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Author Topic:   A Designer Consistent with the Physical Evidence
cavediver
Member (Idle past 3665 days)
Posts: 4129
From: UK
Joined: 06-16-2005


Message 251 of 327 (506358)
04-25-2009 2:23 PM
Reply to: Message 248 by NanoGecko
04-25-2009 1:54 PM


Re: common knowledge VS common igorance
DevilsAdvocate writes:
I disagree, why could early life not have been RNA based and later developed into the more complex DNA based life we see today?
NanoGecko writes:
Well if what you say is true, then arguably it shouldn't be too difficult to provide a real world example, given the billions of fossils specimens that are now housed in research institutions
Hmmm, I think you are not quite appreciating the type of life that is hypothesised to be possibly RNA based. It is certainly not the type to be leaving fossils. We are talking about primative cells.
The complex nucleotide chains that are necessary to make this experiment work could not have existed freely in a contaminated atmosphere, let alone in water as the chains would be broken down within nanoseconds upon exposure to the realistic environment, furthermore it is a huge leap of faith to get from these chemicals to an actual living life form capable of self reproduction.
Watch this video presentation on one hypothetical - but extremely plausible - idea of what was behind abiogenesis:
The problem with your argument is this:
You: it couldn't possibly happen naturally, so it must be a god
Us: yes, it could possibly happen naturally - here is one possible way
You: BUT you have no proof - you do not know that it happened that way
Us: quite so, we don't - but your argument that it *couldn't* happen naturally has been all but falsified. It *could* possibly happen naturally, we have shown a possible way, and thus your argument that it MUST be a god is nonsense. Note that this is not saying that it WASN'T a god...
Edited by cavediver, : No reason given.
Edited by cavediver, : No reason given.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 248 by NanoGecko, posted 04-25-2009 1:54 PM NanoGecko has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 261 by NanoGecko, posted 04-25-2009 10:01 PM cavediver has replied

cavediver
Member (Idle past 3665 days)
Posts: 4129
From: UK
Joined: 06-16-2005


Message 266 of 327 (506415)
04-26-2009 4:52 AM
Reply to: Message 261 by NanoGecko
04-25-2009 10:01 PM


Re: common knowledge VS common igorance
then it wouldn't be unreasonable to expect that their would be some traces of larger hard descendants of this type of operating system left either in the fossil record or the living world today.
And of course it is - our own DNA/RNA system is that trace And given when the transition is hypothesised, you are talking of the order of BILLIONS of years between that period and the first hard-body-part fossils. The advantages of the DNA world would have out-competed the RNA-world life millions of times over in that time.
But if you think that is unreasonable, lay out your logic please...
To then just simply say that the fundamental laws of chemistry provide this energy is not understanding the complexity of the situation
yes, because that is the level that us scientists discuss these things
I can never get over the extreme ignorance displayed by creationists regarding how science and scientists operate. Yep, we just sit around and say - hmmm, not sure how that works, but it might be this. Everyone agreed? Yep? Ok, next problem... You need to get off the Discovery channel and talk to some real scientists. You're looking rather foolish here at EvC where many of us are scientists. Sadly, I have nothing to do with biology - I'm merely a mathematician/physicist, but even I can fumble my way through this abiogenetic study without making such an arse of myself.
Much as I hate Wiki, here's the closing paragraph of the RNA World article:
quote:
In 2001, the RNA world hypothesis was given a major boost with the deciphering of the 3-dimensional structure of the ribosome, which revealed the key catalytic sites of ribosomes to be composed of RNA and for the proteins to hold no major structural role, and be of peripheral functional importance. Specifically, the formation of the peptide bond, the reaction that binds amino acids together into proteins, is now known to be catalyzed by an adenine residue in the rRNA: the ribosome is a ribozyme. This finding suggests that RNA molecules were most likely capable of generating the first proteins. Other interesting discoveries demonstrating a role for RNA beyond a simple message or transfer molecule include the importance of small nuclear ribonucleoproteins (SnRNPs) in the processing of pre-mRNA and RNA editing and reverse transcription from RNA in Eukaryotes in the maintenance of telomeres in the telomerase reaction.
Yep, really reads at the level of "the fundamental laws of chemistry provide this energy"
...is not understanding the complexity of the situation...
is you in a nutshell.
The point is that the hypothetical 'RNA world' initially proposed by Crick is just about dead in the water
Not looking so dead, is it?
Now, regarding CDK007:
which incidentally makes a lot of unsubstantiated and convenient assumptions about chemical conditions on earth in the distant past
Please list them
then you may as well say crystals that form out of aqueous solution provide an explanation for abio-genesis
Yes, becasue that is definitely of the level of details and explanation displayed in the video Please justify your comment
This is just another natural selection of the gaps type argument, usually promoted by Darwinian evolutionists that hinges on circular reasoning
What circular reasoning
The specificity of the chemistry needed to combine the correct amino acids to form the proteins required for life is not addressed.
And here you miss the point completely. What are the correct "amino acids"? And if I'm not mistaken, what we saw in the video was life, and so I have to ask, which proteins exactly are required for life? Are you really so naive to think that we expect modern cells in all of their complexity to leap into existence the best part of four billion years ago? Again, you need to let go of your pre-school-level ideas of how scientists think and operate.
How those proteins acquired the information necessary to reproduce a functioning self replicating organism is not addressed either
Err, I think we saw in the video how we can get self-replicating organisms without any proteins and without any "information" being "aquired". And then we saw how random protein production coupled with selection could improve the process. And that is all we need. Sorry, designer simply not required - not at this stage at any rate. But I'm sure you'll find something else for him to do.
You may think that the CDK007 video is plausible, I don't.
Given the level of scientific knowledge you have demonstrated here, I would say that is one in the bag for CDK007.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 261 by NanoGecko, posted 04-25-2009 10:01 PM NanoGecko has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 271 by NanoGecko, posted 04-26-2009 7:55 AM cavediver has replied

