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Interesting video about evolution and origins.

Brian2

Veteran Member
Even that is rather complicated. The problem is the dishonest creationists. They need to lie so that their claims sound reasonable. Look at James Tour. In one of his dogmatic spiels against abiogenesis he brought up mitochondria as supposed evidence against abiogenesis. That is not abiogenesis, that is evolution. Eukaryotes first arose about a billion years after life began. It is amazing that he did not know that. And if he did he was flat out lying.

Tour does mention mitochondria in his spiel about the unlikelihood of life just happening with natural processes, but does not seem to do that as if mitochondria were there in the first cells. But you sound like Dave Farina in you accusations of lying.
 

Brian2

Veteran Member
But my question is why you single out life as something distinct from bringing the universe into being. If you accept- as you apparently do - the scientific account of the evolution of the cosmos and the formation of the solar system, what is the objection to life having arisen naturally, just as the galaxies and the solar system have done?

God singles out life as things that He created and the Bible indicates that animal life at least is more than chemicals.
According to someone like Tour, the chemistry side would be near impossible to synthesise in nature and make the specific chemicals last long enough for other needed chemicals tocome along and that is not even considering the spirit side of life.
Personally I know that many things science comes up with about what happened in the past are on pretty shaky ground and are not verified or verifiable, so I have to say that they may be right or not and so don't have a definite idea of all of evolution, let alone abiogenesis, having plodded along naturally without a direct helping hand from God.
 

exchemist

Veteran Member
But you ignore what one of the top 25 synthetic chemists say about how far abiogenesis is really away from it's objective.
You confirmation bias runs through everything you say.



OK so you think that the educated guesses have been verified. How?
I have pointed out to you several times now that a synthetic chemist like Tour does not have the relevant expertise to pontificate on abiogenesis. I was taught by (among others) a synthetic organic chemist. He would not have dreamt of setting himself up as an informed source on biochemistry. Tour is out of his depth.

Stop clinging to this mountebank.
 

Brian2

Veteran Member
True -- but it does mean that you are irrational, and that your conclusions can be dismissed out-of-hand.

You have every right to dismiss my conclusions out of hand, and seem to do that anyway without my blessing.
The evidence I use for God is nothing in your mind and although it supports my faith it is not science friendly and of course many atheists only want science friendly evidence that is objective and can be tested.
 

Brian2

Veteran Member
"...as a Christian?" What does that mean? -- that all information is filtered through a doctrinal screen? This smacks of confirmation bias.

Where is the actual, objective evidence? Science, or Christian doctrine?

Yes everything is filtered through who I am. And without my faith I would go along with all the unverified and unverifiable details of evolution that science comes up with. Going along like that smacks of confirmation bias.
 

Brian2

Veteran Member
But there is no reason it cannot operate entirely without supernatural support, and there is no evidence of such support. Your skepticism is based on religious bias.

True, I don't mind admitting my faith. But what I say about science, even though seen through the eyes of faith, is not just religious bias. Faith can be eye opening, iow it can open eyes to limits in science that skeptics and atheists might just skim over or miss altogether.
 

Subduction Zone

Veteran Member
Tour does mention mitochondria in his spiel about the unlikelihood of life just happening with natural processes, but does not seem to do that as if mitochondria were there in the first cells. But you sound like Dave Farina in you accusations of lying.
It was in the video, but that is not the only brain dead mistake that he makes. He makes one in that letter almost immediately:

"Researchers have identified thousands of different lipid structures in modern cell membranes."

Do you not know why this was an incredibly stupid thing for him to say?

And thank you for the comparison to Dave, but he does not just accuse Tour of lying, he shows how he lied. Now if I wanted to I could have probably linked and found exactly where in his video about Jack Szostak that he lied, but this is so well known that even Tour gave a mealy mouthed apology to Szostak that I did not think that work was necessary. Would you be satisfied with an article on this?
 

Dao Hao Now

Active Member
So your answer to:
Here and now is your opportunity to present where this has objectively been demonstrated.
Please show me.
Remember it’s not about what anyone “says” but what can be objectively demonstrated.
Please share it with us!
Your best response is:
We all know the game already. "Show me objective demonstration or God has not had any effect on anything in the world".
So to you God is a thing that can be manipulated and tested and made to demonstrate certain things.
But that is an irrational ask and is no more than a game that atheists play.
A pretty pathetic dodge.
I’ll give you another opportunity.
Again, please present where “spirit/s” or “god/s” have been objectively demonstrated to have an effect in the universe.
How is it a game?.…
It’s what any rational person should insist on before accepting either of them as existing.

