Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

To: Tribune7
"We estimate the earth to be stable enough for life at 3.8 billion plus or minus several hunderd millions years ago. "

You may have noted in a link in my last message that one amino acid has been identified in stellar gas, independent of earth’s age. All of this doesn’t have to occur on Earth.

Life could have begun here or on any of the millions or billions of earth like planets with varying ages. That’s one of the points in the other link in my last message to you. The odds of any specific person winning the lottery may be 15 million to one, but someone wins it. Earth may be one of the winners.

You don’t know the odds of biogenesis. Because of the unknowns and the interdependent dynamics, no one knows the odds, except God of course :^). So you have no way of claiming that this is “irrational” with credibility. That’s only what you want it to be.

I sometimes wonder why the people who can’t accept that a simple replicating life form was produced from the universe over billions of years insist that something as great as God came into being from, whatever… ;^)

I’m going to be unavailable for a day or so. Best regards…

557 posted on 11/22/2003 3:50:45 PM PST by elfman2
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 552 | View Replies ]


To: elfman2; Dimensio
No matter what I say about probabilities or paradoxes or the general silliness of being here by chance, you two will find a way to rationalize it.

Chew on these quotes by C.S. Lewis. The existence of God and claims of Jesus are by far the most important things one must deal with in one's life.

To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully around with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the...coffin of your selfishness...The only place outside heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers...of love is hell. ~ C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves

The safest road to Hell is the gradual one -- the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts. ~ C. S. Lewis

One reason why many people find [the false idea of the "force" or "life-force"] so attractive is that it gives one much of the emotional comfort of believing in [a god] and none of the less pleasant consequences. When you are feeling fit and the sun is shining and you do not want to believe that the whole universe is a mere [chance evolution] of atoms, it is nice to be able to think of this great...force rolling on throughout the centuries and carrying you on its crest. If, on the other hand, you want to do something rather shabby, the life-force, being only a blind force, with no morals and no mind, will never interfere with you like that troublesome God we learned about when we were children. The life-force is a sort of tame god. You can switch it on when you want, but it will not bother you. All the thrills of religion and none of its costs. Is the life-force the greatest achievement of wishful thinking the world has yet seen? ~ C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Christianity, if false, is of no importance and, if true, of infinite importance. The one thing it cannot be is moderately important. ~ C.S. Lewis

There is no neutral ground in the universe: every square inch, every split second, is claimed by God and counterclaimed by Satan. ~ C.S. Lewis

The perfect church service would be one we were almost unaware of; our attention would have been on God. But every novelty prevents this. It fixes our attention on the service itself, and thinking about worship is a different thing from worshipping. ~ C. S. Lewis

There are only two kinds of people: those who say to God, "Thy will be done," and those to whom God says, in the end, "Thy will be done." ~ C. S. Lewis

[I felt] the steady, unrelenting approach of Him whom I so earnestly desired not to meet. That which I greatly feared had at last come upon me. In...1929 I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England. I did not then see what is now the most shining and obvious thing; the Divine humility which will accept a convert even on such terms. The prodigal son at least walked home on his own feet. But who can duly adore that Love which will open the high gates to a prodigal who is brought in kicking, struggling, resentful, and darting his eyes in every direction for a chance of escape? The words compelle intrare, "compel them to come in"...plumb the depth of the Divine mercy. The hardness of God is kinder than the softness of men, and His compulsion is our liberation. ~ C.S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy

559 posted on 11/22/2003 11:23:04 PM PST by Tribune7 (It's not like he let his secretary drown in his car or something.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 557 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson