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Artificial Life Experiments Show How Complex Functions Can Evolve
NSF ^ | May 8, 2003 | Staff

Posted on 05/08/2003 10:11:06 AM PDT by Nebullis

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To: Michael121
Evolution is stilled called Theory because it cannot be proven.

No. It is called a "theory" because it hasn't been disproven. When it is disproven, it will called a "discarded theory". That's all. I most respectfully suggest that if you do not understand what the word "theory" implies, then you refrain from using it or commenting on it.

941 posted on 05/09/2003 4:53:35 PM PDT by Ten Megaton Solution
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To: freeper4u
Programming a robot (or simulation of a robot) to walk in a real physical environment is hard problem

Don't you see the contradiction in your statement and how it relates to the rest of your statement?

BTW. It is a nice cartoon.

942 posted on 05/09/2003 4:54:52 PM PDT by AndrewC
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To: Ten Megaton Solution
Well, maybe "easily disproved" is not the right thing to say, since no one has ever provided proof of God. I guess the believers might have an uphill struggle after all.

I take it you have disproved God.

943 posted on 05/09/2003 4:58:20 PM PDT by AndrewC
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To: AndrewC
I don't need to disprove God. You need to prove It exists.

I say something does not exist. Such a statement cannot be proven. But all my opponent needs to do to prove me false is to prove that what I say does not exist, does.

You say your God exists. Okay. Pull him out of you pocket and show him to us.

Oh. You can't.

Hmm...

944 posted on 05/09/2003 5:02:50 PM PDT by Ten Megaton Solution
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To: Ten Megaton Solution
You say your God exists. Okay. Pull him out of you pocket and show him to us.

I suppose you can show me a top quark.

I also believe that you do not understand the word believe.

945 posted on 05/09/2003 5:05:55 PM PDT by AndrewC
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To: AndrewC
With a little research I could provide the data and the reasoning the leads scientists to find the concept of "top quark" useful. I am no longer as conversant with quantum theory as I once was, so I cannot say if physicists are comfortable saying that the "top quark" has been proven to exist.

But the only faith involved in the existence of the top quark is that the grad students and research assistants did their arithmetic correctly, that the physical experiments were performed as stated (hence the need for independent verification and repeatability in laboratory results), and that the mathematical theory has no fatal flaws. All of which is verifiable by a mind of sufficient power.

Okay, so your post proves you don't have God in your pocket. Have you checked your back pocket? He probably wouldn't like being sat on. What about your wallet? Preachers are always checking in their parishioners wallets for something or other. Maybe that's where they keep God? Well, where ever you happen to be keeping Him, pull Him out and let's see Him.

946 posted on 05/09/2003 5:12:46 PM PDT by Ten Megaton Solution
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To: Ten Megaton Solution
To be an atheist is to have a profound but unproven faith the the universe was created from nothing, absent a catalyst, with nobody to light the fuse to engage the big bang or stir the primordial ooze which was created from nothing....

Your's is a much greater leap of faith from any view.

947 posted on 05/09/2003 5:15:51 PM PDT by jwalsh07
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To: jwalsh07
To be an atheist is to have a profound but unproven faith the the universe was created from nothing, absent a catalyst, with nobody to light the fuse to engage the big bang or stir the primordial ooze which was created from nothing....

People that have an irrational believe in God should not, never, not once, ever invoke First Causes.

Where'd God come from?

Go ahead. Say He's "eternal", and I can then go find cosmologic theories and hypotheses discussing what the implications of a false vacuum that inflates at a faster rate than it decays on the generation of bubble universes, or in interesting one about how the positive cosmological constant may leading to rending of space-time and the spawning of new universes in an infinite non-convergent series.

And what I'll call up will have some basis in observed fact, unlike religious maunderings.

948 posted on 05/09/2003 5:22:43 PM PDT by Ten Megaton Solution
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To: Ten Megaton Solution
LOL, so in other words you are clueless as to the origin of the universe and take it on faith that it happened the way you think it did. Welcome to the club.
949 posted on 05/09/2003 5:24:14 PM PDT by jwalsh07
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To: Ten Megaton Solution
With a little research I could provide the data and the reasoning the leads scientists to find the concept of "top quark" useful

A study of older North Carolinians published last summer by Koenig and colleagues at Duke and the National Institute for Health (NIH) Research, Rockville, Md., found that weekly synagogue- or churchgoers experienced a 28% lower mortality rate than those attending less regularly. The decline of mortality risk was 35% for women and 17% for men in the study. Participants for this study were interviewed in 1986 about religious attendance, health, health practices, social connections and other variables. Study subjects were drawn from North Carolinians in NIH's national longitudinal database, "Established Populations for the Epidemiologic Study of the Elderly." The sample initially ranged from ages 64 to 101, and 62% were women.

