Please read the article linked to in the title above by Esther Kaplan.The notion that morality bars the use of plastic sheaves to protect against killer diseases is one of the most simplistic and idiotic notions ever conceived. But to fund Christian idiocy with US taxpayer funds is raising the ridiculous to even greater heights than have ever been seen by our species.If Darwin’s concept of natural selection is correct, and there is no reason to doubt that it is, then we really do not have very long on this planet. No species can survive that openly advocates the spread of disease as do a couple of billion Xians. For proof, in just one year of no condoms in Uganda, the number of AIDs cases nearly doubled.Peter Nuhn
It is fascinating that a virus could contain so many genes coding for proteins when many viruses make do with far less. From the Wikipedia article on mimi:
There obviously isn’t enough data yet to draw any real conclusions, but it’s an interesting hypothesis. If it can be proven I think viruses might be up for a little respect in the “life or not life” debate.
As far as the mitochondria endosymbiosis theory, I tend to agree on very simple grounds of your second point: they have their own DNA. I don’t think that there is much more proof required, and all of the rest of the evidence that has been uncovered certainly lends credence to the idea. What is lacking now is the “how” and the “why.” To really seal the deal for the skeptics I imagine that when we have greater success in the sequencing technology used to map the genomes of speces on this planet we’ll be able to design much more powerful computers to analyze the data. At that point we should be able to construct a tree of lineage with the DNA of existing species on this planet. I imagine biologists are in for quite a shock.
It will certainly help us figure out what certain genes do by emperical observation of charactersitics of the species classified under this new system.
I did too! I thank you as well.
OK I seem to have hit a nerve with my previous comment:
I thought based on my previous posts people would recognize the sarcasm, given the obvious creativity displayed by much of the posts here.
For the record, I don’t think belief in God and creativity are mutually inclusive, and in fact because of the nature of my belief in God I feel that all humans are endowed with His characteristics regardless of their acknowledgement of Him…though some more than others. Hence the ability of some to see my comment as tongue-in-cheek while others think I feel that playing video games makes me creative.
AT/DNA: This is good stuff.
AT:
I’m not sure I totally followed you.
Are you arguing that even though the density of the universe as a whole will be essentially zero, there will still be localities of non-negligible density?
I can appreciate that, but at the same time, in the universe as a whole, we have an infinite amount of matter/energy that is neither being created or destroyed. There is also the volume of the universe, which is also infinte, but is increasing.
The change in density is dm/dv, where m is mass and v is volume. In the case of the universe, m is infinite, but constant as matter/energy is never created or destroyed. v is also infinite, but increasing by some time derivitive term v(t).
When the limit is taken as time goes to infinity, the lim = [m/(v + v(t)], substitute the known quantities and the lim = [infinitym/(infinityv + v(t)]. In this case, v(t) also goes to infinity, yielding a zero density.
So even with an infinite amount of matter/energy, a volume can have zero density.
Am I off base here, or did I read you totally wrong?
References as to where God tells Satan to go out and test His people? If you’re referring to Job, God allows-not commands.
This is the reason I said people need to understand the context of what they’re attemting to regurgitate after seemingly understanding it.
Of course free will can exist if God is omnipotent and perfect. They are not mutually exclusive. Have you never seen a parent allow their child to make a mistake knowing full-well that they will learn from it? Contradiction to that would be God only allowing a specific type of behavior and requiring allegiance to Him, as pointed out previously by DuncanD. We’d all be robots and this site would cease to exist.
You are, however, correct in saying that free will is not a term used in the Bible. I should point out that neither is sheeple or henchman. How else would you describe God allowing people to make decisions for themselves?
Barryman
In whose estimation is God omnipotent and perfect? Yours? His own? Certainly not in mine. Is your standard of perfection the same as mine?
How does he evidence these qualities?
karen
The stock answer would be something like “Our puny/finite/imperfect/mortal/unworthy minds cannot comprehend the power/wonder/perfection/reasonableness/pan-omni presence that is god.
Believe and you will believeTM.
HZ
Oh, yeah. I keep forgetting about that puny finite mind thing.
A minister I once had this discussion with told me I couldn’t expect god to meet my standards of perfection–and that my standards might be different than the person next to me. I asked him if god created me, how could my standards be higher than god’s own. He brushed me off.
Mortal/unworthy mind, my ass.
From Karen:
You could say my journey started from birth, because my parents- both teachers- were both atheists. And so I never got a religious indoctrination growing up. Well… at least until I was 10 years old.
When my parents died I was shuffled through a series of foster homes, and the second one was run by a minister and his wife.
After that experience, which wasn’t a happy one… I’ve done a lot of looking into what religion is all about, and I’ve never seen anything to convince me there is a God, or ever was a God, or that any miracles were ever performed as described in the bible.
The only thing I really got out of the bible is that it is a poorly written book, probably mangled even worse by multiple translations, and as you said, Karen, edited for political purposes.
Not something, in my opinion, to base a civlization on.
Anyone here ever see the Star Trek episode “A Piece of the Action” ? Where an entire planet bases it’s civilization on a book some Earthmen left behind about Chicago mafiosi ?
That’s an interesting parallel to people living their lives according to the bible.
You know, and you guys are gonna think I watch too much TV; but I think it’s funny when people say things about “God” like….
Either God is the Borg Queen from Star Trek- trying to assimilate all into his collective and make everything “perfect” and “highly efficient”…
Or, God, like Adrian Monk, is obsessive-compulsive, and needs to wipe his mighty hand after it touches the hand of a gay man !
And my most sincere apologies to Adrian Monk
(I do love that show ! Hilarious !)
FugaziGrrl:
Star Trek reference. Algorithm engaged.
“We are the NoGodborg. Assimilation is futile.”
Oh, I like that. I do indeed
Yes, I’m a big-time Trekkie (not very common thing for a girl, these days… kinda like liking the Three Stooges… and I like the Three Stooges !)
You can find lots of good references in Star Trek that, if you take a good look at what Trek is saying, and then apply it to our world, religion becomes, as Spock would say, illogical.
atomictesting:
I love the Skeptics Annotated Bible and use it all the time to settle little arguments I get into with Xtians at work, etc…
Here’s the URL
http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/
Sorry if it’s not clickable, but I don’t know how to do links on the blog yet….
“…because of the nature of my belief in God I feel that all humans are endowed with His characteristics regardless of their acknowledgement of Him…”
Please, please, please leave me out of this. It scares the heck out of me to imagine that in the minds of some, I’m considered part of a jealous, angry, mysoginist, murderous, contradictory (is that a word?) controlling, vindictive, racist, male-dominant god of war.
PS I could have thought of more adjectives but I gotta get back to work.
Oh yeah, Fuzigirl, I’m a trekkie and a Stooge fan too. We certainly are rare female specimens indeed. Wobwobwob.
Oye, C4T, we sure are. And I like Star Wars too… I don’t think Trekkies are supposed to do that, or is it the other way around ?
Somehow, Curly’s catch-phrase of “I’m a victim of circumstance !” always seemed secular to me.. circumstance, rather than a God, made a brick fall on his head