On Fri, 20 Dec 2002 17:55:21 Tom Wade VMS Systems wrote: ... >NO NO NO !!!! I am not going to argue the relative merits of evolutionary >theory on this forum, but you are totally WRONG when you say both are based >on "belief*, in that "I believe that..." does not mean the same thing in >both case. > But, yes, it does! Why? Simple, for evolution to work it **absolutely requires, IT'S A MUST** that zillions of years take place, because some of its premises cannot occur without this all-important assumption, since they can be *proven* statistically to be next to impossible!
Take biology, for instance, there simply is no reasonable explanation as to why an ameba would suddenly "migrate" to becoming a more "evolved" entity. This blatantly contravenes the Second Law of Thermodynamics, for example, that says that the tendency of closed systems is to *disorder* NOT to order. Besides, how else can one explain that a male and a female would need to exist to continue therefrom??? Even if one assumes that a male (or a female, whatever) new... "thing" happened, then what? Where is the "female" (or male) that would allow the "new species" to continue its trend? And then there are the ICS systems (irreducibly complex systems) which simply could not come to existence in "piece by piece". How do you explain *that*? You see, there simply are too many holes in the theory of evolution and I'm just touching the tip of the iceberg with the above!!! >When a scientist says he *believes* evolutionary theory to be correct, he >means that the evidence for that theory is convincing enough *at the moment* >for that theory to be taken as correct. Just as a creationist scientist would claim the same for his side! > He is still open to having that >theory modified or abandoned if experimental evidence comes to light that >suggests a more plausible mechanism. True. > The overriding factor is experimental >evidence. Everything else must be suborned to this. > Agreed! But the problem is people are *interpreting* data differently all trying to fit them to their own preconceived ideas! And this is something EVERY side appears to do, unfortunately, Tom. >When a 'creationist' says he *believes* that God created the universe in 6 >days, he means that he is divinely inspired that this is the case. He is not >open to modifying this theory or abandoning it, because there *can be no* new >evidence that would convince him that the Bible is wrong. The Bible is a book of **witnessing**, Tom. If you are describing the scene of an accident, for instance, would you be open to narrate it differently??? So, alas, if the writer of Genesis is merely describing how events took place, why should that be open to a change??? > The overriding >factor is what is says in this Book. Everything else must be suborned to >this. > Not necessarily, but events cannot be changed if they in fact occurred, can they? >In one case the word *belief* means a critical judgement on the balance of >evidence, in the other a complete conviction that things must be exactly so >because a book which is taken as *absolute truth* says so. The meanings >implied by the word "belief" are fundamentally different. > I'll address the above and below later as I need to go now. Cheers, Marcus >>>As for the relevence to the Metric System, none, except that it would not help >>>our cause to claim that one of the reasons for the US to metricate is that >>>we would be fulfilling the programming done on us by extraterrestrial genetic >>>engineers ... >> >>I honestly don't think that I was ever arguing this from that perspective... > >Indeed you were not. I was referring here to the Extraterrestial Genetic >Engineers theory, which would be certainly be leaped upon by those espousing >the retention of Colonial Measures to try to paint the metric lobby as part of >some lunatic fringe. > >------------------------------------------------------------------------------ >Tom Wade, EuroKom | E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (all domain mailers). >Dale House | X400: g=tom;s=wade;o=eurokom;p=eurokom;a=eirmail400;c=ie >30, Dale Road | Tel: +353 (1) 278-7878 >Stillorgan | Fax: +353 (1) 278-7879 >Co Dublin | Disclaimer: This is not a disclaimer >Ireland | Tip: "Friends don't let friends do Unix !" > > ____________________________________________________________ Get 25MB of email storage with Lycos Mail Plus! Sign up today -- http://www.mail.lycos.com/brandPage.shtml?pageId=plus