The study, "Does Religious Attendance Prolong Survival? A Six-Year Follow-Up Study of 3,968 Older Adults," published in the Journal of Gerontology: Medical Sciences (August 1999), looked at the population sample in 1992, when 30% of participants had died. The report raises important concerns about the striking findings on mortality. The authors believe that future research should examine why frequent attendees of religious services have longer mortality outcomes. Studies should explore the extent to which frequent religious attendance fosters "attitudes of compliance and care for the body that carry over into adherence to medical treatments." For example, they observe, religious congregants are apt to comment on each other's health and encourage one another to see a physician.


950 posted on 05/09/2003 5:24:32 PM PDT by AndrewC
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To: jwalsh07
Nope. Not clueless. Cognizant of the fact that some questions cannot be answered so I refuse to invent an invisible man in the sky to comfort myself.

That's why I discuss "theories" and "hypotheses" as opposed the religious fanatics use of the term "fact". I recognize the possibility of error.

951 posted on 05/09/2003 5:27:24 PM PDT by Ten Megaton Solution
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To: AndrewC
So. A medical journal commenting that social gatherings may be beneficial to the health of a social animal is somehow related, in a real way, to a fictitious God?

You need to prove that a God's little finger is actually doing something. What you posted is not relevant.

952 posted on 05/09/2003 5:29:49 PM PDT by Ten Megaton Solution
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To: Ten Megaton Solution
Friday afternoon placemarker.
953 posted on 05/09/2003 5:31:00 PM PDT by Lurking Libertarian (Non sub homine, sed sub Deo et lege)
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To: Ten Megaton Solution
Nope. Not clueless.

So lets here the Conservation of Cosmology theory, which contrary to all the laws and theories known to man, provides an algorithm for an ever expanding universe from nothing.

Cognizant of the fact that some questions cannot be answered so I refuse to invent an invisible man in the sky to comfort myself.

Yet by adhering to an atheistic view you are sure there is no God. An act of faith, no?

954 posted on 05/09/2003 5:35:33 PM PDT by jwalsh07
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To: jwalsh07
Yet by adhering to an atheistic view you are sure there is no God. An act of faith, no?

Right. The correct answer is "no". I'm waiting for you to prove your absurd claim that your invisible mover exists. Until that happens, my UnGodly Theory stands intact. No faith necessary.

955 posted on 05/09/2003 5:57:22 PM PDT by Ten Megaton Solution
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To: Ten Megaton Solution
:-} What happened to the nothing + nothing = ever expanding universe science?

I readily admit my belief in God is a matter of faith.

You, on the other hand, being grounded in science, cosmology et al have an unshakeable faith that such a being never existed. Because you sure the hell don't have the science to prove the question posed above.

From now on you can tell people that you are indeed a man of faith. And mean it.

956 posted on 05/09/2003 6:03:22 PM PDT by jwalsh07
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To: jwalsh07
I'm sorry. I don't argue in circles. If you would like, read my last post again, and respond to it in a new fashion, then read my last post yet again and pretend it's the response to what you wrote, and then post a newer and ever more novel response.

You can keep yourself entertained all day, I suppose.

957 posted on 05/09/2003 6:06:58 PM PDT by Ten Megaton Solution
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To: Ten Megaton Solution
You need to prove that a God's little finger is actually doing something. What you posted is not relevant.

I need to prove no such thing. You may not think it is relevant, but somebody did. After all the study was done. And it is evidence of something useful.

958 posted on 05/09/2003 6:11:18 PM PDT by AndrewC
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To: AndrewC
"the study was done"...by whom? This is nice, proof that a figment of your imagination is real.

Well, let's see Harvey.

959 posted on 05/09/2003 6:13:53 PM PDT by Ten Megaton Solution
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To: Ten Megaton Solution
"the study was done"...by whom?

And here I thought you could read. Do you have your mother reading the screen to you. She missed the names in post 950 if she is reading the screen to you. It doesn't mention the name Harvey either. But I'm sure you stock up on carrots.

960 posted on 05/09/2003 6:17:30 PM PDT by AndrewC
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