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Object Lesson on the Impossibility of Abiogenesis

Split Rock

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I was responding to this post of yours:

Try working with a deck with 256 different cards now, and hopefully you'll see the impossibility of abiogenesis occurring in a universe that's been around for "only" 13.8 billion years.

Did you write that or not??
 
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ChetSinger

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I do agree with you that since there are so many variables it's pretty much impossible to calculate odds of cell formation.

But we're not really estimating degrees of likelihood, are we? Isn't it more like degrees of extreme unlikelihood?
 
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Strathos

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Unless you're a magician.
 
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KWCrazy

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However, what are the odds that the first is an ace of spades AND the second is a 4 of clubs AND the third is the 7 of diamonds etc? You're talking about a version of intelligent design, where the correct cards are retained each time. That couldn't happen because there wasn't any living thing to "select" which was in the right place until the sequence was perfected.
 
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ThinkForYourself

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AV, take 1 million decks of cards. Lay out the cards one by one in a line. The odds that those specific cards were laid out in that specific order is much longer odds. But it happened.

There is no proof that it "requires 256 proteins to come together in the correct order". That may be our best understanding, but it doesn't mean it is true.

There is no proof that the proteins wouldn't be predisposed to link in certain orders due to environment. So your 256! fails.
 
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ThinkForYourself

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I do agree with you that since there are so many variables it's pretty much impossible to calculate odds of cell formation.

But we're not really estimating degrees of likelihood, are we? Isn't it more like degrees of extreme unlikelihood?

No, because without all the information, you don't know if it's unlikely or not.
 
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ChetSinger

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No, because without all the information, you don't know if it's unlikely or not.
Given our current knowledge of biology, sure, we can estimate that it's extremely unlikely. And that agrees with both our intuition and our observations. We don't expect cells to form in nature, and we don't see them doing it.
 
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ThinkForYourself

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Given our current knowledge of biology, sure, we can estimate that it's extremely unlikely. And that agrees with both our intuition and our observations. We don't expect cells to form in nature, and we don't see them doing it.

Intuition counts for nothing. Intuition says something can't exist in two different places at once. We know that is not true.

We can't estimate odds unless you know all the factors involved and their probabilities. We don't have this information so we can't estimate odds.

Cells are constantly formed in nature. You are composed of cells.
 
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AV1611VET

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There is no proof that the proteins wouldn't be predisposed to link in certain orders due to environment. So your 256! fails.
No proof = fails?

Then congratulations ... you just failed gravity & evolution.

Proof is for alcohol.
 
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PsychoSarah

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I think your card challenge belongs in a thread all its own, Sarah.

Will you actually do it? It is completely within your power to try. I make the best challenge; no background in much of anything required, one can easily look up what cards are in a Royal Flush online. Anyone with a deck of cards can do this.
 
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AV1611VET

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Will you actually do it? It is completely within your power to try. I make the best challenge; no background in much of anything required, one can easily look up what cards are in a Royal Flush online. Anyone with a deck of cards can do this.
It's your challenge, Sarah, not mine.

Gitter done!
 
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AV1611VET

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And mathematics!
I don't drink ... and never have ... but I don't understand why a label on alcohol that says 40% is actually 80%.

Unless ... you know ... there's science behind it.
 
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crjmurray

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I don't drink ... and never have ... but I don't understand why a label on alcohol that says 40% is actually 80%.

Unless ... you know ... there's science behind it.

It seems you have a really strange habit of talking about subjects you have no knowledge of. For example, the above post. Proof does not mean alcohol. Another example, this thread. Which was all started because I mentioned card shuffling in another thread to refute the VERY POINT you are trying to make here.
 
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essentialsaltes

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I don't drink ... and never have ... but I don't understand why a label on alcohol that says 40% is actually 80%.

Unless ... you know ... there's science behind it.

As they say, there's the right way, the wrong way, and the navy way.

[The term proof] "originated in the 16th century, when payments to British sailors included rations of rum.[2] To ensure that the rum had not been watered down, it was "proved" by dousing gunpowder with it and then testing to see if the gunpowder would ignite. If it did not, then the rum contained too much water and was considered to be "under proof".[3] Gunpowder would not burn in rum that contained less than 57.15% ABV. Therefore, rum that contained this percentage of alcohol was defined to have "100° (one hundred degrees) proof"."

So at that time, 'proof' was 7/4 of the alcohol content by volume (ABV).

Using our American know-how, we simplified that to twice. So that 40% ABV is 80° proof.
 
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