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A new weekly series of commentaries.
16 years ago
General
Just me putting out some observations about scientific and technical matters which profoundly affect our lives and our futures but which most people aren't concerned about.
To kick off, one hears all manner of creationist nonsense about so-called objections to the theory of evolution (all of which have been thoroughly and repeatedly refuted, for all the good THAT does). Anyway, it may happen that one gets accosted with some of this tired old nonsense and is not at the moment prepared for a long argument. Here is the first of some brief replys.
"How do you know evolution is real? - YOU weren't there!"
Short reply:
"No, I wasn't there. And neither were you. And neither were the ancient Jewish priests who wrote the Old Testament.
But what WAS there were the rocks of the Earth, the spectra in starlight, and the earliest forms of the biochemistry we have today. All of these things may be observed today and the clues pieced together."
To kick off, one hears all manner of creationist nonsense about so-called objections to the theory of evolution (all of which have been thoroughly and repeatedly refuted, for all the good THAT does). Anyway, it may happen that one gets accosted with some of this tired old nonsense and is not at the moment prepared for a long argument. Here is the first of some brief replys.
"How do you know evolution is real? - YOU weren't there!"
Short reply:
"No, I wasn't there. And neither were you. And neither were the ancient Jewish priests who wrote the Old Testament.
But what WAS there were the rocks of the Earth, the spectra in starlight, and the earliest forms of the biochemistry we have today. All of these things may be observed today and the clues pieced together."
http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/faq.....peciation.html
http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/speciation.html
The quality of their arguments says a lot about the quality of their thought in general, don't it?
It would be like a version of the Matrix, where the machines went out of their way to put up signs any idiot could see, that indisputably proved that the world around them was an illusion. No, I think God is far, far more subtle than that. I see Him in how bumblebees can fly, why a rainbow forms, and little things like that. I think He deliberately scattered millions of little puzzles like that, all over the world, and though time, as well. Then he sat back, and waited for us to prove how clever we are, by discovering them, for ourselves.
If you define God as a large, very cranky old man who sits around in a bathrobe on a golden throne surrounded by admiring choirs, then frankly that's nonsense.
If you define God as the organizing force of the universe then obviously the universe DOES have self-organizing principles (growth of crystals, formation of stars and planetary systems, accumulation of complexity by variable systems under selection over time).
Of course, the underlying nature of such things is beyond our experience and comprehension. My arguments are not with mystical or spiritual feelings, but with organized religion, which bears about the same relationship to the numinous as a con man selling the Brooklyn Bridge bears to the highest principles of architectural aesthetics.
If you define God as a large, very cranky old man who sits around in a bathrobe on a golden throne surrounded by admiring choirs, then frankly that's nonsense.
If you define God as the organizing force of the universe then obviously the universe DOES have self-organizing principles (growth of crystals, formation of stars and planetary systems, accumulation of complexity by variable systems under selection over time).
Of course, the underlying nature of such things is beyond our experience and comprehension. My arguments are not with mystical or spiritual feelings, but with organized religion, which bears about the same relationship to the numinous as a con man selling the Brooklyn Bridge bears to the highest principles of architectural aesthetics.