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Does science actually admit "design"?

Speedwell

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So If I left the faith I would automatically cleave to evolution? I didn't believe it before I was converted and I won't believe it if (God forbid) I ever unconvert.
Not necessarily, any more than if I "left evolution" I would necessarily abandon my faith for your right-wing Protestant fundamentalism. There are many more than just two options.
 
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bhsmte

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So If I left the faith I would automatically cleave to evolution? I didn't believe it before I was converted and I won't believe it if (God forbid) I ever unconvert.

You are describing; "black and white thinking", which is not unusual for folks who cling to biblical creation.

There are countless options.
 
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PsychoSarah

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if it doesnt make any problem to vision then how you can call it "bad design"?
-_- it creates tons of visual problems, actually. Why do you think optical illusions are a thing? The image the eye processes is so flawed that the brain has to fill in the gaps with what it thinks belongs there. That's why our occipital lobe has to be so large.


on the other hand: are you smart enough to make an eye?
-_- would you not consider a camera the technological equivalent?
 
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tas8831

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Indeed - but this is not the context in which OWG means it. He is talking about motor impulses to the larynx via the RLN:


"How do you think unconscious vocal signals get to the brain so fast when a person, or a giraffe, is suddenly surprised or frightened? Or that the throat tightens and the voice becomes weak under certain stressful situations. This is a visceral reaction (the 'mind' of the body) influencing the function of the throat and voice box without the direction of the brain. The signal gets there via the RLN in the case of the giraffe."









He is attempting to gloss that over by doing keyword searches and posting whatever he hopes will stick, such as the feedback stuff he recently linked to.

Don't be taken in by his schtick!
 
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tas8831

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And he never did. Creationism is thus disproved.
 
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FrumiousBandersnatch

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I'm just trying to ensure the science is reasonably accurate; you're right in saying there's no direct motor control of throat or larynx from the heart; signals from the heart are just sensory feedback to the CNS.

The changes and effects he's talking about are all CNS mediated.
 
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pitabread

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Faith-based thinking provides certainty. Mankind can use more of it.

Interestingly enough, I've noticed that there are people who have what I call a higher degree of "uncertainty intolerance". And probably not coincidentally, those who are intolerant of uncertainty seem to be more likely to hold dogmatic religious beliefs.
 
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OldWiseGuy

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I tolerate uncertainty in others. My faith opens the door to certainty in the most important areas of (my) life. And it works well for me. If uncertainty is comfortable for others I have no problem with that, although I am certainly negatively affected by it.

Just out of curiosity what do you consider "dogmatic religious beliefs"?
 
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OldWiseGuy

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You are describing; "black and white thinking", which is not unusual for folks who cling to biblical creation.

There are countless options.

The other options are just watered down black and white options.
 
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tas8831

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Just like you are certain that the sensory feedback from the heart somehow will convert to motor impulses and go directly to the larynx via the RLN?

Just like you are certain that one needs "near perfect peripheral vision" to 'see' the blind spot?



I think the pseudocertainty you enjoy - and exhibit - so frequently is a bad thing.
 
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tas8831

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So - you were certain that your link supported your 'brainstorming for creation' notion that the aorta sends motor input directly to the larynx via the RLN?

Because it didn't - not even remotely close.

See what I mean?
 
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OldWiseGuy

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Optical illusions are more a brain thing than an eye thing.

-_- would you not consider a camera the technological equivalent?

The best cameras are designed after the human eye, which is the finest optical 'instrument' known to date.

The supposed shortcomings of the human eye are purposeful limitations. We are not designed to see infrared, ultraviolet, or have telescopic vision. And the brain compensates for the rather insignificant blind spot very well.

We also can't run like a gazelle, crush bones with our teeth like a lion, or lift ten times our weight, as animals can. We were created much lower than the angels, for the purpose of suffering and death, and our bodies reflect that in our design.
 
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xianghua

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It makes extra work for the brain to compensate for it.

so what? its still work great.

I am smart enough to see a better way to make it.

and yet you cant even make a simple eye. as you admit: "Of course, I do not pretend to be able to do so"

so maybe, just maybe, the designer is smarter then you?.
 
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tas8831

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It makes extra work for the brain to compensate for it.
so what? its still work great.

So you have just negated the whole 'perfect' design thing.

Thanks!

and yet you cant even make a simple eye. as you admit: "Of course, I do not pretend to be able to do so"

so maybe, just maybe, the designer is smarter then you?.

Or, maybe the person that compiled lists of fallacious arguments had you in mind?


Waiting for you to make your self-replicating robot penguin. Maybe you are just not smart enough?
 
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tas8831

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The supposed shortcomings of the human eye are purposeful limitations.

