Posted on 12/29/2001 12:09:43 AM PST by Starmaker
There is nothing miraculous about it. It was actually a slow process of chemicals and environmental conditions coming together over billions of years to produce man.
Miracles are illogical fantasies that religious people use to explain their beliefs where logic falls short.
Furthermore, I don't reject creation because Ayn Rand does. I reject creation because it cannot be scientifically proven. Anyone who wants you to believe in creation usually tells you that you must have "Faith", and then asks you to donate 10% of your salary for "God".
I am quite willing to risk an eternity in hell, for intellectual freedom on earth. I think that hell and heavan are simply stories that men have created for two reasons: 1)They have unanswered questions such as "How did I get here? in their minds, make up an incredible story to explain it rather than accept that they may never know the answer. 2) They want to have power over others, so they claim that there is a great place in the afterlife (that can't be proven) and tell others that they must perform acts of self depravation to them to get their. We call these power hungry people priests and ministers.
You're confusing the question of "how it got there" with "how it works". Evolution might tell me how we came to respect each other's rights, but it cannot tell us the moral principle of why we should do so.
The one area where I seriously part with the Objectivists is in the interpretation of quantum mechanics. It's especially maddening because the basic epistemological premise of Objectivism--the independent existence of reality--is correct, but often gets lost in quantum philosophizing.
I reject creation, as outlined in the Bible, because it has been scientifically disproven.
I read most all of Rand's works as a young adult. I used to think of myself as a "Christian Objectivist", but discovered that I didn't need to pollute my Christianity by unequally yoking it to Randian Objectivism.
I have since seen Rand as a "blind squirrel" who occasionally found an acorn.
Well that's already happened, but Peikoff's not responsible.
Isn't it sad, to see Objectivism degenerating into militant atheism, under his influence?
There is nothing miraculous about it. It was actually a slow process of chemicals and environmental conditions coming together over billions of years to produce man.
Tell you what, sit down and calculate the probability that these random chemicals would come to "life" even over 5 Billion years. It is an extremely low number! All science has ever "created" were basic amino acids in numberous experiments. None of these sprang to life. No, I see the Intelligent Designer at work in the design of life on earth.
Miracles are illogical fantasies that religious people use to explain their beliefs where logic falls short.
If you accept God as The Creator, He certainly can perform actions in our time and space that that would be well beyond our ability to understand and explain.
Early? What time do your cows need milking?
How incredibly sad and short sighted. It is the fool who says, "There is no God."
Tony Snow tells the story of the Washington reporter who called him after the 1994 elections for introductions to Republicans. The reporter said "I don't know any."
And wasn't it the film critic Pauline Kael who, stunned at Nixon's landslide victory in 1972, said "Everybody I know voted for McGovern."
It's just as easy to be an intellectually ingrown atheist as it is to be a Democrat, or a country parson.
I do not accept God as The Creator. One reason is because of what you said. I read it as this: If I turn off all logic and reason (by blindly accepting God as the creator) then anything is possible because there is no need to question it. Life has no consequences except for those that are outlined in the bible ( the most nonsensical book I have ever read). I am sorry. I cannot make that leap of Faith, especially when some backwoods swindler is supposed to "guide" me to the light.
I do agree with you that the chance of ammino acids coming together to create life over 5 billion years is very slim, but there are billions and billions of different gallaxies with billions of different planets, that increases the chances dramatically, and it may be possible that our planet is the luck one that happend to produce these odd organisms called man. IMHO.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.