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To: Paddlefish
And given what DI did to the Dover School District after they cut and run, I'd sure be scared for my pocketbook if I was in Kansas.
Given what Anthony Kennedy - say nothing of four other SCOTUS justices - can believe about the Geneva Conventions, we all of us nationwide have plenty to worry about aside from controversies over education.

But to the merits of the theory that complex, specialized organs like the eye - or even "simple" cells - accidentally assembling themselves, I'm put in mind of the statement in my thermodynamics placing a probability on the proposition that a red hot iron ball, if dropped into a bucket of water, would "bounce" back to its original height and temperature due to random action of the molecules of water.

Of course the probability the book assigned to that result was very, very, very small, but the idea that it was not zero was pretty amazing to consider. And it just illustrates the point that some things can be theoretically possible and still never happen because their probability of occurrance is just too low.

If you dropped a bowling ball into a bucket of water and instead of immediately sinking to the bottom it initially bounced back up to its original height, you would conclude that a miracle had occurred. And that is what I hear Ann Coulter saying - that if the fossil record reveals basically worms, then suddenly in geological time it reveals complex animals, whatever word you use for it is simply a euphemism for a miracle.

Nothing is random if you can look close enough at its causes; evolution starts with the idea of randomness. And "chance" is the name of a Roman deity. It can be viewed as just a way of avoiding the word "miracle."


88 posted on 07/08/2006 12:45:20 PM PDT by conservatism_IS_compassion (!st Amendment: We can't trust ANYONE to control the public discourse.)
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To: conservatism_IS_compassion
I'm sorry, but I'm afraid your post has earned this response.


89 posted on 07/08/2006 12:56:27 PM PDT by Paddlefish ("Why should I have to WORK for everything?! It's like saying I don't deserve it!")
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To: conservatism_IS_compassion
"But to the merits of the theory that complex, specialized organs like the eye - or even "simple" cells - accidentally assembling themselves,..."

Nobody is proposing such a theory.

"And that is what I hear Ann Coulter saying - that if the fossil record reveals basically worms, then suddenly in geological time it reveals complex animals, whatever word you use for it is simply a euphemism for a miracle."

False premise; the fossil record does not say that.

"Nothing is random if you can look close enough at its causes; evolution starts with the idea of randomness. "

Evolution ends with natural selection, which isn't random.
90 posted on 07/08/2006 1:00:36 PM PDT by CarolinaGuitarman (Gas up your tanks!!)
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To: conservatism_IS_compassion

Evolution isn't random.


168 posted on 07/09/2006 7:41:30 PM PDT by stands2reason (ANAGRAM for the day: Socialist twaddle == Tact is disallowed)
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