Dinosaurs on the Ark: How It Was Possible

[Hans Blaster]

Lol, really? Who doesn't find the natural world beautiful? It doesn't need to be to function.

Strip miners.

 

[renniks]

Strip miners.

That's an odd assumption. I'm sure there are plenty of strip miners who appreciate the beauty of the natural world but also do their jobs.

 

[Hans Blaster]

There's not enough information in a single cell organism to create you.

That's a really odd thing for someone who grew from a single-celled organism to say.

 

[trophy33]

Lol, really? Who doesn't find the natural world beautiful? It doesn't need to be to function.

If the sky was green or yellow or silver, would you say its ugly, just because its not blue?

 

[Subduction Zone]

Funny, every generation in history has worshiped someone or something, but you think you are smarter than all of them and don't see the evidence of creation that's all around you? "Nature" is not an entity. You don't rule it out, you just recognize the obvious, nature could not create itself. It's too complex and too beautiful.
No, you can't get from the pond scum to the variety of life we have without some magic formula either. There's not enough information in a single cell organism to create you. And we are back to: Just because DNA has some switches already programmed into it that can help organisms adapt to the environment doesn't get us to molecules to man evolution. It's a silly leap to make.

Arguments from ignorance and claims that you cannot back up are never very convincing.

Meanwhile scientists go on answering the questions of how we evolved.

 

[dlamberth]

Are you willing to admit that humans can perceive "beauty" because of Krishna? Or the Buddha? Or Hahgwehdiyu?

I'm of the mind that Human Beings perceive beauty because that's what we do as a trait of Human consciousness.

 

[Subduction Zone]

Explain beauty apart from a creator. It's un necessary for survival.

"Beauty" is merely the recognition that one is in a hospitable environment. If one was in an environment unsuited for survival we would avoid it. That is why the caldera of an active volcano is amazing, but nothing in it welcomes you in. Don't you think that it might be an evolutionary advantage to avoid such things? Raging flood water, hmm, better avoid it. Evolutionary advantage. Rapidly rising tide on a large flat, hmm, better avoid it. Evolutionary advantage.

Just because a person does not understand an evolutionary advantage does not mean that one does not exist.

 

[driewerf]

Well, then the explanation is sorely lacking. It's like saying there's some magic fairy dust that causes tadpoles to morph into elephants if you throw enough time into the mix.

Are you serious? Is that your level of understanding of the ToE?
You can choose: either you are incredibly ignorant or willfully spreading misinformation, a.k.a. breaching the ninth commandment.
And in either case it doesn't reflect well on christianity.

 

[driewerf]

Explain beauty apart from a creator. It's un necessary for survival.

But for procreation!

 

[AV1611VET]

If the sky was green or yellow or silver, would you say its ugly, just because its not blue?

 

[Gene Parmesan]

I'll be more productive now.

Funny, every generation in history has worshiped someone or something, but you think you are smarter than all of them and don't see the evidence of creation that's all around you?

The explanatory power of a God(s) is "intellectual cheesecake." People create complicated things, people are complicated, someone created us! Answers. God stories are a crutch that make understanding the universe easy. It provides us with meaning. It comforts us from our greatest fears like death and never seeing our loved ones again. We began with the desires and then constructed the thing to address them, much like we do when we create unhealthy things based on our desires like porn or cheesecake.

I often think about this quote from Stephen Pinker's book "How The Mind Works":

We enjoy strawberry cheesecake, but not because we evolved a taste for it. We evolved circuits that gave us trickles of enjoyment from the sweet taste of ripe fruit, the creamy mouth feel of fats and oils from nuts and meat, and the coolness of fresh water. Cheesecake packs a sensual wallop unlike anything in the natural world because it is a brew of megadoses of agreeable stimuli which we concocted for the express purpose of pressing our pleasure buttons.

 

[trophy33]

It clearly seems that all possible combinations of colors and shapes can be seen as beautiful by somebody.

 

[AV1611VET]

It comforts us from our greatest fears like death and never seeing our loved ones again.

And where's the comfort when an atheist son or spouse dies?

If this was just made up to comfort us, why was Hell made up?

Why not just make up a story that we all go to Heaven, irregardless?

After all, the universalists did it.

 

[AV1611VET]

It clearly seems that all possible combinations of colors and shapes can be seen as beautiful by somebody.

Yum! Yum! I want some!

 

[trophy33]

Yum! Yum! I want some!

Its about what you are used to. Your previous experience actually dictates what you see as attractive or not. Its wired into your brain from childhood.

 

[Gene Parmesan]

And where's the comfort when an atheist son or spouse dies?

If this was just made up to comfort us, why was Hell made up?

Why not just make up a story that we all go to Heaven, irregardless?

After all, the universalists did it.

A few things, a story being comforting is not a sign of the story's veracity.

Accepting that our time in Earth is finite can lead to a better appreciation of what we have and even stronger relationships.
“When giving your child or wife a kiss, repeat to yourself, ‘I am kissing a mortal.’” — Epictetus

Hell has its own useful features. Desires aren't the only thing that motivate. Fear is an even stronger motivator. And what better thing to be afraid of than ETERNAL torment. Leave the faith and you will burn. It's worth noting that not all Christians believe in a place where souls are eternally punished.

 

[AV1611VET]

Its about what you are used to. Your previous experience actually dictates what you see as attrative or not.

No argument there.

If the sky was actually silver or yellow, I think it would look ugly.

 

[trophy33]

No argument there.

If the sky was actually silver or yellow, I think it would look ugly.

Just because you are not used to it. If you would grow up with yellow skies giving pleasant temperatures and fun outside and clear blue sky would indicate danger, unpleasant times or even death, you would see the yellow one as beautiful and the blue one as ugly.

 

[AV1611VET]

A few things, a story being comforting is not a sign of the story's veracity.

I'm trying to get on the same page with you and play Devil's Advocate by saying Heaven was made up as a place for our loved ones to meet.

But then, why taint such a beautiful story by making up the idea of Hell?

If it's out of fear, as you say, are you assuming that made-up utopian story backfired on them in the form of another place that is just the opposite?

I don't believe Christianity was made up, just to get people to believe in a place where they can see their loved ones after they're gone; since Hell is a part of that Christian story as well.

 

[AV1611VET]

Just because you are not used to it. If you would grow up with yellow skies giving pleasant temperatures and fun outside and clear blue sky would indicate danger, unpleasant times or even death, you would see the yellow one as beautiful and the blue one as ugly.

I suppose so.