Answering a century-old question on the origins of life

FrumiousBandersnatch

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...I have no problem believing in science and God at the same time, in fact the more I see discovered in science the more obvious it become that intelligent design was implemented by God. Everything works as it does because that is the way God intended it to be.
So if God, Working in His Mysterious Ways, made everything work just as if it was all entirely natural and no God was involved, why dispute the science that demonstrates that everything works just as if it was all entirely natural and no God was involved?
 
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Estrid

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That paper has long since been refuted:
"Recent results suggest the possibility that decay rates might have a weak dependence on environmental factors. It has been suggested that measurements of decay rates of silicon-32, manganese-54, and radium-226 exhibit small seasonal variations (of the order of 0.1%). However, such measurements are highly susceptible to systematic errors, and a subsequent paper has found no evidence for such correlations in seven other isotopes (22Na, 44Ti, 108Ag, 121Sn, 133Ba, 241Am, 238Pu), and sets upper limits on the size of any such effects. The decay of radon-222 was once reported to exhibit large 4% peak-to-peak seasonal variations (see plot), which were proposed to be related to either solar flare activity or the distance from the Sun, but detailed analysis of the experiment's design flaws, along with comparisons to other, much more stringent and systematically controlled, experiments refute this claim." Wikipedia: Radioactive Decay: Changing Rates
Cant be refuted.
The only science that IS valid is that which seems to support creationism
 
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Shemjaza

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I don't think it's coherent to talk of nothing 'existing' or being a 'state'. Nothing is the concept of negation relative to things, e.g. an empty void isn't 'nothing', but it contains nothing, i.e. it is empty of things. Similarly, you can't just have 'empty' absent of some continuum in which there could be things.
I think we run into problems where it becomes very difficult to describe phenomena. A Universe without space or time when the constancy and ubiquity of both concepts in inherent to the human experience... even though we know for a fact they are malleable.
 
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FrumiousBandersnatch

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I think we run into problems where it becomes very difficult to describe phenomena. A Universe without space or time when the constancy and ubiquity of both concepts in inherent to the human experience... even though we know for a fact they are malleable.
Yes, it often comes down to a mathematical formulation that has no intuitive interpretation or visualization, e.g. quantum mechanics. But it's not nothing.
 
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Shemjaza

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Yes, it often comes down to a mathematical formulation that has no intuitive interpretation or visualization, e.g. quantum mechanics. But it's not nothing.
And we're back to not being able to describe "nothing", and certainly not requiring its existence.

So much for the annoying "Atheism: the belief that nothing exploded, etc, etc"
 
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Subduction Zone

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Well if you are saying that there is no scientific evidence that God exists I disagree. By the way I do not believe that the Miller experiment provides evidence for abiogenesis and the scientific community as a whole does not believe that it does. BUT is you have some evidence that it establishes the evidence necessary to prove abiogenesis please elucidate
You may disagree about there being no scientific evidence for God, but you can prove that fact for yourself. Please answer the following question:

What reasonable test could possibly refute your God claims?

And your claim about the Miller Urey experiment demonstrates that you do not understand the concept of scientific evidence. Please read my sig. Tell me why it is not evidence for abiogenesis.
 
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disciple Clint

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You may disagree about there being no scientific evidence for God, but you can prove that fact for yourself. Please answer the following question:

What reasonable test could possibly refute your God claims?

And your claim about the Miller Urey experiment demonstrates that you do not understand the concept of scientific evidence. Please read my sig. Tell me why it is not evidence for abiogenesis.
It is not my task to prove that it is not evidence for abiogenesis, it is your claim the burden is yours to provide evidence that it is.
 
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disciple Clint

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Having faith and conviction is fine... but you didn't just say you had unshakable faith in Christianity and Creationism, you implied you had evidence.

Claiming evidence then refusing to present it and implying the people asking for it won't accept it anyway looks dishonest.
OK lets give it a test. Review and refute the evidence for God on this site.
Big Book - Credible Catholic
 
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disciple Clint

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I thought about it - and concluded that using the same logic, the universe need not have a cause because it need not have a beginning, and so God is redundant. A more parsimonious explanation.
Science indicates that there was in fact a beginning.
"Our argument shows that null and time like geodesics are, in general,
past-incomplete [requiring a boundary to past time] in inflationary
models, whether or not energy conditions hold, provided only that the
averaged expansion condition Hav > 0 hold along these past-directed
geodesics. This is a stronger conclusion than the one arrived at in previous
work in that we have shown under reasonable assumptions that almost all
causal geodesics, when extended to the past of an arbitrary point, reach
the boundary of the inflating region of space-time in a finite proper time.
Remarkably, this proof (which is explained in detail below in this Section) has extensive general applicability—that is, to any universe (or multiverse or higher dimensional space universe) with an average Hubble expansion greater than zero. In particular, it applies to the eternal inflation multiverse ." Borde, Guth, and Vilenkin
Big Book - Credible Catholic
 
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Subduction Zone

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It is not my task to prove that it is not evidence for abiogenesis, it is your claim the burden is yours to provide evidence that it is.
But you claimed that there is scientific evidence for God. You just proved that you do not have any.

