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How the Smallest Cells Give Big Evidence for a Creator

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Subduction Zone

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You don't appear to have any evidence at all for this claim. Mere assertion will get you nowhere.
 
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dmmesdale

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If we're talking about the origin of life, isn't a "living first cause" a paradox?
All it has to do is beat its alternative and is no more paradoxical then your mother and father being the source of you. If you have two incompatible possibilities for a given effect, then one has to be eliminated. Nonlife only is eliminated in favor of the intervention of a living source. If you hold to the nonliving only then the burden is on you.
 
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Subduction Zone

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What else is "living"? Your God is not living in a biological sense so relying on that puts just as much of a burden of proof upon you as it does upon anyone else.

By the way, many of the problems of abiogenesis have been solved. But not all of them.
 
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dmmesdale

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No, life is life.
Now who does not know what evidence is?
I will clearly discuss the nature of evidence with you.
You don't know what evidence is. If it is an effect, it is evidence of a cause. You post is an effect and evidence of you.
And the "first cause" of life is more than likely the laws of chemistry.
Blind faith. The laws of chemistry did not create you absent living beings. Name one documented example of the laws of chemistry creating life anywhere absent a living source?
You seem to be proposing an argument from ignorance "You don't know how life started, therefore God".
You can google inference to the best explanation based on what we do know about life. Not what we do not know. You simply will not follow the evidence.
You do not seem to realize that according to the biological definition of life your God is not "alive".
The source of life here would not have to fit Earth-centric definitions of life. Why would you think it would? If SETI received coded signals from deep space containing building instructions for a star ship would you conclude they are nonliving because they did not fit your biological definitions of life? NASA - Life's Working Definition: Does It Work?
Interview with Carol Cleland

"I am interested in formulating a strategy for searching for extraterrestrial life that allows one to push the boundaries of our Earth-centric concepts of life." -Carol Cleland
Q: What is your opinion of attempts to define of "life?"

In a recent paper in Origins of Life and Evolution of the Biosphere, Christopher Chyba and I argue that it is a mistake to try to define 'life'. Such efforts reflect fundamental misunderstandings about the nature and power of definitions.

Definitions tell us about the meanings of words in our language, as opposed to telling us about the nature of the world. In the case of life, scientists are interested in the nature of life; they are not interested in what the word "life" happens to mean in our language. What we really need to focus on is coming up with an adequately general theory of living systems, as opposed to a definition of "life."

But in order to formulate a general theory of living systems, one needs more than a single example of life. As revealed by its remarkable biochemical and microbiological similarities, life on Earth has a common origin. Despite its amazing morphological diversity, terrestrial life represents only a single case. The key to formulating a general theory of living systems is to explore alternative possibilities for life. I am interested in formulating a strategy for searching for extraterrestrial life that allows one to push the boundaries of our Earth-centric concepts of life.



By trying to claim that you do not believe in life from non-life you are making an equivocation error.
How so? Another useless indictment? I asked you a straight out question and you tapped danced. It is you who is reducing life to biological definitions and assuming it has to fit in all places everywhere. That is an alien standard in science. If it cannot apply to SETI then it does not have to apply to an extrinsic life source for bio life here.

1) Where is your scientific evidence for life from nonlife?

2) If the effect is bio life here then what is the most reasonable first cause given the only two options and based on all we do know about life? A) Nonliving or B) the intervention of a living source?

We have to eliminate one.
 
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Subduction Zone

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Now who does not know what evidence is?

You.

You don't know what evidence is. If it is an effect, it is evidence of a cause. You post is an effect and evidence of you.

Wrong. And to be specific scientific evidence has to support or oppose a scientific concept. "Life" supports evolution too. To be "evidence" it can only support one side. Life is not evidence as you used it.

Blind faith. The laws of chemistry did not create you absent living beings. Name one documented example of the laws of chemistry creating life anywhere absent a living source?

No, blind faith is your problem. And you do not know how to test an idea.

[You can google inference to the best explanation based on what we do know about life. Not what we do not know. You simply will not follow the evidence. [/quote]

Please, no false stories about others. You are the one that so far has shown a lack of understanding of what is and what is not evidence.


What good would a signal do? Your analogy fails.

1) We can see the effects of life when it first appeared about 3.8 billion years ago. There is no know life in "empty space" so when the Earth was first formed it had no life. The fact that we can see life later is evidence for "life from non-life" even if you are a creationist. And for current evidence you can find more than enough here:

Szostak Lab: Home

2) Since the answer "a god did it" has been shown to be false soooooo many times it appears that a natural cause is the best answer. There is evidence for abiogenesis. I have yet to see any for creationist claims.