cavediver
Member (Idle past 3665 days)
Posts: 4129
From: UK
Joined: 06-16-2005


Message 267 of 327 (506416)
04-26-2009 5:08 AM
Reply to: Message 265 by NanoGecko
04-26-2009 4:25 AM


Re: Non-physical God - with non-physical evidence
Surely the very short list that I posted last night (Australian time), that listed for example that the distances between some bodies in our Solar system as evidence of design. I could add to that list for hours, take the distance between the Earth and the Moon as another evidence of brilliant mathematical balance and design, which also provides a multitude of benefits for life on this planet, both in a biological sense and in a practical sense for things such as tidal movements of the oceans to name just one.
do you have any comprehension of how many stars there are in just the Observable Universe alone? And given how many planets we have now discovered, do you have any appreciation for just how many planets that implies? Everything we see around us HAS to be compatible with life for reasons so damn obvious that we only give it a name (the Weak Anthropic Principle) because of the existence of people like you Not only are we not in the slightest bit surprised at the suitablility of Earth and the Solar System for life; given the numbers involved, we fully expect to find countless similar systems throughout the Universe. Even if there was only one such system in each galaxy, so say one for each 100 billion stars, that's still one hundred billion systems in the Observable Universe alone.
Sorry, but the nature of the Universe itself means that there is no evidence for design in looking at the Earth and our Solar System, other than the usual "evidence" from ignorance.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 265 by NanoGecko, posted 04-26-2009 4:25 AM NanoGecko has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 275 by NanoGecko, posted 04-26-2009 8:51 AM cavediver has replied

cavediver
Member (Idle past 3665 days)
Posts: 4129
From: UK
Joined: 06-16-2005


Message 269 of 327 (506421)
04-26-2009 6:45 AM
Reply to: Message 268 by NanoGecko
04-26-2009 6:34 AM


Re: The Central Point
...a loss of information and complexity has in fact provided a situation that is naturally selected as beneficial to each organism from environmental pressure. This is all heading in the wrong direction for Darwinian Evolution.
I'm sorry? Wrong "direction"? What "direction" is there in Darwinian Eviolution other than local fitting to the local environment? You surely can't be arguing that "complexity" is some sort of "goal" for evolution, can you? I think you need to learn a bit about evolution before you sound so sure of yourself and your quotations...

This message is a reply to:
 Message 268 by NanoGecko, posted 04-26-2009 6:34 AM NanoGecko has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 300 by NanoGecko, posted 04-27-2009 11:08 AM cavediver has replied

cavediver
Member (Idle past 3665 days)
Posts: 4129
From: UK
Joined: 06-16-2005


Message 286 of 327 (506484)
04-26-2009 6:37 PM
Reply to: Message 271 by NanoGecko
04-26-2009 7:55 AM


Re: common knowledge VS common igorance
please correct me if I am wrong
My pleasure
BECAUSE we are here and BECAUSE we have the beautifully designed and highly complex DNA/RNA systems operating perfectly, then of necessity there MUST have been BILLIONS of years between that period and the first hard-body-part fossils
Completely wrong. We have dated the earliest life to nearly 4 billion years old. The earliest hard-body-part fossils are of the order of half a billion years old. The billions of years is not assumed because it is necessary - it is simply hard geological data.
You obviously have an a priori commitment to the idea that life has evolved from simple to complex
I have no a priori commitment to anything - not since finally shrugging off twenty-plus years of being a born-again Christian - when I observe the geological record, I see simpler life over-layed by more complex life. Spotted any rabbits in the pre-Cambrian recently?
so your worldview is revealed here by the circular reasoning displayed
So as I said, what circular reasoning?
You are full of compliments this evening!
Unlike you, I don't go around implying that scientists don't have a fucking clue. As a scientist, I sort of get annoyed by that...
the point that I was making is that the fundamental laws of chemistry do not provide a solution to the problem of where the cellular energy came from
I'm sorry, what "fundemental laws of chemistry" and what "cellular energy"? What are you talking about? At the level of these proto-cells, we're a long long way from ATP. Please spell out clearly your objections, because I don't speak layman-ease.
And then you try to slip in Sarfati's crap, as if I wouldn't recognise his idiocy. He may be from your neck of the woods, but his bullshit has spread far and wide. We have possible and plausible pathways to abiogenesis. Every prior creationist objection to science that has been raised has been soundly demolished. Do you really think that there is any mileage in continuing to try to say "this just isn't possible". Didn't you start to take the hint when we sussed out thunder and lightning? How many thousand gaps do we have to close before you finally realise that trying to shoe-horn your god into those gaps is fruitless. Do you really think that one day, a gap will be found, and you will say "Aha! I knew God must have been in there somewhere" Did faith simply fall out of fashion somewhere down the line?
Is your god so crap that he cannot create a Universe in which life can spontaneously arise? Is his creation so pathetic that he has to keep putting his hand in to make it actually do anything?
Edited by cavediver, : No reason given.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 271 by NanoGecko, posted 04-26-2009 7:55 AM NanoGecko has not replied

