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Why everything you've been told about evolution is wrong (now this is weird)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/mar/19/evolution-darwin-natural-selection-genes-wrong ^

Posted on 03/19/2010 4:56:11 PM PDT by chessplayer

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To: metmom; betty boop
Then what's the reason for presupposing that the universe wasn't intelligently designed.

What is "intelligent" about it? Things go round and round in circles endlessly while lfying through space.

At least the presupposition that the universe was intelligently designed has precedent to back it up

It does?

601 posted on 03/28/2010 10:01:16 PM PDT by kosta50 (The world is the way it is even if YOU don't understand it)
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To: metmom; betty boop; spunkets; Alamo-Girl; Quix; wmfights; P-Marlowe; shibumi; xzins; MHGinTN
Of course you are denying them. You're claiming that they don't happen. That's not doubt, that's denial

No. If I a priori rejected something I wouldn't be asking for a proof.

What do you consider credible proof that you're just not going to blow off as not good enough, or not sufficient enough?

Certainly not someone's word for it.

602 posted on 03/28/2010 10:07:08 PM PDT by kosta50 (The world is the way it is even if YOU don't understand it)
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To: csense
Thank you so much for sharing your insights, dear csense!
603 posted on 03/28/2010 10:10:49 PM PDT by Alamo-Girl
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To: Quix
Thank you for sharing that with us, dear brother in Christ!
604 posted on 03/28/2010 10:12:02 PM PDT by Alamo-Girl
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To: Quix
Indeed. Thank you for sharing your insights, dear brother in Christ, and thank you for your encouragements!
605 posted on 03/28/2010 10:13:08 PM PDT by Alamo-Girl
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To: metmom
Indeed, dear sister in Christ!
606 posted on 03/28/2010 10:13:52 PM PDT by Alamo-Girl
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To: betty boop
Thank you oh so very much for your outstanding essay-post, dearest sister in Christ!

Which is not to say that I want to inject God or religion into science. He's already in it; for human reason itself utterly depends on the divine Logos. I just think it would be nice if scientists did not blindly rule Him out of the "initial conditions" of the universe; and I sure do wish they'd stop "politicizing" science in service of atheist presuppositions.

Politicized science is not any longer science.

Indeed.

607 posted on 03/28/2010 10:23:53 PM PDT by Alamo-Girl
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To: betty boop; kosta50
What on earth is kosta talking about? On what basis would we be "observing and measuring" anything in the first place, if we didn't already presuppose a universal criterion by which such activities could be evaluated and judged in the first place? The existence of which kosta (and others) want us "to prove" to his satisfaction — notwithstanding that he himself has been standing on it all the time?

Self-contradictions just continue to pile up....

LOLOL! Great catch!

Thank you so much for your insights, dearest sister in Christ, and for your encouragements!

608 posted on 03/28/2010 10:31:04 PM PDT by Alamo-Girl
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To: Ha Ha Thats Very Logical; metmom
Thank you for your reply!

I'll ask again: since many people, as you acknowledge, accept both God the Creator and evolution, and by your standards should be called creationists, what term would you suggest for those who are anti-evolution because it conflicts with their beliefs about Creation?

Anti-evolutionist.

And if they wish to respond to a demand for a reason why they are anti-evolutionist, then they could say they support "Young Earth Creationism" or "the Intelligent Design Hypothesis" or "Panspermia" or whatever.

609 posted on 03/28/2010 10:38:13 PM PDT by Alamo-Girl
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To: metmom
Thank you so much for all of your insights, dear sister in Christ!
610 posted on 03/28/2010 10:45:46 PM PDT by Alamo-Girl
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To: metmom; tacticalogic
Which all gets back to the point that it isn’t really all about science, or enough evidence to back up the Bible, but that it’s all about attacking religious belief and ridiculing those who have it.

I think when people have solid evidence they are neither insulted by someone's doubt nor do they have to appeal to anecdotal testimonies and to the ineffable. Only those on shaky grounds seem to feel threatened by someone's doubt.

If you don't believe medicine works, feel free to refuse it. If you doubt gravity, hey be my guest...If you don't believe red-hot stove tops should not be touched, go ahead and experiment. It doesn't bother me.

