As for absolute truth… there’s no such thing as “truth” only perception.
Rac_Rules - Fairies exist. I know they exist. Now I want you to prove to me that they don’t exist. There. Now because you can’t prove that fairies don’t exist, my claim has just as much credence as yours. Uh… no. That’s not how it works. If you are claiming something you have to prove that it does exist, before telling people to prove otherwise. The burden of proof is on you.
Yes, scientists make mistakes. All we can do is say “with what we know now, with our current techniques this is the most likely result”. But would you go up to a medical professional and tell them that despite all of their education, research and years of experience that their methods and what they know about treating cancer, is wrong? Of course you wouldn’t. But for some reason it’s ok to say that all scientists (99.9% of them) that have studied evolution are all wrong because it says so in the Bible. To me that is just selective ignorance.
And if the Earth was slightly further away from the sun or closer we would either freeze or burn to death, or not have even evolved because the conditions wouldn’t have been juuust right. Yes, that is a nice Goldilocks reference but so what? If the conditions weren’t ideal, we wouldn’t have been here having this conversation. But the conditions were, and we are. You’re trying to suggest that the odds of a planet having the right conditions to sustain life is very small. However when you think about how big the universe is and how many planets are out there, the odds that there not being another planet that is a home for another advanced species, would be very small. Mars has plenty of ice-water on it and the soil is suitable for growing plants, and small amounts of water on the Moon have been found and those are just from the planets we have been to, or sent a rover to. BTW, anyone have an estimate for how many planets there are in our universe?
Dan*E - Like, lizardgirl, I’m not sure if you’re being serious, but I too believe that in some way aliens interfere with life on Earth. Perhaps they are like humans but are more evolved and therefore advanced than we are. Maybe they are the ones that started evolution or the Big Bang, but because they are part of the universe and inside the universe, maybe they didn’t start the BB. As for the end of the world in 2012, there have been hundreds if not thousands of end of the world predictions and they never came true. Why should that one be any different?
I’ve never said anything in this thread, so here it goes.
I believe in Inteligent design, but I love the ideas about evolution. Charle Darwin was a very brilliant man. I’m learning about evolution in my Biology class. It’s my favorite section so far!
Also, my step dad told me an interesting theory about evolution… gamma rays. Gamma rays released by the sun can alter the DNA of living things. This could explain the diversity of life on earth and why their are missing links.
Somoeone has asked who started evolution. Well, nobody starts evolution.
If you start with the fisrt living being, lets say, something like a primitive Monera (the frontier between life and other thing isn’t clear), it multiplicates into more bacteria. In this point, species doesn’t exist. But, due to the way Monera reproduce, mutations are very likely to happen. Natural selection stars its work when this Monera inhabites different/new environments.
Mutations seem to be the a big crutch to many people. As far as I know mutations usually cause negative result in an organism; thus that organism has not developed a mutation that will better enable them to survive.
Here’s another interesting fact: You can never add to DNA; rather, you can only take away from it. The theory of mutation aiding in evolution relies on the fact that it “adds” to the DNA of an organism.
Dogs, for example, are a large species with many varying characteristics. If you breed two dogs, their offspring have the ablilty to take on characteristics of other breeds that may be contained in their gene pool.
But let’s consider one small characteristic out of many: size. You could breed two of the largest species of dogs, but you will never get a larger dog. You can breed a large and small dog and get a smaller dog, because you can take away from DNA. But you can never add to it.
Oh - and organisms from Kingdom Monera are far from primitive, my friend. The complexities of a single cell are incredible.
What makes you think I’m Tom Cruise?!?!?! Cuz’ I’m not.
I dunno. The History Channel messed UP May brain…
In the begining, when Earth was being formed, a HUGE comet smashed into Earth, and a big part broke off, forming the Moon. Tiny bacteria were on that comet. Evolution did the rest. Tah bacteria was the start of all life on Earth. Ta da.
I didn’t say that. I never told him he needed to prove evolution is correct. I’m just saying that you guys can’t claim God doesn’t exist because we can’t prove it when you can’t fully prove your claim is true either.
And for goodness sakes, I believe in evolution. I just BELIEVE God conducted it. (key word believe)
And for goodness sakes, can I emphasize that I DON’T USE THE BIBLE MUCH any more? Stop using it against me! Plus, you can’t say that the Bible is what told us to believe in God, since there are many God-believing religions who don’t use the Bible. The Bible, in my opinion, is a metaphorical text explaining the Hebrew/Christian history and basic beliefs. It’s kind of like a science textbook for you Atheists. Not everything in it is guaranteed true, and many parts may have been edited by biased priests (or scientists) over the years. There would be God-believers if the Bible had been destroyed years ago.