And if you read and understood my sig you would have seen that the Miller Urey experiment is scientific evidence for abiogenesis.
 
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disciple Clint

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But you claimed that there is scientific evidence for God. You just proved that you do not have any.

And if you read and understood my sig you would have seen that the Miller Urey experiment is scientific evidence for abiogenesis.
I provided evidence for the existence of God in post #109 feel free to refute anything, just provide footnotes and citations since all the evidence there also has footnotes and citations. I am waiting for your evidence that Miller goes anywhere near establishing a foundation for abiogenesis. what you say in your sig is not evidence, now is it?
 
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FrumiousBandersnatch

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Science indicates that there was in fact a beginning.
"Our argument shows that null and time like geodesics are, in general,
past-incomplete [requiring a boundary to past time] in inflationary
models, whether or not energy conditions hold, provided only that the
averaged expansion condition Hav > 0 hold along these past-directed
geodesics. This is a stronger conclusion than the one arrived at in previous
work in that we have shown under reasonable assumptions that almost all
causal geodesics, when extended to the past of an arbitrary point, reach
the boundary of the inflating region of space-time in a finite proper time.
Remarkably, this proof (which is explained in detail below in this Section) has extensive general applicability—that is, to any universe (or multiverse or higher dimensional space universe) with an average Hubble expansion greater than zero. In particular, it applies to the eternal inflation multiverse ." Borde, Guth, and Vilenkin
Big Book - Credible Catholic
That's way out of date - mainstream cosmology has moved on since then. We know that Einstein's equations provide an incomplete model and that quantum mechanics needs to be taken into account. Even Alan Guth himself now believes that the universe had no beginning. There is also some question now of what is meant by a beginning - the start of an entropic arrow of time doesn't mean the universe is not temporally infinite - there may be many such points along the time axis, in both directions, each of which appears like a beginning to any observers that are produced.

I've read some of that Big Book, and not only is much of its argument based on outdated science, but it doesn't always get it right, especially on quantum mechanics. You need a better source, or maybe you could make your own arguments.
 
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FrumiousBandersnatch

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OK lets give it a test. Review and refute the evidence for God on this site.
Big Book - Credible Catholic
That's not how it works - you're expected to defend the arguments you make. Pick your favourite argument from whatever source and we'll see how it stacks up and whether you can defend it.
 
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disciple Clint

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That's way out of date - mainstream cosmology has moved on since then. We know that Einstein's equations provide an incomplete model and that quantum mechanics needs to be taken into account. Even Alan Guth himself now believes that the universe had no beginning. There is also some question now of what is meant by a beginning - the start of an entropic arrow of time doesn't mean the universe is not temporally infinite - there may be many such points along the time axis, in both directions, each of which appears like a beginning to any observers that are produced.

I've read some of that Big Book, and not only is much of its argument based on outdated science, but it doesn't always get it right, especially on quantum mechanics. You need a better source, or maybe you could make your own arguments.
Do have evidence that supports your contention that the information is out of date, rendering your personal opinion is not evidence.
 
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disciple Clint

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That's not how it works - you're expected to defend the arguments you make. Pick your favourite argument from whatever source and we'll see how it stacks up and whether you can defend it.
and who decides how it works? Refute what you can, provide your evidence and we will see how it stacks up.
 
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FrumiousBandersnatch

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Do have evidence that supports your contention that the information is out of date, rendering your personal opinion is not evidence.
Yes, there is evidence.

But first, how about you defend your argument from #42 (God requires no cause) against my counterargument (the universe requires no cause) in #97?

BTW, moving the goalposts is an argument fallacy. Moving them to an argument by someone else that you don't even understand, is foolishness.
 
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disciple Clint

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Yes, there is evidence.

But first, how about you defend your argument from #42 (God requires no cause) against my counterargument (the universe requires no cause) in #97?

BTW, moving the goalposts is an argument fallacy. Moving them to an argument by someone else that you don't even understand, is foolishness.
You seem to think that you are in control of this discussion, not so.
 
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FrumiousBandersnatch

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and who decides how it works? Refute what you can, provide your evidence and we will see how it stacks up.
When it comes to my involvement, I decide how it works. This is a science forum for discussing, debating, and arguing scientific ideas. We can toss books, articles, videos, and courses back and forth, demanding the contents be refuted, until the cows come home, but that's not discussing, debating, or arguing. I'm not going to spend a week refuting some book, I want to discuss, argue, and debate with someone who understands what they're talking about.

If you think you have a good argument that you can defend (i.e. that you understand), from that book or elsewhere, let's hear it.
 
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