Re: Atheism vs other religions
Science is still learning
First of all, it's oxymoronic to use the concept that you don't know everything as a rhetorical strategy in a debate. Only statistics show that science is still growing. If you place so much doubt in what science has already discovered, how can you come to a conclusion? A hypothesis is made to be doubted, the results of an experiment after hundreds of trials and revisions are to be considered fact. Meaning it is not subject to doubt. You're giving the impression that science's destiny to discover more could one day even disprove the law of gravity. While that might be statistically true, it does not support your argument. It's bad Logos
What do you mean that only statistics show that science is still growing?
As in, only counting the number of new discoveries/theories shows that the amount of information contained in the umbrella of knowledge that we call 'science' is increasing?!?
"
If you place so much doubt in what science has already discovered, how can you come to a conclusion?" - such as doubting the already established laws of physics?
If you doubt nothing than you will limit what you could possibly discover. Just because we believe something now, doesn't mean that it is necessarily correct.
Let us take the rules of 'gravity' - there is still intense discussion as to what causes this effect, or what it actually is. I mean, look at all the discussion trying to combine quantum reality and general relativity. Even if we did provide a satisfactory answer, it only takes one person to show why it is not correct and you have to rethink everything.
That is the
shitter about physics. Just because an equation describes what you are seeing, doesn't mean that it is the correct equation.
That is why science is reliable - not necessarily because it is true or correct, but because it is a
self-correcting field of study. It tends to become 'more correct' with extended periods of time and research.
I understand where you're coming from. But see how weird it is when I say, "well maybe not all of the bible is true." But does that really support creationism?
Sorry - you lost me. If
not all the bible is true, then yes that doesn't really support creationism at all...
I apologize if I am missing your point entirely here.
(In other words, they change the DNA and the DNA forces the body to make changes).
Correct me if I am wrong, but you don't think that evolution occurs without genetic changes do you?
The scientific community may not have written a detailed declaration or accepted a law that life can not be created, but among many biologists the concept of life being created or forming on its own is impossible.
News Source
I am not sure that the "
many biologists" you talk about actually are all that many.
As I said/hinted above, I do see that the Venter experiments have been overstated quite a lot - however, it is a good step towards the end goal of creating life from scratch (even your article says as much - "
But he showed that an artificial genome can power a bacterium, thereby taking a crucial step toward the demonstration that synthesizing life is possible." ).
But there is scripture saying Jesus believed the old testament was true.
Was someone arguing against this? Jesus was a Jew after all... As far as I remember, Jews do follow the old testament...
Atheist claim is that life began without intelligent interference. Apparently that claim is as testable as you think a creator is. If it can't be tested then it can't be fact right?
I think you are confusing 'fact' with 'possible'.
Also, it is possible to test - to an extent.
It is just that we do not have the timescale required to go from - basic chemical compounds -> something resembling a hamster (or however complicated a 'lifeform' you would deem acceptable to prove the claim).
Urey created amino acids. It's like saying if you throw the pieces of a cellphone into a mixing bowl and that eventually it will eventually be put together into a fully functioning cellphone if you mix it around long enough. That is an understatement of how impossible it is for life to form. There is no "scientists will figure out a way". It's not possible.
Ignoring the fact that those 2 things really are incomparable.
Amino acids -> functional proteins is not so difficult a step to take. For example, heating dry mixtures of amino acids will result in their polymerization to form polypeptide sequences.
Also, although Urey didn't create life, he, and others, have clearly demonstrated the plausibility of the spontaneous synthesis of organic molecules, providing the basic materials from which the first living organisms arose.
On the topic of mixing all this shit together to make a whole:
The incorporation of foreign material into organic systems has already been identified (it is hardly new knowledge). Look at mitochondria for example, although there is much debate about if they became incorporated into eucaryotic cells through autogenosis or endosymbiosis, there is little debate that they were not part of eucaryotic cells at some point prior.
Now, you will probably ask "but where did the first cells come from?"
It is widely accepted now that the earliest cells were probably of an RNA (
not DNA) origin. That is, a self-replicating RNA sequence contained within a phospholipid membrane. The formation of this membrane isn't so difficult to examine - as phospholipids will spontaneously form a bilayer, with their hydrophobic tails facing inwards and their hydrophillic heads facing outwards, when placed into water - and it is easy to see how the incorporation of RNA/DNA into a phospholipid bilayer may occur and also how it would aid in providing a stable environment for replication to occur.
What is more difficult to examine is the formation of the self-replicating RNA/DNA sequence.
Now you may argue that the chances of a self-replicating sequence being automatically generated are astronomical.
I am not sure if we will ever be able to calculate exactly what the chances are (to see how small the chances of it all occurring actually were), however you must realize that
it only needed to happen once for it all to start. Once the sequence has been generated, it can replicate to make more of itself. From then on, evolution can take its course.
In other words it can be tested with the same principles in the watchmaker argument, and the same principles that supported Darwin's theories and the same principles of the Scientific Method. Apparently it's not fact.
But it can not be tested with the same principles- unless a watch can adapt to its environment and self replicate?
Hypothesis: Complex Machinery can be formed by constantly, unintelligently, mixing its pieces in a controlled environment.
If we had the timescale required sure.
If we are talking about complex machinery - can the bacterial flagellum count?
How '
complex' is 'complex'?
What 'pieces' do you mean?
Should we just take a cell and mash it up to see if it reforms?
Should we take pieces from other cells and put them in a bowl to see if they become incorporated?
Or do you
actually want an inorganic calculator to reform itself from scratch?
I also wouldn't follow your method or trust your dependent/independent variables.
What if your mixed components formed into a different machine - like a toaster or a television? Would this mean that you would have to reject your hypothesis, or just your IV and DV?
Also, how long should one mix for? Is one day enough (though I wouldn't recommend doing that by hand) or one week? What about one year? Or do you believe that we would need far longer than that?
Hmm... this is difficult.
Perhaps we need to change the hypothesis - you know what they say, 'if you want a good experiment, you need a good hypothesis!' It seems that this hypothesis has too many variables to make it easy to test.
Is the Theory of Intelligent Design starting to sound like a field of science yet?
Not yet I am afraid.
For example, in a scientific experiment, you tend to know the question before you know the answer. Intelligent design seems to bypass the question and jump straight to the answer.
You see where my idea comes from? That the laws of physics must have changed. If evolution is true to its foundation, this would mean the laws of physics are today as they have always been. If at one point the laws of physics allowed life to form (Which must be true since life did form) then it would be physically possible for life to do it again. Right now, the scientific method shows, that the concept is not possible given our current laws of physics.
I am afraid to see that I do not see where your idea comes from.
I do understand what you are
trying to say, but I reject the logic that you use to justify it.
You have also yet to show me why the laws of physics should ever have changed in the first place - evolution or not.
If gravity takes effect in 2014, then we believe it will take effect in 2015. Because it is a tested fact. To say that life could have been created by natural processes then, but the scientific method shows it can't now, defies present day scientific theory.
But the scientific method
shows no such thing.
Also, if the laws of physics really could change spontaneously, I really wouldn't trust this whole gravity business to keep me safely on the earth and not in the 'cold' 'dark' inhospitable reaches of space... I would start tying yourself down if I were you.
I also, wouldn't trust the process of aerobic respiration to occur in 2015 either - perhaps practicing holding your breath indefinitely may be a good start.
Hmm... what else should we be wary of in this upcoming world of ever-changing physical rules?
I will let kkck address his own questions/statements.