Hm...well, we have to acknowledge that it [life, the world, the universe] exists*, don't we? o.o
If we acknowledge that somehow the universe got here, then it follows that we're acknowledging that something happened, whether it was evolution, creationism, or anything else.
Basing something on our hopes and fears is silly, but in this case we're basing it on what we know: we didn't create the Universe. If we didn't, something, someone, or some process must have. I think that's where we agree, in that it could be anything - anything is possible.
*This is assuming none of us here are discussing other things like subjectivism, which would be an argument from ignorance (there's a word for this but I can't remember it at the moment. If anyone does please post it, it's bugging me. XD)
//Edit: Eek. Wrong post. XD *deletes stuff here and goes to "Taming of the Shrew" thread*
Last edited by Silv; 01-04-2007 at 12:37 PM.
“I thought what I’d do was, I’d pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes. That way I wouldn’t have to have any goddam stupid useless conversations with anybody.”
- Holden Caulfield, The Catcher in the Rye
Je ne pense pas donc je suis.
P.S. Discussion on 1984 - Share your thoughts, please?
online-literature.com/forums/showthread.php?t=21159
I have posted a link to an nteresting article surrounding this topic... There are a myriad of convictions surrounding these philosophies and some actually embrace the reality of both. Given your interest in the subject matter, I thought you would find this article
While I am a creationist, I also believe in evolution to a point. I do not believe man evolved from apes though.
http://www.leaderu.com/orgs/fte/darwinism/chapter5.html
Our passions are not too strong, they are too weak. We are far too easily pleased.
~C.S. Lewis
http://michellerichmond.com/fictionattic/?page_id=9
So what do the preachers say so that they can keep on earning?
Do you have any idea how much the average research scientist at a university makes?? It ain't making them rich, I can tell you that. Also, by making such an uneducated statement you are condeming all scientists as liars. Why? Real evidence bothers you?
No. That was supposed to be humorous! And I'm definitely not generalizing all the scientists in different fields, Winter. All I'm saying is that WE don't come from animals, which is what they are saying! It's completely ludicrously ridiculous. We came from the ashes; made by God. (Read the book of Genesis, man.)
"You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life."
To go wrong in one's own way is better than to go right in someone else's" - Dostoevksy
Last edited by Laindessiel; 01-04-2007 at 02:21 PM.
"You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life."
To go wrong in one's own way is better than to go right in someone else's" - Dostoevksy
Only if you're right - but what if you're wrong?
Exactly - hence the existence of God becomes possible, and science - perhaps - uncertain.
Silv's point still stands: why should anything be "like it is"? To just say (as cuppa did) that "that just happens to be the way geometry works" creates a problem with the words "that just happens." What is "just happens" - magic? Life "just happens"? The Golden Ration "just happens" to show up everywhere in nature? Ideas about "right" and "wrong" "just happen" to have "evolved" from human experience? The conditions on this planet that make it conducive to life "just happened"? Chemical reactions in my brain "just happen" to create the feeling of joy, sadness, heartache? The answer that much of reality "just happened" to me is equal to any charge against the vague, un-empirically proven ideas of God that atheists level at Christians.
And, finally, Wintermute, what makes it OK for you to dismiss something many people find very profound as "silly"? Is an attempt to trivialize your opponent's argument supposed to be a solid response to the issue - or simply an attempt to devalue your opponent's position and put them on the defensive?
"I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen, not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else." - C.S. Lewis
“As Kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame . . .”
Why disqualify the rush? I'm tabled. I'm tabled.
~
"It is not that I am mad; it is only that my head is different from yours.”
~
Then we're wrong. What if you're wrong about Thor, Amon Ra, Huitzilopochtli, Posideon and the Great Green Arkleseizure?Originally Posted by Redzeppelin
What problem? All circles are much the same. They have a common ratio between the circumference and the radius. The word (or rather letter) for that ratio is pi. Pi, expressed mathematically, happens to be an irrational number. I'm not sure which part of this implies the existence of deities.Originally Posted by Redzeppelin
No, as I've explained, phi shows up a lot of places in nature (hardly 'everywhere', but in a lot of places) because it is an efficient to build certain structures in that ratio. If you are a gene which builds more efficient structures, you are more likely to propogate yourself. Give it a few hundred thousand generations, and the best genes win out by building more efficient snail shells. 'More efficient', in this context, means 'closer to phi'. It's not a coincidence by any means. Note that I am not a mathematician, so all of the above should be taken with a grain of salt, but I would be willing to bet that the correct explaination is very close to what I just said.Originally Posted by Redzeppelin
Steven Pinker could explain to you in mind-numbing detail how those things happened. I will not attempt to here, but it is not, by any means, a coincidence.Originally Posted by Redzeppelin
If you saw that common ancestor walking around on the street you would say "Hey look, there's an ape walking around on the street".Originally Posted by ShoutGrace
Last edited by cuppajoe_9; 01-04-2007 at 11:25 PM.
What is the use of a violent kind of delightfulness if there is no pleasure in not getting tired of it.
- Gertrude Stein
A washerwoman with her basket; a rook; a red-hot poker; th purples and grey-greens of flowers: some common feeling which held the whole together.
- Virginia Woolf
Well, do you know what I made/still make as a minister, taking into account that I am, while ordained quite properly, non-denominational? Nothing. I traveled as a evangelist at my expense, and if they took up collections and it covered my expenses and I had extra, OK, and if not, I'd still be back next time. I usually stayed with a family, no four star hotel treatment, and drove as much as 750 miles one way. Now, church is in my home, and whosoever will comes, no one is refused. I ask for nothing. If God ever grants that I can start a church again, I will do so. Until then, we press on. But I'm not the one to argue with scientific fact. Evolution partially explains things for me, but not how they began. For that, God works.
Last edited by Pendragon; 01-04-2007 at 11:14 PM.
Some of us laugh
Some of us cry
Some of us smoke
Some of us lie
But it's all just the way
that we cope with our lives...
“As Kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame . . .”
Why disqualify the rush? I'm tabled. I'm tabled.