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My wife has OCD and I feel sorry for you. There are some resource to deal with this online and offline. I would think that dealing with the OCD is more important right now than worrying about the sex. If you have scrupoulosity, then worrying about the guilt associated with sex is your main...

From my perspective this does not really matter with regard to the philosophical implications much because I am after the how and why. Also, I am not sure that eternity is a word that can be used in scientific discussions. Or, if it can, then its (eternities) existence would have to be subject...

Let's at least agree on what natural selection is not, i.e. a process with a will of its own. Natural selection is essentially a system of contraints. It does not however decide to favor any particular mutation over another one. The only reason one mutation may be more beneficial than another is...

Thank you and the others for your insightful posts. The example of the sieve is very illustrative. I can follow your reasoning that mutations are no longer random subsequent to passing through the sieve. While this appears initially logical it seems somewhat circular also. Because, what is...

Being the "heavy" makes you sound somewhat pedantic bordering on the arrogant. I do not see how you have furthered the understanding regarding the source of mutations much. We had allready been through the example of flipping a coin and Poisson distributions and Loudmouth and others have made...

Fair enough. Ultimately, it seems to me that, in layman's terms and for practical purposes, mutations are random. Their occurance can be observed to more or less likely in certain situations but not in others. This means to me that what exists today is the result of a long chain of random...

So, are mutations following something like a normal distribution (or some other sort of distribution) or not? If yes, then presumably where we are today is the expected outcome of billions of mutations.

My point exactly. I could never understand why many Creationists are so threatened by the Theory of Evolution. Evolution merely describes one path that a God may have chosen to create, yes? After all, we can explain much of it, but not one vital aspect, i.e. the one about mutations being random...

That was not the question that I meant to raise. The question that I meant to ask, is this: if my thoughts are the evolutionary outcome of a long chain of random events that have no purpose, then how can I know that any thought is in itself not merely a random purposeless event? But worse, the...

And that's the part that I just don't get. How does something happen in a non-conscious non-purposeful way? Additionally, am I to believe that the outcome of evolution is entirely non-conscious and non-purposeful? So then, non-conscious and non-purposeful forces worked together to enable me...

So why then do evolutionists think of evolution as the Christian's cryptonite? Evolution proves nothing of value for anyone seeking to answer a God question.

I don't understand what you are saying. Does randomness exist and what is it?

For practical purposes I agree. But the relevance of the outcome of this question might be my eternal destiny.

Actually, the outcome of throwing a dice is perfectly predictable. When I throw it 100 times, it will be tails 50 times and heads 50 times. So much for randomness.

So then randomness doesn't really exist, if I understand you all correctly. What we call random is merely our inability to understand fully the process. Which means, I suppose, that, if we understood it properly we might find out that they are not random at all. In fact, it must mean that or you...

I rarely post in this forum but maybe someone here can help me understand. Evolution, if I understand it correctly (if not please explain it to me) is based on two things: random mutations and natural selection. I just don't understand the concept of randomness. What does that mean? Isn't...

I would only eat your buttocks. After that, you're on your own.

Your question doesn't make sense to me. Why would the unsaved pray? And, if they do pray, why and to whom would they pray? And, wouldn't they be saved, if they prayed and hence their prayers would be heard?

Now that I understand that we have essentially matter, natural laws and random mutations, I suppose I understand how evolution is claimed to work. Now then, it would follow that everything that exists today would have to be the result of an iterating process in which mutations helped or hindered...