It’s irrational to believe in things that have been claimed to exist without corroborating evidence to validate them.

God to me is a yet again failed claim which has not been demonstrated to exist.
So, if you have credible evidence why don’t you present it, rather than complain about rational people expecting rational reasons before accepting as of yet unsubstantiated claims?

My suspicion is that you know you don’t have any rational reasons and are at least subconsciously aware that your reasons are no more than taking it on “faith” and the cognitive dissonance of not being able to consciously admit it to yourself perpetuates your confirmation biases.




Giving of life and creating the universe.
OK, that’s your claim…..
Stating a claim is not evidence for the claim.
You’re missing the objectively demonstrated, falsifiable, testable evidence……you know;
the bit that makes it viable.

And no, I did not claim that science is biased, I asked you what you think about it.
The question you asked:
Do you think that science plodding on and coming up with potential answers that cross over into theology and deny it, is bias on the part of science, which is blind to the unfalsifiable evidence for God, and so has to end up suggesting wrong naturalistic answers even if a God exists?
The response I gave:
Please show me where science is “coming up with potential answers that cross over into theology and deny it”.
Your comeback:
I suppose that is a "no" to my question.
But you must know that science keeps trying to come up with naturalistic answers to the origins of the universe and life and that these cross over into theology and deny it.
But interestingly all science can do is make educated guesses about this stuff, and can never know if the guesses are correct and that they are what actually happened. But since the general public holds science up high and because of how the hypothesese of science are presented, the picture presented to us is that science knows or is getting close to an answer on these things.
And so the theology is being denied by answers that aren't even answers.
To which I replied:
It is not a “no” to your question.
Your question is unfounded and nonsensical.
It is an invitation for you to put-up or shut-up on your continued misrepresentation of the scientific method and substantiate your claim of bias on the part of science against your preconceived notion of God.

So let’s try again…..
Put-up or shut-up.


Consider your quotes;
Since atheists/skeptics like using science to show it points to no God, then that pointing must be in science.

It looks rational and scientific even but is really philosophy pasted over the top of science and wanting to discredit theology.

What it finds is basically not science even if it might be correct a lot of the time. It is reasoning, based on scientific principles and based on the idea that "We have not tested for spirits and so can presume a God did not do it."

But of course science is never going to say that God is needed because science cannot test for God and so cannot find God.

you also need to remember that any hypothesese for something like this are educated guesses with naturalistic answers as the only possibilities in science.

The reason for the origin of life being a problem is that science ends up saying that life is only chemistry for a start.
For a Bible believer, life is not just chemistry and is given by God.

I cannot see why the suggestion of a designer is banned from science and science has to push on with naturalism.

Science has the rule that if it cannot find a God or maker or designer then the only possible answers that scientists can give are naturalistic answers
Are you not presuming a bias in science here?
It has been pointed out to you on numerous occasions that science only takes into account things that have a demonstrable effect on those things being studied, and rightfully so.

There have been a multitude of tests attempting to show the existence and effects of supernatural beings…..all have failed.

Explain to me how it would be rational to then attempt to insert anything which has not shown any hint of existence when scrutinized beyond somebody said so?
Particularly when all known objectively demonstrated phenomena within the universe and here on earth have been shown to work without any supernatural catalyst.

Your credulity, and that of those whose opinions you cling to, towards “spirits” and “gods” as a possible cause where the answers have as of yet been discovered is a pitifully desperate special pleading that “maybe just maybe this time” (unlike every instance before) “gods or spirits will be the answer!”
That is the god of the gaps argument.
And, as time and science progress, the gaps keep getting smaller a fewer.

Your special pleading that the origin of the universe and the origin of life are different than any other previously unknown processes or phenomena that science has subsequently determined how it works is just that; special pleading.
Your personal last hill for your god to die on, so to speak.
 

Valjean

Veteran Member
Premium Member
But you ignore what one of the top 25 synthetic chemists say about how far abiogenesis is really away from it's objective.
You confirmation bias runs through everything you say.

