Posted on 10/16/2003 7:33:43 AM PDT by AntiGuv
The Cambrian Explosion - when life suddenly and rapidly flourished some 550 million years ago - may have an explanation in the reaction of primitive life to some big event.
The explosion is one of the most significant yet least understood periods in the history of life on Earth.
New research suggests it may have occurred because of a complex interaction between components of the biosphere after they had been disturbed by, for example, the break-up of a super-continent or an asteroid impact.
Scientists say the life explosion might just have easily occurred two billion years earlier - or not at all.
Dramatic events
All modern forms of life have their origin in the sudden diversification of organisms that occurred at the end of the so-called Cryptozoic Eon.
Scientists have struggled to explain what might have happened in the previous few hundred million years to trigger such a burst of life.
Certainly, it was a period of history that witnessed the assembly and break-up of two super continents and at least two major glaciation events. Atmospheric oxygen levels were also on the rise.
But what actually caused the Cambrian Explosion is unknown.
Writing in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, Dr Werner von Bloh and colleagues, from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, present a new analysis of happened.
They suggest that "feedback" in the biosphere caused it to jump from one stable state without complex life to one that allowed complicated life to proliferate.
"We believe that there was a change in the environment - a slow cooling of the system - that caused positive feedback that allowed the conditions for complex life," Dr von Bloh told BBC News Online.
Self regulation
Using a computer model of the ancient Earth, the researchers considered three components of the biosphere, the zone of life.
These were single-celled life with and without a nucleus, and multicellular life. Each of these three groups have different environmental tolerances outside which they cannot thrive.
The computer model showed there were two zones of stability for the Earth - with or without higher lifeforms - and that 542 million years ago the planet flipped from one to the other.
What caused the flip is not clear. It might have been a continental break-up, or even an asteroid impact.
There is some indication that the Moon suffered a sudden increase in impacts about the same time as the Cambrian Explosion. If so, then the Earth would have been affected as well.
This latest analysis also provides some support for the Gaia hypothesis - the idea that the biosphere somehow acts as a self-sustaining and regulating whole that opposes any changes that would destroy life on Earth.
Intelligent beings
Dr von Blow says that after the Cambrian Explosion there has been a stabilisation of temperature up to the present, and that the biosphere is not playing a passive role.
He also adds that there is an intriguing implication from his research which suggests that had the conditions been only slightly different, the Cambrian Explosion could have occurred two billion years earlier.
An early explosion would have meant that by now the Earth could have developed far more advanced intelligent creatures than humans.
Alternatively it could still be inhabited by nothing more complex than bacteria.
Dr von Bloh says that it will be of great interest when we find other Earth-like worlds circling other stars to see if they have had their own Cambrian explosions yet.
The timing of such events has implications for the search for intelligent life in space, he says.
I asked for evidence. You said it's everywhere. I asked you to be more specific. You posted the above evasion. The ad hominem doesn't get you off the hook. Give me a specific example of evidence of the existence of a deity.
Try and get one of these evolutionary scientists to admit that they may be wrong concerning God's existence and I think you'll see a 'religious' response on their part.
I know many evolutionary scientists. Some are Christians, some are atheists, some are agnostics like myself. Which ones do you mean?
Speaking for myself, I cannot possibly be wrong concerning God's existence, since I don't have an opinion on it.
I don't have an authoritative answer. But a quick response is that when there's no data, there's no possibility of any progress.
Thanks for making my point again. It takes religion to say "There is a God", just as it takes religion to say "There is no God". Religion is not dependant on a diety. Most people don't understand this simple point. Yet the majority of evolutionists react to refuted arguments with the same 'religious condemnation' as does the creationist.
It's actually quite funny.
You are laughable!
You are correct. After re-reading the posts, I see that it was not your post that I gathered the 'disdain' from. I apoligize.
I have no idea what you think your point is. You haven't answered my question; when you say 'evolutionary scientists' are dogmatic about the existence of a God, are you referring to the evolutionary scientists who are Christians, the ones who are atheists, or the ones who are agnostics? And, with reference to the last, how can someone who says he does not know whether or not God exists be called dogmatic on the subject?
And finally, since you have yet again failed to provide a specific example of a piece of evidence for a deity, can I take it that you have withdrawn your claim that such evidence exists?
Nice thought but not reality. Like I pointed out with my own challenge, there are many Catholics who line up against Catholic beliefs. Catholicism and Christianity in general require more than a simple roll call. "Saying" they are Christian doesn't alter the evidence of their work.
Really professor? How about this, evolution is religion.
And finally, since you have yet again failed to provide a specific example of a piece of evidence for a deity, can I take it that you have withdrawn your claim that such evidence exists?
No but you can take it that I ignored responding knowing that any 'evidence' I give would not be deemed suitable for your consideration. But here goes:
Psalms 19:1 The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.
Romans 1:19 Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.
20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:
Remember, evidence not proof.
Evolutionists aren't trying to disprove God. Evolution isn't even concerned with God. Evolution is science, and science does not deal with the metaphysical. That's better left to priests and rabbis.
To believe these scientists, you have to take their word on events they did not witness to explain what they admit they don't understand.
So, following you rationale, the only things that can be proved are things we can experience with our own senses. That pretty much eliminates all of physics (have you ever seen a quark?), genetics (can you see dna without a microscope) etc. etc.
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