On 20-Nov-08, at 4:28 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Actually, I believe you are the one asserting the origin of life is > either creationism or Darwinism. Despite your assertions to the > contrary from a few years back, that is a false dilemma. > > The more we learn about microbiology and cosmotology, the more > complexity we see and the more difficult it becomes to accept as > fact that the origins of the universe and life are simply randon acts. > > Are you really satisfied with the Darwin explanation for the > explosion of new life forms in the Cambrian period? Any idea how > all those new life forms with new proteins and DNA strands full of > info and instructions became available at the same time? You need > faith in Darwinism to believe that it happened by chance. > > So, if it wasn't chance, what was it? That's one of the things ID > wants to answer -- if all that intelligence didn't evolve by > chance, where did it come from? --
Firstly, there's nothing simple or random about the current state of our DNA. We are alive today in our present form because this particular strain, with all of its mutations, has succeeded where countless generations have failed. Our DNA has been honed by the natural events on this planet. It is successful simply because all the unsuccessful strains are dead. Darwinism is simply that: living species are more successful organisms than dead ones, and tend to reproduce more. I do have faith. I have faith in humanity. That's a choice. I know that humanity is going to have to come up with solutions to our own problems or die trying. Science is merely a vehicle for human curiosity and the product of our successful guesses. Faith in fundamentalist religion pushes for an end to curiosity, an end to rational thought, which is simply unacceptable. Arguing that science doesn't have all the answers is a straw man. Of course science doesn't have all the answers, that's why the effort continues. Religion has more answers simply because more of the answers are "because". That falsely allows you to maintain that your belief system is somehow more complete. I find one of the more interesting tenets of the bible to be "god helps those who help themselves." If we aren't going to be inquisitive about our environment and our own biology, even your god is not going to come to your rescue. But regardless of my feelings on religion, science is never going to answer the questions you worry about. Unless we find videotape of the first amoeba tripping on a mote of dust and accidentally kick- starting evolution, there's just no way to prove that we're accidental or intended, and no way to know how that amoeba got there in the first place. Science will never give us meaning. Science will never give our lives purpose. Discovering the "meaning of life" will always be of a personal and spiritual nature, and thus remain the purview of priests, philosophers and phone-in psychic hotlines. My personal feelings on religion notwithstanding, religion and science are not mutually exclusive and never will be. The bible is metaphor and allegory, a mix of hard reality and blatant fables. If it were not, there would be no "interpretations" of it. The bible may say that God created heaven and earth, but it's short on details. Our current understanding of evolution may be incomplete, but it's still better than not searching at all. The bible appears to leave plenty of room for explanations without discounting the existence of god, or refuting that evolution or any other science is not the will of god. It's corrosive to religion to heap scorn on science rather than embrace it and adopt it as the will of god. If the only thing you can count on is change, adaptation is the hallmark of success. The children of Abraham have spread and adapted in many different ways, and all believe they follow the true path. The rigidity of your faith is an illusion. Michael --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "StrataList-OT" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/StrataList-OT?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