Science in general, and evolution in particular, is the weapon of choice by the atheists with which to bludgeon Christianity and Christians.

See what I mean. Science and evolution is a "weapon." if someone tells me that one can get cured simply by being covered by a shadow of a very holy man, I don't consider that a "weapon. " I consider it superstition, but I don;t take it as an attack on medicine. Medicine does not require faith, or anecdotal testimonies, or "miracles."

Atheists skepticism about miracles is not proof that they didn’t occur, or disproof of their occurrence

Well, that's because talking donkeys and people living inside a fish for three days does not happen in our world. Maybe in another world, but we live in this world, and in this world that doesn't happen. The Bible describes some other world, not this one.

I do know a Christian surgeon who regularly prays for and with his patients and often has to send them home without operating on them because they were healed. He uses scans and tests for the diagnosis and proof of healing.

More anecdotal testimonies. "Truth" in our world is ascertained by obtaining the same results over and over with a great degree of probability. That means the working model "works."  Science is not a competitive religion. Science is a system of models that work consistently and reliably within human limitations and on demand. Religion depends on hope, miracles, grace, fasting, and so on.

If someone wants to bet their life on such a "system" more power to them. I will stay with what works consistently and reliably. If you have pneumonia and you want to be sprinkled with holy water in hopes of being cured, go ahead.  I will take my chance with all available antimicrobial agents.

Now, you’re not going to take my word for it. You’re not going to take his word for it. You’re not going to take the word of the person who was healed about it.

No I won't take anyone's word for it, because no one knows what healed that person. When that doctor starts healing every case of pneumonia or whatever he is healing with equal or greater certainty then with standard medical intervention then hopefully the dear doctor will be able to document his new "skill," and share the secret so that all his colleagues can do the same thing.

You’re going to accuse them of lying unless they meet your specific demands for proof, none of which is likely to ever satisfy you.

You are making this about me and I am getting sick of it. Discuss the issue and not what engage what I will or will not say.

But then the question arises, that even if someone provided the requested images and documents, do you have the skill and training to correctly interpret them?

In an anonymous forum such a question is meaningless. Besides, it is irrelevant if I am qualified or not. The criteria against which this doctor's success is measured is the standard of care. When and if his outcomes meet or exceed the best standard medical science can come up with, then he will have something to show and prove. There has been many a scientist who came up with fantastic results that no one else could repeat. He can't just come out and say "I pray real hard and you'all should try it too." 

Virtually every medical professional I’ve ever met can point to miraculous healings of some kind.

But these spontaneous outcomes do not represent standard of care, nor does anyone know what caused the remission. Every fourth or so pregnancy is spontaneously aborted. Is that an act of God too?

You’re lack of awareness of them indicates that you are not a medical professional. 

Your speculations are amazingly inaccurate.

I could spend the rest of my life googling up testimonies of healings and I have no doubt, you’d find the rest of your life finding reasons for rejecting each and every one of them.

Science has higher standards of proof than mere anecdotal testimonies. And that's good. Otherwise we would be on the same level as detergent commercials. When a patient dies, many will say the doctor killed him; but if he survives, they say God saved saved him. It's pretty weak if you think about it.

There is a healing/prayer room associated with the Cleveland Clinic where a lot of people go for healing and get healed

I realize that this is important to some people and that it may give them hope and a peace of mind, so it is good to have such chapels in places where people face difficult news, such as hospitals.

611 posted on 03/28/2010 11:01:28 PM PDT by kosta50 (The world is the way it is even if YOU don't understand it)
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To: Alamo-Girl
Anti-evolutionist.

And if they wish to respond to a demand for a reason why they are anti-evolutionist, then they could say they support "Young Earth Creationism" or "the Intelligent Design Hypothesis" or "Panspermia" or whatever.

That would be fine with me, and I think that's actually what I've usually called anti-evolutionists in these conversations. Because it's the theory of evolution that's at issue, not their (or my) religious beliefs. In the same vein, I'd love to see anti-evolutionists stop framing the question as being about whether one believes in God or not. If we're going to expand the definition of creationist to include everyone who believes in God the Creator, it's going to include a lot of people who accept the theory of evolution, and the anti-evos are going to have to acknowledge that as well.