OK so you think that the educated guesses have been verified. How?
We know that life originated at some point. A two-part controversy has developed about this: mechanism vs magic, chemistry vs agency, nature vs intention. One side proposes a mechanism, the other an agent. One side is evidence-based, the other, folklore based; one side traditional, the other rational.

Which school do you side with; which seems the more reasonable?
 

Valjean

Veteran Member
Premium Member
You have every right to dismiss my conclusions out of hand, and seem to do that anyway without my blessing.
The evidence I use for God is nothing in your mind and although it supports my faith it is not science friendly and of course many atheists only want science friendly evidence that is objective and can be tested.
"Science friendly" = "rational." Same-same.
 

Valjean

Veteran Member
Premium Member
Yes everything is filtered through who I am. And without my faith I would go along with all the unverified and unverifiable details of evolution that science comes up with. Going along like that smacks of confirmation bias.
Nobody should go along with all the unverified scientific details of science. That would violate the most basic principles of science.
Anything unverified does need further research, but confirmation bias -- "filtering" through who one is -- violates the primary function of science -- to eliminate confirmation bias.
 

Brian2

Veteran Member
No, it would be evidence of a cause. The cause need not be a conscious personage.

A designer would be intelligent and real intelligence is alive and artificial intelligence implies an intelligence to design it.

No! The evidence supports an unguided, unintentional, automatic process. Just look at the mechanism, there's no "design" involved.

What mechanism? The supposed mechanism, or is there a verified mechanism?
However I suppose evolution might work to improve something that was complex from the beginning. eg a light sensitive area of skin that had nerves connected to something that registered this sensitivity.

Huh? Show your work, please.

A judge decided that irreducible complexity is not part of science, so now atheists call it a pseudoscience and say it has been debunked, when in fact it has just been kicked out of recognition by science.

No. The entire hypothesis is based on tangible, empirical evidence.

Which end up with educated guesses which cannot be verified.

No, as has been explained countless times, science is not educated guesswork. You're either being disingenuous or obtuse.

So what are unverifiable conclusions? Are they science?
No, but if you eliminate the idea that a God was involved then the only alternative is some sort of naturalistic conclusion.

Can the believers?

If believers could find spirits and/or God in a verifiable way then they would be part of science.
But science does not show spirits and/or God do not exist.

Have you actually reviewed the evidence? Do you understand why science accepts these mechanisms?

I am not a scientist but have looked at some of the evidence and know that it does not prove that things happened as guessed.

One is evidence-based and tested. The other, by definition, is emotional and unevidenced.

Wouldn't you love it if that was true. But no, the conclusions are unverified and unverifiable.

Please stop. This has all been explained to you many times. You have no real interest in truth. You cling to your unfounded faith no matter what.

That you cannot see that the conclusions are unverifiable educated guesses shows that you have been blinded.
But I'm not saying that these educated guesses are necessarily wrong, I'm just pointing something out that you don't seem to be able to see.
 

Brian2

Veteran Member
That's not what was written, which was that critical thought - not science - identifies ideas fit for belief from the rest. Science isn't addressing the matter of the existence or nonexistence of gods, just the matter of how reality operates, and really, what else matters? It's doing that without invoking gods because gods simply aren't needed in any scientific law or theory, and science is uninterested in the creative speculations regarding objects, processes, and spaces that are said to exist, but which don't manifest empirically and are thus beyond empirical inquiry. If such a thing can be said to exist, it can also be said that its existence is irrelevant to our reality, since it is not a part of it and cannot affect it.

So for you science, which can only deal with the material universe, is dealing with all of reality. Sound like a belief to me.
And you think that prophetic fulfilment and promises by God in the Bible which come about is creative speculation. But really promises that happen show a God who can affect the material universe.

That doesn't make sense. Evidence isn't verified. It's observed and interpreted. Those conclusions are what are either sound or not, that is, the conclusions can be verified by examining the argument connecting that evidence to those conclusions. To say that one has evidence for something but that that evidence is not verifiable is to say nothing about either the evidence or the conclusions derived from it.

Unverifiable evidence is evidence that cannot be proven.
Verifiable evidence is what science deals with and science can only deal with the natural universe.
 