Perhaps you should learn what evidence is.
 
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pitabread

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And who made them?

It's not "who", it's "how". IOW, if we did want to argue that life originated off-planet we'd need to get an understanding of the conditions under which it arose elsewhere.

Anyway, that post you are quoting wasn't to argue for off-planet origins, it was merely to point out that arguing life couldn't have arisen naturally on Earth does not immediately point to a divine source.

An infinite living source defines God.

Okay, now all you have to do is prove the existence of such a being and you're set. Although given that philosophers have been trying to do just that for a few millennia now, I don't envy you to the task.

Good luck.
 
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dmmesdale

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It's not "who", it's "how". IOW, if we did want to argue that life originated off-planet we'd need to get an understanding of the conditions under which it arose elsewhere.
That was eliminated in the part you ignored. Since the universe was incompatible with life everywhere and in-universe inference is ruled out since that source would haved needed time to develop to the point where they had capability to seed our planet.
Anyway, that post you are quoting wasn't to argue for off-planet origins, it was mere to point out that arguing life couldn't have arisen naturally on Earth does not immediately point to a divine source.
Then what does it point to? What difference does it make? Am i to understand you don't necessarily have a problem with ET as the source of life here but you do have a problem with a divine source? Not coming across as rational. More prejudicial in nature. You outright reject a divine source in spite of the evidence.
Okay, now all you have to do is prove the existence of such a being and you're set.
All I reasonably have to do is eliminate a nonliving source for all bio-life here. And the living source advances. If you can show me how your demands are part of scientific investigation or standards and not something you simply made up then you may have something. As it is your standard cannot be applied in a consistent manner and is therefore alien to working science. It is unscientific since it cannot be used consistently.



You do know we live in a world of reasonable possibilities as opposed to your impossible demands. Also selectively used. Since you exempt your paradigm from your impositions. That is why your atheism is unreasonable.
 
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Haipule

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"How great is our God indeed!"

I read recently that plant stem cells are immortal. The bible says Adam was made from the dust of the earth! How many immortal plant stem cells are in dust?

I once read about the pluripotent stem cells contained in the human rib. And that rib bones grow back if the surgeon leaves the sheath housing it intact.

And mitochondrial DNA cannot precede the first mother.

Paul said that we know God by what He has made. That's why I love science!
 
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Subduction Zone

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Right, somewhere life had to have arisen either naturally or magically. I will go with naturally. But you do realize that now you have fully moved the goalposts. Moving the goalposts is only done when one has lost the argument at hand. Do you want to discuss evolution or abiogenesis?


No, the point was that we know that regardless of the source of life that it evolved once it got here. You are in effect conceding the evolution argument. Evolution and abiogenesis are two separate but related topics.



But you have not even come close to doing that. How do you think that you have eliminated a non-living source? But we can show that time after time when people have claimed "god" or "the gods" that has not been the case.

By the way, I did give you a link to a site that goes over the work of a Nobel Prize winner. Did you even investigate it at all?


You do know we live in a world of reasonable possibilities as opposed to your impossible demands. Also selectively used. Since you exempt your paradigm from your impositions. That is why your atheism is unreasonable.

How was his demand "impossible"? And we don't exempt our paradigm from the same standards that are placed upon you. Where did you get that idea from?

By the way do you know what the "Null Hypothesis" is?
 
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Subduction Zone

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You are misunderstanding quite a bit of science. The ultimate source of mitochondrial DNA is understood and it existed long before a "mother" did.

You mentioned quite a few points. The only proper way to discuss them is one at a time. Which would you like to discuss first?
 
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Haipule

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Obviously, I am not a scientist. I am a stupid surfer from Huntington Beach, CA. But, I like to read nonfiction. However, reading that plant stem cells are immortal was interesting! What you say? I'm not offering an opinion: just being an ear.
 
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Subduction Zone

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Obviously, I am not a scientist. I
am a stupid surfer from Huntington Beach, CA. But, I like to read nonfiction. However, reading that plant stem cells are immortal was interesting! What you say? I'm not offering an opinion: just being an ear.

Do you have a source? When making claims it is always a good idea to link a source.

And nothing wrong with being "dumb". One can always learn. Even a surfer.
 