612 posted on 03/28/2010 11:33:09 PM PDT by Ha Ha Thats Very Logical
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To: Alamo-Girl
And if they wish to respond to a demand for a reason why they are anti-evolutionist, then they could say they support "Young Earth Creationism" or "the Intelligent Design Hypothesis" or "Panspermia" or whatever.

I don't believe the last two are necessarily "anti-evolution", since they don't disallow the possibility that life was designed with the ability to evolve.

613 posted on 03/29/2010 3:26:11 AM PDT by tacticalogic ("Oh bother!" said Pooh, as he chambered his last round.)
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To: tacticalogic

No, but if they’re going to reject them off hand, there’s no point in me wasting my time posting them.

Not all the accounts of healings you find on the internet are anonymous. A simple google search can provide tons of links with names and places for further research.


614 posted on 03/29/2010 3:55:22 AM PDT by metmom (Welfare was never meant to be a career choice.)
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To: metmom
No, but if they’re going to reject them off hand, there’s no point in me wasting my time posting them.

Is having rejected the anonymous ones reason to assume that verifiable, documented ones will also be rejected?

615 posted on 03/29/2010 4:06:33 AM PDT by tacticalogic ("Oh bother!" said Pooh, as he chambered his last round.)
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To: kosta50; betty boop; metmom; Alamo-Girl; Quix; wmfights; P-Marlowe; shibumi; xzins; MHGinTN
Except that instead of telling them to eat moldy bread, the Bible says they were cured by shadows of holy people passing over them, or by 'telling" the "demons" (talking to microorganisms?!) to get the heck out! And then they "jump" out of one person and into a herd of pigs who then jump off the cliff and drown.

We live in an age where science is expected to explain everything, but it can't. I think a number of mentally ill people have been possessed by demons. Son of Sam comes to mind.

616 posted on 03/29/2010 6:44:43 AM PDT by wmfights (If you want change support SenateConservatives.com)
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To: kosta50; metmom; betty boop; Alamo-Girl; Quix; wmfights; P-Marlowe; shibumi; xzins; MHGinTN
No, I just don't believe the tall tales about talking donkeys, people living inside a belly of a fish for three days, people being cured by passing shadows, or raised from the dead, simply because some book says it happened. It just doesn't happen in this world.

But it has.

We will always end up at Jesus Christ. He is either who He said He was or He isn't. He proved it for us, or He didn't.

I think more than enough objective evidence is there.

Nature reveals a design. You argue that doesn't mean the designer is God, but the truth of Scripture tells us it is God. The only avenue left is to question the veracity of Scripture, but we are given evidence of it's truthfulness with the fulfillment of prophesy, supernatural events and most importantly Jesus Christ.

617 posted on 03/29/2010 7:00:26 AM PDT by wmfights (If you want change support SenateConservatives.com)
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To: metmom; kosta50; spunkets; betty boop; valkyry1; Alamo-Girl; Quix; wmfights; P-Marlowe; shibumi; ...
Science in general, and evolution in particular, is the weapon of choice by the atheists with which to bludgeon Christianity and Christians.

Any honest scientist will agree that evolution does not explain the origin of the species. Adaptation to environment can explain how things have changed over time, but inorganic matter becoming organic matter becoming self replicating is too complicated to have occurred by chance.

618 posted on 03/29/2010 7:09:37 AM PDT by wmfights (If you want change support SenateConservatives.com)
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To: metmom
Which all gets back to the point that it isn’t really all about science, or enough evidence to back up the Bible, but that it’s all about attacking religious belief and ridiculing those who have it.

That’s what these conversations get down to each and every time. Science in general, and evolution in particular, is the weapon of choice by the atheists with which to bludgeon Christianity and Christians.

***************************

Well said.

619 posted on 03/29/2010 7:13:33 AM PDT by trisham (Zen is not easy. It takes effort to attain nothingness. And then what do you have? Bupkis.)
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To: tacticalogic

A lot of verifiable testimony about Bible history in the form of archaeological evidence is already rejected.

Why would anyone presume that testimonies in the internet, even with names and locations, be any different?


620 posted on 03/29/2010 7:30:54 AM PDT by metmom (Welfare was never meant to be a career choice.)
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