Brian2

Veteran Member
Yes, this is sort of true, but do not assert or imply a false equivalence here. The faith we place in science (or, if you prefer, the "belief" that it can provide answers to questions about how nature works) is itself evidence-based. We can see for ourselves the enormous progress humanity has made in understanding nature since the Renaissance by applying the principle of methodological naturalism and reliance on confirmed observations.

It is methodological naturalism that has enabled us to move on from considering lightning strikes, earthquakes and diseases as "acts of God" that humanity can't predict or manage. So yes, we have a "belief", if you like, that this principle can also lead us to understand other, harder questions about nature too.

What I still do not understand and you have yet to answer, in spite of my asking you more than once, is why some Christians are so resistant to the idea that this perfectly standard principle should also be applicable to the issue of the origin and development of life.

Is it that these Christians see something unique in life that should exempt it from scientific explanation? If so what and why? Something theological, to do with the relationship between God and humanity, perhaps?

Life imo is more than chemical based, so that would be one thing about life that Christians might not want science, which can only deal with the material universe, making pronouncements on.

Or is it that these Christians seize on life because it is the last big unknown in science that they, not being scientists, can grasp, i.e. they see it as the last bastion of the God of the Gaps? In other words, do they see it as the last thing science doesn't know and where they fervently hope it will fail, thus leaving an opening to argue that science itself provides evidence for supernatural intervention in nature?

Or is it something else?

I really would like to know what it is since, as someone both brought up a Catholic and having studied physical science, I have no idea why this hangup should exist in parts of Protestant Christianity.

I also was brought up a Catholic and Catholics also believe life is more than chemicals. But I suppose Catholicism is more likely to step back and let science do what it does but with no paranoia about what science is going to say. Catholicism knows that science is not really capable of saying there is no spiritual element to life but maybe Protestants, and esp more fundy protestants have a certain paranoia about science making pronouncements that are only half true, but said as if they are fully true.
So it is not really a hope that science will fail, it would be a distrust of what science might say, when most people probably are not thinking that science can only deal with the material universe and so tend to trust what science says as just true, and not consider that it might be only half true.
So science in this way can end up being a force against the belief in God and spread of the gospel.
 

It Aint Necessarily So

Veteran Member
Premium Member
So for you science, which can only deal with the material universe, is dealing with all of reality.
I don't disagree, but that's not what I wrote, nor the way I'd have written that. I'd write that empiricism is the only path to knowledge about how reality works.

What I wrote was, "Science isn't addressing the matter of the existence or nonexistence of gods, just the matter of how reality operates, and really, what else matters? It's doing that without invoking gods because gods simply aren't needed in any scientific law or theory, and science is uninterested in the creative speculations regarding objects, processes, and spaces that are said to exist, but which don't manifest empirically and are thus beyond empirical inquiry. If such a thing can be said to exist, it can also be said that its existence is irrelevant to our reality, since it is not a part of it and cannot affect it."

Why don't you address what was written rather than attempting to paraphrase it? Don't give me an "in other words" comments. Adress my words as written. Are there any words you read there that you disagree with? If so, which ones, and please explain your reason for calling them wrong.

Your argument to date seems to be that there might be more to reality than what is detectable to the aided and unaided senses, in fact probably or definitely is, and if so, science won't find it. I don't disagree with that. Absent evidence that requires that we postulate some unseen realm, process, or agent to account for it, the possibility is meaningless. It's like saying that there might exist something that causes nothing discernible and that therefore explains nothing. OK, but why would that be interesting?
you think that prophetic fulfilment and promises by God in the Bible which come about is creative speculation.
I think that biblical prophecy is consistent with human effort and not evidence of a transhuman prescience.
Unverifiable evidence is evidence that cannot be proven.
You're repeating yourself. I already answered that: "Evidence isn't verified. It's observed and interpreted. Those conclusions are what are either sound or not, that is, the conclusions can be verified by examining the argument connecting that evidence to those conclusions. To say that one has evidence for something but that that evidence is not verifiable is to say nothing about either the evidence or the conclusions derived from it."

