"Embedded Age" Requires Fake Fossils

[Zosimus]

Does this mean, you don't "know" anything?

Well, it's always possible that I know things. The point is that we cannot differentiate between what we truly know and what we think we know, but is not actually known. If, for example, I look at grass and I think it's green, it could equally be true that the grass is grue or greena. Maybe the grass really IS green. What do I know?

 

[Zosimus]

Common descent of all life is established by a) The common life based chemistry including DNA as the source of heredity, and b) the nested hierarchy of life, AKA the tree of life, that shows living things related in grander and grander groupings, making the grouping of all into the general catagory "life" the logical conclusion.

That's very interesting... the "logical conclusion" you say. Please lay out the premises and line of reasoning that lead to that logical conclusion.

 

[crjmurray]

As you are reading this post, look just to the left where you will see my handle (Zosimus) then scan down to the word "Faith" and look slightly to the right where you will read: Agnostic.

Would it surprise you, therefore, to hear that I am agnostic about whether Darwinism is right vs. whether God created everything?

I don't give a crap about your beliefs. I just wondered if you had an alternative explanation.

 

[bhsmte]

Well, it's always possible that I know things. The point is that we cannot differentiate between what we truly know and what we think we know, but is not actually known. If, for example, I look at grass and I think it's green, it could equally be true that the grass is grue or greena. Maybe the grass really IS green. What do I know?

I ask because, you don't post like someone who doesn't think they can know anything.

 

[Zosimus]

I don't give a crap about your beliefs. I just wondered if you had an alternative explanation.

The Big Bang exploded because God did it.

Do you have an alternate explanation?

 

[Zosimus]

I ask because, you don't post like someone who doesn't think they can know anything.

I think that I know that the word "they" is improperly used in that sentence. Does that count?

 

[Loudmouth]

The Big Bang exploded because God did it.

Do you have an alternate explanation?

Do you have evidence to back your explanation?

 

[crjmurray]

The Big Bang exploded because God did it.

Do you have an alternate explanation?

Biological diversity. That's what the question is about.

 

[bhsmte]

I think that I know that the word "they" is improperly used in that sentence. Does that count?

Do you know anything else?

 

[Zosimus]

Do you have evidence to back your explanation?

You have, once again, missed the point. I am not arguing that God caused the Big Bang. I am arguing that not being able to field an alternate explanation does not mean that the explanation in question must be true.

Evidence is irrelevant.

 

[Zosimus]

Do you know anything else?

I know that emeralds are grue in color. Does that count?

 

[HitchSlap]

The Big Bang exploded because God did it.

Do you have an alternate explanation?

"The Big Bang exploded because Bob did it."

Doesn't really add to our currently model of BB and cosmology, but definitely begs for more questions.

 

[Loudmouth]

You have, once again, missed the point. I am not arguing that God caused the Big Bang. I am arguing that not being able to field an alternate explanation does not mean that the explanation in question must be true.

Not having an explanation means that we don't have an explanation. A bare assertion pulled out of a hat is irrelevant.

 

[Zosimus]

Not having an explanation means that we don't have an explanation. A bare assertion pulled out of a hat is irrelevant.

Exactly – such as bare assertions that scientific findings support the theory of common descent.

 

[Loudmouth]

Exactly – such as bare assertions that scientific findings support the theory of common descent.

Those aren't assertions. They have been demonstrated in real populations. We can observe natural selection in real populations. We have observed that isolated lab mouse populations form phylogenies:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1800920/

All of the mechanisms have been demonstrated.

 

[TLK Valentine]

In the cases of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, it solidifies the fact that they wrote the books that bear their names.

How so?

 

[bhsmte]

I know that emeralds are grue in color. Does that count?

How do you know that?

 

[Herman Hedning]

I subscribe to epistemological nihilism. That means that I believe that nothing can be known, and that we shouldn't even try until a workable framework for knowing things can be constructed.

But since nothing can be known, we can not know how to construct a framework for knowing things. Ergo, it is impossible to know anything, ever. A bleak world view, no?

 

[Zosimus]

How do you know that?

You didn't catch the reference. What color is grue?

If I said, "I know that the Answer to The Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything is 42" would you also say:
"How do you know that?"

 

[Paul of Eugene OR]

But since nothing can be known, we can not know how to construct a framework for knowing things. Ergo, it is impossible to know anything, ever. A bleak world view, no?

How can he actually know that nothing can be known?