Posts by cofty

405

Origin of Life

by cofty in

in recent years significant progress has been made in solving the question of how life originated on our planet.. how do you think theists will respond when it finally happens?

as a former christian i know my reaction would have been something like "well that just goes to show that it takes intelligent life to make life", but for two reasons that defense doesn't work.. firstly it would prove that life is not an ethereal force that originates with god.

there is no 'ghost in the machine', no elan vital.

cofty

You're are wrong about the date of the most recent common ancestor of humans. It existed just a few thousand years. - John Mann

No it didn't.

The last female ancestor of living humans - "mitochondrial Eve" lived in Africa around 200,000 years ago. The last male common ancestor - "Y-chromosome Adam" lived more recently, around 100,000 years ago.

Not all studies have some up with identical results but none of them date either of our last common ancestors less than 99,000 years ago. You can read more about the latest results here...

Only Christians consider matter as separated from God. Others religions consider matter as a body of a god. In these religions you cannot study matter but you must worship it.

The dualism of christianity is of no relevance to science. It is simply a method of investigating what is real and true about the world. It has only succeeded by making the working assumption that religious superstitions play no part in the real world.

That assumption has been astonishingly successful.

405

Origin of Life

by cofty in

in recent years significant progress has been made in solving the question of how life originated on our planet.. how do you think theists will respond when it finally happens?

as a former christian i know my reaction would have been something like "well that just goes to show that it takes intelligent life to make life", but for two reasons that defense doesn't work.. firstly it would prove that life is not an ethereal force that originates with god.

there is no 'ghost in the machine', no elan vital.

cofty

Anybody is free to rant about anything on their own thread. They are not welcome to hijack thread after thread with facile postmodern bullshit and deliberately misrepresent what others say.

SBF hates science. There is no such thing as a fact. We get it already!

405

Origin of Life

by cofty in

in recent years significant progress has been made in solving the question of how life originated on our planet.. how do you think theists will respond when it finally happens?

as a former christian i know my reaction would have been something like "well that just goes to show that it takes intelligent life to make life", but for two reasons that defense doesn't work.. firstly it would prove that life is not an ethereal force that originates with god.

there is no 'ghost in the machine', no elan vital.

cofty

Thank you for highlighting the facile straw man with which SBF began his trashing of yet another thread

405

Origin of Life

by cofty in

in recent years significant progress has been made in solving the question of how life originated on our planet.. how do you think theists will respond when it finally happens?

as a former christian i know my reaction would have been something like "well that just goes to show that it takes intelligent life to make life", but for two reasons that defense doesn't work.. firstly it would prove that life is not an ethereal force that originates with god.

there is no 'ghost in the machine', no elan vital.

cofty

In the ancient past if something was convincing - if an individual had the power to convince - then his take on reality was accepted as true. do we want to be convinced like this? - Ruby

No. A million times no!

That is why I always present objective evidence. I make it clear when I am discussing a hypothesis or a well proven fact. I welcome challenges and corrections. Nobody should take anybody's word for anything. Check it out. Do the research.

What is pernicious is when people like SBF twist what others have said and make it look as if they have refuted something when all they have done is attack a strawman.

My OP was a very simple and reasonable conversation-opener. As usual SF saw it as an opportunity to hijack a thread to spout his usual vacuous, anti-scientific, self-indulgent, bullshit. Some of the most inane things ever written in the history of the forum were written by SBF in this thread. As usual you cheer him on from the peanut gallery.

405

Origin of Life

by cofty in

in recent years significant progress has been made in solving the question of how life originated on our planet.. how do you think theists will respond when it finally happens?

as a former christian i know my reaction would have been something like "well that just goes to show that it takes intelligent life to make life", but for two reasons that defense doesn't work.. firstly it would prove that life is not an ethereal force that originates with god.

there is no 'ghost in the machine', no elan vital.

cofty

I met one once. She is an atheist now of course.

405

Origin of Life

by cofty in

in recent years significant progress has been made in solving the question of how life originated on our planet.. how do you think theists will respond when it finally happens?

as a former christian i know my reaction would have been something like "well that just goes to show that it takes intelligent life to make life", but for two reasons that defense doesn't work.. firstly it would prove that life is not an ethereal force that originates with god.

there is no 'ghost in the machine', no elan vital.

cofty

405

Origin of Life

by cofty in

in recent years significant progress has been made in solving the question of how life originated on our planet.. how do you think theists will respond when it finally happens?

as a former christian i know my reaction would have been something like "well that just goes to show that it takes intelligent life to make life", but for two reasons that defense doesn't work.. firstly it would prove that life is not an ethereal force that originates with god.

there is no 'ghost in the machine', no elan vital.

cofty

Get the popcorn, sweets and drinks at Poundland.

405

Origin of Life

by cofty in

in recent years significant progress has been made in solving the question of how life originated on our planet.. how do you think theists will respond when it finally happens?

as a former christian i know my reaction would have been something like "well that just goes to show that it takes intelligent life to make life", but for two reasons that defense doesn't work.. firstly it would prove that life is not an ethereal force that originates with god.

there is no 'ghost in the machine', no elan vital.

cofty

Our body cells are continually replicating, renewing, dying so that the body is a different body (so to speak) than the one we had 7 years ago, apart from brain cells. However we are still the same person. - tornapart

Really interesting comments thanks.

I think I will pursue it further in a new thread.

Landy I think you are right. I wonder how more rational christians would handle it. Evolution has been accepted by millions of christians but very few Muslims. Would the realisation that life can arise spontaneously from geochemistry be any more of a challenge?

Rebel please deal with the topic or hush. The forum doesn't need any more "politeness police".

405

Origin of Life

by cofty in

in recent years significant progress has been made in solving the question of how life originated on our planet.. how do you think theists will respond when it finally happens?

as a former christian i know my reaction would have been something like "well that just goes to show that it takes intelligent life to make life", but for two reasons that defense doesn't work.. firstly it would prove that life is not an ethereal force that originates with god.

there is no 'ghost in the machine', no elan vital.

cofty

Rebel - Just as we were getting a conversation on topic you derail it again.

SBF wants attention away from the topic and onto himself. Well done!

405

Origin of Life

by cofty in

in recent years significant progress has been made in solving the question of how life originated on our planet.. how do you think theists will respond when it finally happens?

as a former christian i know my reaction would have been something like "well that just goes to show that it takes intelligent life to make life", but for two reasons that defense doesn't work.. firstly it would prove that life is not an ethereal force that originates with god.

there is no 'ghost in the machine', no elan vital.

cofty

Surely if scientists are trying to make things happen then 'intelligence' is still behind it?

Not really. It's not like they are trying to make a cell or anything. They are setting up the chemical conditions that existed in a prebiotic earth to observe what happens.

To illustrate. The Giant's Causeway in Ireland consists of regular polygonal columns of basalt that don't look natural. If a scientist can show in the lab that these shapes emerge naturally from cooling magma - they can - then it shows no agency was involved in forming Clochán an Aifir.

The fact that it took an intelligent scientist to set up the experiment doesn't undermine the results.

I would think that it would turn some believers away from their faith in God but I'm sure just as many would stick with their beliefs

I agree. Many believers would deny the reality.

Evolution had a profound effect on some aspects of theology 150 years ago. We now know there was no Adam and Eve and no fall from perfection. Some believers adapted but others are still in denial. I wonder if origin-of-life would be any more challenging.