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dmmesdale

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But you have not even come close to doing that. How do you think that you have eliminated a non-living source?
An exclusive nonliving source as the first cause of all bio-life here? It has no science basis or precedent. Whereas life from life is empirically demonstrated all the time. Millions and millions of times.

But we can show that time after time when people have claimed "god" or "the gods" that has not been the case.

By the way, I did give you a link to a site that goes over the work of a Nobel Prize winner. Did you even investigate it at all?
I already know about Szostak. He has not demonstrated anything. Not even close. He provides overstated reports, probably for funding purposes.

They can do things in state of the art labs. Anything they create in state of the art labs is both intelligently designed and controlled environment. That does not mean it can be done in nature. Anymore than constructing cars in factories means nature or the laws of physics and chemistry can make cars. Even if they could build a DNA molecule from scratch, it would rot at room temperature. Do you even know how complicated the simplest bacteria is? Think of an F-15 fighter jet with the capacity to replicate, and you may be in the ballpark. Instead of one jet, it splits into two jets.

Anytime they try to break bacteria down, it dies. You don't get a simpler life; you get death. There are no identified ancestors to bacteria. All proposed are imaginary. Like LUCA. All fictional, no more valid than the three bears.

If you want to address the origin of life, you have to get to bacteria first. And it is far easier to go from bacteria to an elephant then it is to go from chemicals (prebio goo) to bacteria.
 
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pitabread

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Since the universe was incompatible with life everywhere

Huh? We don't know if the universe is incompatible with life everywhere. Even in our own solar system, NASA has been probing for life on other planets (Mars) and moons (Europa).


You're getting ahead of me. Again, I'm not explicitly trying to argue for the existence of extraterrestrial life. All I'm saying is that if you eliminate naturally caused origins for life here on Earth, all you've done is just that: eliminate naturally caused origins for life here on Earth. It does not immediately rule in a supernatural source.

I consider it much bigger leap to go from an off-planet natural source to a supernatural, divine being. Particularly one that conforms to a specific religion that just happens to be predominant in today's Western culture.

All I reasonably have to do is eliminate a nonliving source for all bio-life here.

I don't even think that's possible. After all, you're not dealing with a singular method or hypothesis, but multiple methods and hypotheses for the origin of life from non-living matter. In order to truly eliminate all of those, you'd need to exhaustively eliminate every possibility. But given we don't even know what every possibility is, I can't see how you could eliminate them.

That's why trying to prove something via a negative argument doesn't really work when you have an unknown number of possibilities on the positive side. It only really works where you can confine yourself to a limited number of known outcomes.

You're better off trying to prove the positive on the other side of the argument. IOW, if you believe a god or divine being created life on Earth, then demonstrate their existence. Maybe show me their methodology for creating life.

If you can show me how your demands are part of scientific investigation or standards and not something you simply made up then you may have something.

It's simply an understanding of a null hypothesis. If I say, "I think life arose via a specific series of biochemical events", then the null hypothesis is "life didn't arise via that specific series of biochemical events". That's it. It doesn't mean I automatically invoke some other methodology as an alternative.
 
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Subduction Zone

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An exclusive nonliving source as the first cause of all bio-life here? It has no science basis or precedent. Whereas life from life is empirically demonstrated all the time. Millions and millions of times.

Wrong, it has a scientific basis. You are in denial about that. And abiogenesis would be a once in planets life experience, so there would be only one case opposed to the billions upon billions of time life arose from life since.

I already know about Szostak. He has not demonstrated anything. Not even close. He provides overstated reports, probably for funding purposes.

If you are going to be totally unreasonable there will be no discussion and you lose when you act that way.


Wrong again. In the lab they attempt to mimic early Earth conditions. That is the only way that abiogenesis can be observed again. And you are making the error of comparing modern day life, that has had over 3 BILLION years of evolution behind it, to the first life. The first life would have been extremely simple compared to today's life.

Anytime they try to break bacteria down, it dies. You don't get a simpler life; you get death. There are no identified ancestors to bacteria. All proposed are imaginary. Like LUCA. All fictional, no more valid than the three bears.

That is merely because you are taking a bogus approach. And no, LUCA is well evidenced. You keep making the mistake of forgetting that there is no evidence for creationism at all.

If you want to address the origin of life, you have to get to bacteria first. And it is far easier to go from bacteria to an elephant then it is to go from chemicals (prebio goo) to bacteria.

The first life would not even qualify as "bacteria". But we will see what we will see.

Do you know what problems Szostak has solved yet?
 
