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Author Topic:   Confidence in evolutionary science
Agobot
Member (Idle past 5557 days)
Posts: 786
Joined: 12-16-2007


Message 15 of 37 (496430)
01-28-2009 9:07 AM
Reply to: Message 1 by Modulous
01-27-2009 8:21 PM


Modulous writes:
In short (heh) - this is why I have the degree of confidence I have in evolutionary science.
I see where your confidence is coming from, it's understandable. After all, that's where investigation is leading us. But how confident are you that this experience, the universe, evolution and sentience are a product of real unadulterated chance?
After pondering a lot about this, I'd say that everything is unreal. The concept of emergence hides a great enigma. The human body, as it is, is mind-blowingly complex, in fact no words can properly describe the organisational complexity involved(especially when you consider how proteins move atoms to repair broken links within cells, how those 100 000 trillion trillion atoms of your body constantly move and interact in an organised fashion to create who you are). How real is this? How real is a whole galaxy that gets swollowed by a black hole and all the "matter" within it is reduced to the size of an atom or even zero? How real is your human body that is composed of 100 000 trillion trillion waves, seen every time at the double slit experiment as an interference pattern?
Does an evolutionary atheist ever ask himself - "what exactly are we"? If not, why, and is the confidence in evolution merely a confidence that it is happening, but deeper questions aren't related to the theory of evolution and should be addressed by philosophy?

This message is a reply to:
 Message 1 by Modulous, posted 01-27-2009 8:21 PM Modulous has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 16 by Modulous, posted 01-28-2009 9:20 AM Agobot has replied
 Message 20 by AdminNosy, posted 01-28-2009 9:50 AM Agobot has not replied
 Message 31 by Capt Stormfield, posted 01-30-2009 4:31 AM Agobot has replied

  
Agobot
Member (Idle past 5557 days)
Posts: 786
Joined: 12-16-2007


Message 18 of 37 (496436)
01-28-2009 9:44 AM
Reply to: Message 16 by Modulous
01-28-2009 9:20 AM


Modulous writes:
Why did you bother to type that? For whose benefit did you think you were typing it for?
Benefit? For the benefit of those who are looking at the issue in a broader context. I wanted to know in particluar how confidence in evolution jives with the raised questions.
Modulous writes:
Solipsism: keep it to yourself.
I am not a solipsist, but i am not afraid to confront questions. By "unreal" i meant unreal in a sense that everything is a product of pure chance, inlc. evolution.
I have no idea why you get hurt over this. Would a creator being(s) that made everything look like it was random, incl evolution make me a solipsist. Was Einstein a solipsist?

This message is a reply to:
 Message 16 by Modulous, posted 01-28-2009 9:20 AM Modulous has seen this message but not replied

Replies to this message:
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 Message 22 by AdminNosy, posted 01-28-2009 11:25 AM Agobot has not replied

  
Agobot
Member (Idle past 5557 days)
Posts: 786
Joined: 12-16-2007


Message 32 of 37 (496723)
01-30-2009 5:59 AM
Reply to: Message 31 by Capt Stormfield
01-30-2009 4:31 AM


Capt Stormfield writes:
When you drive across a bridge on your way to work in the morning, your very survival depends on theories that are descriptive of nature's behavior, and that can be abstracted to precisely the same level as can questions about evolution or the nature of man.
And those theories aren't the decider of your faith, everybody is aware of that. It's either chance(read atheist camp), or it's your fate in the hand of god.
Capt Stormfield writes:
In fact, words can quite adequately describe the organizational complexity of the human body. It would just take a whole lot of them. You seem inordinately fond of the "there's too many zeros in this number so it must be god" fallacy.
The fallacy lies with your religion or the inacceptance to look even a bit further beyond the atheist dogma. I am not against atheism but i am against pretending that too many zeros mean nothing.
Capt Stormfield writes:
How many atoms are in that bridge I mentioned above? Does not each of them have to "constantly move and interact in an organised fashion" just as surely and predictably as the atoms in your body?
This is complete nonsense and it's a shame that atheists can spread drivel 7/24 here. A bridge does not have emergent properties, it's not alive and it's most definitely not conscious. If this board was not biased toward atheism you'd get at least temporary suspension.
Capt Stormfield writes:
Is it your impression that bridge atoms behave differently than cell atoms?
What??? Are you aware that proteins are in fact moving individual atoms? Are you at least partly aware that most of your atoms are actually in motion throughout your body? Are you aware that in a year, a human being changes more than 95% of it's constituent atoms?
Does the bridge change its atoms in a year?
This board is said to promote science, I'd love to see how you'd get a tap on the back for the above hogwash.
Capt Stormfield writes:
Why does the number "100 000 trillion trillion" impress you?
I'd say because i don't belong to your radical "religion".
Capt Stormfield writes:
Is there any reason to suspect that any one of those atoms is not behaving in exactly the same fashion as the other 100 000 bajillion quintillion googletillion atoms in the universe?
Yes, most definitely. As soon as get acquainted with emergent properties, you'd see that atoms do get to behave differently according to the specific configuration they are in. If this is news to you - OK, but it isn't to anyone else here.
Capt Stormfield writes:
To return to the first quote above where you ask "Does an evolutionary atheist ever ask himself - 'what exactly are we'?"
I must say, this is arguably one of the dimmest questions I have ever encountered. Setting aside the evolution/atheist pratt, did you even think about you wrote? You are addressing people who are making it their life's work to try to answer a very big part of that question. For you to imply that those who actually study the subject in a sustained and systematic way are likely to take a shallower view than you is, well, given my tendency to stray into the nether regions of the English vernacular, I will allow you to finish the sentence yourself.
The only thing i implied, sorry if you have misunderstood, was that we are nowhere close to explaining reality, existence and emergent properties. Only ignorance can "explain" these phenomena and that was the point of my post, to show how many unwarranted and often ridiculous assumptions and beliefs atheism makes/holds(not that i think you'll understand but maybe someone who's reading this and isn't brain-washed).
BTW, I am also a kind of an atheist towards all religions. I am simply not so radical as most of you and i do think that there is a cause for the existence of the universe.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 31 by Capt Stormfield, posted 01-30-2009 4:31 AM Capt Stormfield has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 33 by Admin, posted 01-30-2009 7:42 AM Agobot has not replied
 Message 34 by Coyote, posted 01-30-2009 7:52 AM Agobot has not replied
 Message 37 by Capt Stormfield, posted 01-30-2009 3:06 PM Agobot has not replied

  
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