My comments, if correct, make yours wrong. Once again, please either address what you read there explaining which parts you consider wrong and why, which is doing the opposite - writing comments that if correct, make mine wrong - or the discussion is over. What I described is dialectic. It's how matters are decided in academia, courts of law, and scientific peer review, with various factions saying, "I think you're wrong, and here's why" until a scientific consensus or jury verdict is reached, the last plausible, unrebutted argument being the tentative conclusion of the process and holding sway until and unless that last word is challenged or falsified by a new finding.
 

exchemist

Veteran Member
Life imo is more than chemical based, so that would be one thing about life that Christians might not want science, which can only deal with the material universe, making pronouncements on.



I also was brought up a Catholic and Catholics also believe life is more than chemicals. But I suppose Catholicism is more likely to step back and let science do what it does but with no paranoia about what science is going to say. Catholicism knows that science is not really capable of saying there is no spiritual element to life but maybe Protestants, and esp more fundy protestants have a certain paranoia about science making pronouncements that are only half true, but said as if they are fully true.
So it is not really a hope that science will fail, it would be a distrust of what science might say, when most people probably are not thinking that science can only deal with the material universe and so tend to trust what science says as just true, and not consider that it might be only half true.
So science in this way can end up being a force against the belief in God and spread of the gospel.
OK, so what it boils down to is a belief that "life is more than chemicals". I'm not sure this is part of any Catholic theology that I recognise, unless you have in mind the concept of the soul, in Man, i.e. what I was taught is meant, in Genesis, by Man being made in the image of God. But what that would mean is that the soul is considered to be, not an intrinsic property of all life, but a feature of Mankind.

Is it the soul you are thinking of, or have you some other reason for thinking life has to involve some special, possibly immaterial, component?
 

SkepticThinker

Veteran Member
I understand your point but try to tell you that there is evidence for God, just not the sort of evidence that science can use.
Yes if you start off with a creation then you can presume that no God is needed.
If you start off presuming that it is OK to ignore the possibility of a God and evidence for Him then you can also presume that life is no more than chemically based.



Yes origins is what God said He did, and that includes the laws of nature and setting it all off, and creating the material and we don't know where to draw the line. Science is just a tool and cannot draw lines and it cannot even tell us what happened back at the origins, all it has is educated guesses based on the idea that God did not do it.



The experiences of people show manifestation to the senses.



All there ever will be is educated guesses from science unless you start using the science of the gaps idea and say that science will one day find answers,,,,,,,,,,,, but they will not be verified answers unless someone goes back in time to take a look.



That is an unverifiable belief that you have.



Image trying to use science to investigate the existence of spirits or a spirit God. It just would not work because science cannot test for spirits. It is unreasonable to want science to do the job.



Science works, but not in finding spirits and not in verifable answers for the origins of things and life,,,,,,,,,,, and even the chemistry of life.
That the supernatural exists is based on the experiences of people and the evidence God has given us in the Bible.



It is a limitation of science that it cannot test for spirits and so it should not be thought of as having been shown by science that God is not needed for anything.
Then ID comes along with wonderful reasons that an intelligence is needed, but because it cannot test for these things being true, it is not a real science and atheists like to say that ID has been debunked. But it hasn't, it is just not acceptable in science.
It is not a limitation of science that it cannot test for spirits. It is a limitation of your religious belief. Science can test for things that are detectable in some way. If you're supposedly detecting spirits, than "science" should be able to detect them as well via observation, measurement, testing, etc.

It is also a limitation of YOUR BELIEF that you cannot demonstrate the veracity of any of your claims, and instead have to fall back on "faith."
 

SkepticThinker

Veteran Member
That video seems to be a presumption that if part of the flagellum motor can be used for something, that means that the whole idea of Irreducible Complexity has been debunked. This thinking seems to have come from the notion that evolution is true so the flagellum must have evolved from other functioning things.
I guess it's better to let the science show that the flagellum as an example of irreducible complexity has not been debunked, so I'll do that.
Um, no. It's because of this:



In other words ... EVIDENCE.
 

SkepticThinker

Veteran Member
We can examine the evidence to see if it falls apart when attacked,,,,,,,,,,, and there are plenty of attacks on the existence of God and on the Bible and Jesus.
But really I suppose we know it is real evidence and not just a product of our own imagination the same way someone might know that chemicals could form naturally into life forms,,,,,,,,,,, through faith,,,,,,,,,, because there is no verification for that, just as there is no verification for many things that science might claim about what happened in the past.
Your entire body is composed of chemicals, proteins, amino acids, etc.
It takes zero faith to observe that fact.
 
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