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dmmesdale

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Since the universe was incompatible with life everywhere

Huh? We don't know if the universe is incompatible with life everywhere. Even in our own solar system, NASA has been probing for life on other planets (Mars) and moons (Europa).
The operative word was which is past tense.
I don't even think that's possible. After all, you're not dealing with a singular method or hypothesis, but multiple methods and hypotheses for the origin of life from non-living matter.
Does not matter. None of them do anything regarding living things. You need a life source and ideal conditions.
In order to truly eliminate all of those, you'd need to exhaustively eliminate every possibility.
None of them are possible in the first place.
But given we don't even know what every possibility is, I can't see how you could eliminate them.
We live in a world of reasonable and not infinite possibilities. That is why when they find an ancient coin at a dig site they deduce a human cause in spite of somebody like you who would assert we would have to eliminate a Martian cause or a natural cause or a big foot cause because there are infinite possibilities.
That's why trying to prove something via a negative argument doesn't really work when you have an unknown number of possibilities on the positive side. It only really works where you can confine yourself to a limited number of known outcomes.
It seems you cannot even grasp the concept of the argument. If life here is the effect then it requires a first cause. The options are nonliving or the intervention of a living cause. Which is most reasonable given all we know about life?
There is no positive side to life from nonlife nor is there positive evidence.
You're better off trying to prove the positive on the other side of the argument. IOW, if you believe a god or divine being created life on Earth, then demonstrate their existence. Maybe show me their methodology for creating life.
Again, not a standard in investigation. Life demonstrates the existence of prior life and you demonstrate the existence of your parents, not a rock absent your parents. You reason from observed effect to unobserved cause. The effect is evidence of the cause. If the effect is life then the cause is a living source.
 
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Haipule

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Do you have a source? When making claims it is always a good idea to link a source.

And nothing wrong with being "dumb". One can always learn. Even a surfer.
Wikipedia, I'll post a couple of paragraphs:

Plant stem cell vs. callus[edit]
Despite that callus exhibits a number of stem cell-like properties for a temporary period and that it has been cultured for useful plant compounds as an alternative source of plant stem cell, callus and plant stem cell are fundamentally different from each other. Callus is similar to plant stem cell in its ability to differentiate, but the two are different in their origin. While plant stem cell exists in the meristematic tissues of plant, callus is obtained as a temporary response to cure wounds in somatic cell.

Moreover, callus undergoes dedifferentiation as differentiated cells acquire ability to differentiate; but genetic variation is inevitable in the process because the cells consist of somatic undifferentiated cells from an adult subject plant. Unlike true stem cells, callus is heterogeneous. Due to this reason, continuous and stable cell division of callus is difficult. Hence plant stem cell originated from cambium is an immortal cell while callus is a temporary dediffertiated cell obtained from stimulating the somatic cell.

Furthermore, the ability to differentiate and proliferate is different that differences between plant stem cell and callus are prevalent in culture and research. Only plant stem cells embedded in meristems can divide and give rise to cells that differentiate while giving rise to new stem cells. These immortal cells divide infinitely.
 
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tyke

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@Haipule
Can you put that in simpler language? I'm not a scientist and didn't understand a great deal of the piece you quoted. In particular, can you clear up for me what is meant by an "immortal cell"? I'd be surprised if it means what you think it means. Cheers!
 
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pitabread

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None of them are possible in the first place.

Except you have no basis for that claim. Again, you'd have to define every single possible biochemical pathway for non-life to life and then rule them all out. But since we can't even define every single biochemical pathway for non-life to life, then you have no way to demonstrate what you claim. It's just a base assertion. And not a particularly compelling one.

We live in a world of reasonable and not infinite possibilities.

I never said infinite. But when we're talking about biochemical origins for life, there are multiple pathways that we have to explore. And we have yet to exhaust all of them or even define all them to begin with.

It seems you cannot even grasp the concept of the argument. If life here is the effect then it requires a first cause. The options are nonliving or the intervention of a living cause. Which is most reasonable given all we know about life?

But again, it's not A or B.

When we're talking about the possibilities for non-life to arise via biochemical origins, we are dealing with multiple hypothesis and possible methods. So it's hypothesis A versus B versus C versus D versus E... etc...

You're trying to boil this down to an overly simple dichotomy and that's where the mistake lies.

If the effect is life then the cause is a living source.

Assertion is not evidence.

Again, if you want to prove the existence of a divine, supernatural being as the origin of life on Earth, then you've got your work cut out for you. Go get your evidence, then come back when you're ready. I'll wait.
 
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