You cannot possibly know this - besides, it is all question begging.


Still waiting for you to define "near perfect peripheral vision" and from what YEC website you copied that from, and where it was declared that such was needed to 'see' the blind spot.
 
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PsychoSarah

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Optical illusions are more a brain thing than an eye thing.
Did I not just describe that the brain thing exists because the eyes are inadequate? If there were no gaps in our vision to fill, our brains wouldn't be doing it and thus resulting in many optical illusions.


The best cameras are designed after the human eye, which is the finest optical 'instrument' known to date.
Humans don't even have close to the best vision among animals, and the best cameras have far better resolution than the human eye does. You just can't tell unless people are zooming into the picture so that you can personally perceive the extra detail. Think about it this way; if I produced an image with more detail than the human eye can generate, you wouldn't be able to tell, because your eyes are human, so you can't see any better than that. "But Sarah, the backgrounds are never as detailed as what I see". Sure they are, you just can't shift your focus to make out more detail in a still picture. But if you were looking through the high-end camera and adjusted it along with your own vision, you wouldn't see much of a difference. Cameras all process color slightly differently than each other, but the same actually goes for human eyes, so I don't view that as relevant.

Aside from the fact that cameras use lenses for focusing (lenses not made of the same material as that in human eyes), there's not much in common between them and human eyes. The only camera I know of that is literally designed after a human eye is one in development that is intended to be a replacement eye.

The supposed shortcomings of the human eye are purposeful limitations. We are not designed to see infrared, ultraviolet, or have telescopic vision.
These limitations have nothing to do with the blind spot, and would still be present if we didn't have it. I am not suggesting that having a limited visual spectrum is a flaw, I am saying that having blind spots in our field of vision that have to be filled in by the brain is demonstrably a flaw. After all, we could just have eyes "designed" similarly to a mantis shrimp. Oh, what do you know, it's possible to have color vision without a blind spot while also not having the retina towards the front.


And the brain compensates for the rather insignificant blind spot very well.
-_- irrelevant, having a mechanism to compensate acceptably for an unnecessary "design" flaw doesn't make it cease to be a flaw. And it does impact our vision; there are patterns which cause eye strain and confusion as a result of this.

And considering that you think the human brain compensates for it so well, wouldn't that discredit your claim that it is a purposeful limitation? Limitations set in place on purpose generally aren't combined with conditions which work around that limitation as to make said limitation almost imperceptible. For the majority of human existence, we weren't even aware of it, and yet you think this warrants enough of an impact that it was set in place on purpose?


We also can't run like a gazelle, crush bones with our teeth like a lion, or lift ten times our weight, as animals can.
It's not about what humans aren't capable of doing and other animals are. Obviously, we can't breathe underwater, but I'd never claim that the human lungs were flawed because of that. I'm not going to criticize what isn't there, only what is.You think all of this crap has the same designer, so why do some "designs" have flaws absent in others? Both ostriches and humans are bipedal, so why are humans stuck with all these bones in the feet that make the arches wear down, but ostriches don't? Why can geckos regrow lost tails but my bearded dragons can't (both being small lizards often preyed upon by large animals)? Evolution can explain this easily, since the same adaptations are not guaranteed to result just because of similar niche, and humans haven't experienced enough time to be as specialized in bipedal movement as ostriches. But the designer you believe in doesn't have the limitations of biological evolution, and thus has no excuse.

It's not like humans having fewer bones in their feet would affect intelligence, etc.

We were created much lower than the angels, for the purpose of suffering and death, and our bodies reflect that in our design.
Most Christians wouldn't say humans were made for suffering, but rather disobedience made it so we have to. But suffering is far from exclusive to humans, and is often entirely pointless and unrelated to human activities. Why do snakes have traits that prevent them from suffocating when they are swallowing large food items and soft shelled turtles don't when both animals swallow food whole? Do the turtles deserve to be more prone to choking or restricted to eating smaller prey items than snakes?

Heck, consider your gazelle example: why does the gazelle have the ability to run fast? To escape predators. Why does the cheetah have the ability to run even faster? To catch fast prey like the gazelle.

You might not see anything wrong with this, but I see no reason why both animals couldn't have been designed to be slow. Their only reason for being fast is because of the predator/prey relationship; it is not necessary for reproduction, etc. If the prey was slow, there'd be no reason for the cheetah to be fast. It is far more energy conserving for both animals to be slower, so why aren't they? From an evolution perspective, it makes sense that these animals would end up being fast, because natural selection favored gazelle that could get away from predators quickly, as well as cheetahs that were fast enough to catch fast prey. But from a design perspective, there isn't any point to it.
 
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