whatsoever. I have no problem accepting some adaptations over time, as the case for these seem pretty solid, but i can't wrap my head around the idea that from inanimate matter came life. It just doesn't seem logical. That is but one thing that solidifies my faith in God.

  Life from non-life has nothing to do with evolution, but I'll comment anyway.

  I never get this logic.

  Molecules interacting in interesting ways over billions of years is apparently 'a very great stretch', but that the whole universe is created by a supreme omnipresent being for which we have no evidence is not an infinite times more of a stretch?

  Why do you treat one idea so differently to the other?

  You must believe that non-God spawned God? Is that not far more fantastical than interactions between molecules?
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  91

  Evolution still bugs me

  by Geronimo in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i know there are a lot of threads on evolution and creation and i've read a few here and there.

  how can complex systems arise of themselves in the face of entropy?

  one evolutionist book i read used snowflakes to show this is possible.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  skeptic2

  Evolution might bug you, nothing wrong with that, keep researching and it will bug you less. No evolution should bug you more.

  For example, when did God invent the fully formed bird? Did he invent all existing species at once?

  What explains extinct bird-like species and their place further back in the fossil record?

  Archaeopteryx, 140 million years ago

  

  Sinornithosaurus, 130 million years ago, rudimentary feathers/hairs on body

  close up of head

  Caudipteryx, 120 million years ago

  artists impression

  Gansus yumenensis, 110 million years ago

  

  artists impression

  Hesperornis, flight-less bird with teeth, 90 million years ago

  

  Presbyornis, 50 million years ago

  

  Diatryma, 50 million years ago

  This is just a handful of bird and bird-like species. Did God drop them onto the planet fully formed? Does he still drop species onto the planet fully formed? What year was the last one?