cavediver
Member (Idle past 3665 days)
Posts: 4129
From: UK
Joined: 06-16-2005


Message 287 of 327 (506486)
04-26-2009 6:46 PM
Reply to: Message 275 by NanoGecko
04-26-2009 8:51 AM


Re: Non-physical God - with non-physical evidence
I wondered how long it would be before someone trotted out the old anthropomorphic argument. Not impressed!
My first research papers were written on the Anthropic Principle (not anthropomorphic, you muppet) - guess how much I care about whether you're impressed or not
As I said, the Weak Anthropic Principle does not need to be trotted out except for those too ignorant to understand the bleedin' obvious.
so obviously you are not in the slighest bit surprised about anything as trivial as the millions of complex factors that make this little planet Earth suitable for life, because it goes with the territory that you have chosen to believe.
I have billions upon billions of trials and you expect me to be suprised when one of those trials results in millions of complex factors coming together... you need to add statistics to your ever growing list of "stuff I ought to know a bit about before I make an idiot of myself again"
As I first said to you - you are trying to claim all this evidence for "design", and all we have to do is show plausible natural means to explain your "design" and your evidence crumbles to nothing. It doesn't mean it wasn't designed, it just means that you have no evidence. Which just leaves you with faith, which is how it should be. I would have thought you would know that...

This message is a reply to:
 Message 275 by NanoGecko, posted 04-26-2009 8:51 AM NanoGecko has not replied

cavediver
Member (Idle past 3665 days)
Posts: 4129
From: UK
Joined: 06-16-2005


Message 303 of 327 (506583)
04-27-2009 5:55 PM
Reply to: Message 300 by NanoGecko
04-27-2009 11:08 AM


Re: The Central Point
The point here that I was making is that the direction of ordered complexity required for the Darwinian evolutionary hypothesis to hold water is upward
Wrong
If the theoretical result of the actions of the Darwinian evolutionary hypothesis are not those that have brought about increasing ordered complexity
Of course they are, except that they are not theoretical
But surely you cannot be confusing a result of evolution with some supposed "goal" of evolution? I take it you can tell the difference?
"jedpTus rmathefoionhatwj aitustumheinreisgtone ecaeI ustblb", it doesn't actually mean anything does it.
"The information that was there is gone because I just jumbled it up"
Sorry, but your example just reveals your ignorance of mutation. Let's look at some more realistic mutations on your string:
"The information that saw there is gone because I just jumbled it up"
"The information that was there is because I just jumbled it up"
"The information is gone because that was there I just jumbled it up"
"The information that was there is information that was there is gone because I just jumbled it up"
which of these is less complex than the original?

This message is a reply to:
 Message 300 by NanoGecko, posted 04-27-2009 11:08 AM NanoGecko has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 304 by NanoGecko, posted 04-27-2009 9:09 PM cavediver has replied

cavediver
Member (Idle past 3665 days)
Posts: 4129
From: UK
Joined: 06-16-2005


Message 305 of 327 (506618)
04-28-2009 3:22 AM
Reply to: Message 304 by NanoGecko
04-27-2009 9:09 PM


Re: The Central Point
the direction of complexity quantity be such that there is an increase not decrease, I would have thought that a fundamental and logical principle like this was obvious.
That there has been an increase in complexity is obvious. That such an increase is a "goal" or a "fundamental and logical principle" is complete nonsense, and your ignorance is revealed despite your squirming.
In the examples that used, you did change the quantitative level of information and you intelligently co-ordinated the changes
No, I did not. You are merely seeing the result of a filter. That filter in evolution is natural selection. That filter will act on every single organism, and if the mutations were sufficient to make an essential function inoperative, or to add a seriously deleterious function, that mutation will be removed from the gene pool probably before the creature is even born. Only those mutations that are not immediately life-threatening have any chance of continuing. The only way a gene will be reduced to nonsensical mush, such as in your example which requries a great many generations based on typical mutation rates, is where such a gene has absolutely no relevance to these creatures in their particular environment at that time. Mutations do not add information. Mutations plus natural selection add information. Where does the information come from? The environment. Is this really so hard?
Edited by cavediver, : No reason given.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 304 by NanoGecko, posted 04-27-2009 9:09 PM NanoGecko has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 309 by lyx2no, posted 04-28-2009 7:10 AM cavediver has not replied
 Message 311 by NanoGecko, posted 04-28-2009 8:22 AM cavediver has not replied

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