DAN*E- You never heard of Arthur!?! You aren’t American, are you? Arthur is a series of children’s picture books turned into an animated TV series, and is very famous. The main character’s (Arthur) best friend is Buster, a boy who has this fascination with aliens and uses them for an explanation for everything, like if another character was acting slightly odd. You should check it out on YouTube sometime. It’s like the embodiment of my childhood. nods
Yep, but mutations are only a bit part of the process, aren’t they?
Why amebas have a lager DNA than us? Isn’t that an accumulation of past mutations?
The number of nucleotids has something to do with the large of the living being? I don’t think so. Or I haven’t understood you.
Let’s take cows. Cow, in nature, have morre little breasts (is this the word?). But humans have selected -artificial selection- the ones with bigger breasts for thousand of years and breed them. Now, cows have bigger, desproporcionated breasts.
Or in reverser. It’s the same process than in nature, but controlled, focused to a certain objective. In nature, that objective doesn’t exist.
Primitive doesn’t mean less complex.
Anyway, I knew that. It was an example. And yes, cells are fascinating. When I was a child I used to read agin and again an old book with illustrations of how they’re and work, and I was “woah!” xDDD
But I could say “there is no scientific proof that God exists” and that statement would be true.
You’re saying that God does exist, so before telling other people to prove that he doesn’t, you need to prove that he does. YOU are the one making the unfounded and outrageous claim so you have to prove it first. That’s called “burden of proof”. People have been over this concept many times in this thread already.
And yes, I believe in things such as aliens and angels and they are pretty much unprovable but I would never tell anyone that because they can’t disprove those things then that must support my argument that they might exist.
Al-Bob. That is fallacy. You have already assumed God’s existence before you yourself believe that he exists because you seem to know somehow that God believes that you exist and therefore exists, just before you decide to believe that he exists.
All religion is faith based, that is none of you can show us “proof”. Yes you may think you have “proof” but nothing that can withstand the scientific method of testing. Until we can have “proof” of God’s existence that can’t be explained by something else, and can withstand the testing of the scientific method, I’m not really interested in putting effort into some mythical being.
Oh my God!! NOW I remember!! The aardvark, right?! And Buster’s the rabbit (or bunny). I don’t actually remember anything with aliens, but I havn’t seen it in a looooooooooong time. By the way, I AM American. Read my location in the thing left of my post.
I am simply saying you cannot claim God does not exist because we can’t prove it, when you have no full hard core proof that the world was created on your means, meaning… wait, maybe this will help.
Atheist: Can you PROVE God exists?
Christian: No.
Atheist: Then that must mean he doesn’t! Why do you still believe in Him?
Christian: Can you PROVE the big bang happened?
Atheist: No…
Christian: So if you can ridicule me for believing in God if there is no proof, how come I can’t ridicule you for believing in something that has no proof?
Atheist: But things like the big bang have a good chance of it (or something like it) happening.
Christian: Yes it does. It very well may have happened. Just don’t tell me I am stupid for believing in something I can’t prove.
And yes, I’ve seen internet conversations like this. I don’t know how to explain it further. If you don’t get it, that’s not my problem, so don’t say my comments are “unfounded and outrageous.”
Feels like we’re just going in circles. Here’s an edit
Atheist: Can you PROVE God exists?
Christian: No. But we have this book that says he does.
Christian: Can you PROVE the big bang happened?
Atheist: Not 100%, but scientists are working every day to improve and refine our understanding of the creation of the universe. There are also some other theories which are being studied regarding the creation of the universe. If you have any ideas of data that may help then please feel free to share it and we’ll research it.
Christian: Well there’s this book compiled of a lot of books written by a lotta people thousands of years ago that says some all powerful benevolent dictator created everything. Every day there are people who read and interpret this book and base their entire lives on it.
Atheist: Yeah. We’ll get right on that as soon as we create a godoscope and can get some good hard data on this guy.
If you read any of my last posts, I never said I am positive my religion is correct. I am just approaching the double standard.
If you read any of my last posts at all, you’d know I don’t use the Bible and think that there would be God believers without it. And there are. I guess you can say I have somewhat Quaker-like beliefs (you don’t need a priest or book to have a relationship with God)
Yes, there are tests. Didn’t I SAY that the big bang (I was only using this as one example, by the way) could very well have happened?
If I hear one more person trying to attack my arguments with the Bible, I am going to go CRAZY!
From Wikipedia: A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, a monotheistic religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth and interpreted by Christians to have been prophesied in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament.
If that’s the thing, I’m gonna have to go out on a limb here and say that maybe debates based on logic aren’t your thing. :S There isn’t a double standard - you just can’t make arguments by answering questions with questions, that’s all. As long as you are not trying to prove your point by saying that nobody else can disprove it, we’re awwwwwright.
And yes, cells are fascinating. When I was a child I used to read agin and again an old book with illustrations of how they’re and work, and I was “woah!” xDDD