6th December 2003, 10:44 PM
Quote: I never claim that humans are the center of the universe, but that we are the most important and advanced creatures on Earth is blatantly obvious. Until you show me a dolphin that can build a skyscraper or a monkey that can perform heart surgery, or any creature that isn't human do such simple things as grow food, domesticate animals or make fire, arguing otherwise is just stupid.
Read my post... it'll take a long time, but you should. :)
Hmm... no, you don't say that humans are the figurative center of the universe (as in the most important things in all creation, far too much to be mere chance)... but you imply it pretty strongly...
Domesticate animals? Actually, there's a kind of ant that 'farms' these larvae or something... in the Amazon, maybe? And as I said several others use tools, and some can learn basic learning things (dolphins with patterns, apes and monkeys with experiments that have shown they can be as smart as very young children, etc)
Yes, we have all those traits to a FAR greater extent than anything else, that is incontestible. But they are not absent in the rest of nature, and that's a clue that we aren't some super-special thing that is unique from our environment. We are just the top feat of evolution on this planet.
Quote:Nor do I say that the idea of everything being the result of chance is impossible, just as damn near as you can get without being there. And given how absolutely minute the chance is that we could get from #1 to #16 (or even as far as #2 or #3) if the whole process began again 1,000,000,000,000^1,000,000,000,000 times, for some bloated scientists to say that God is impossible but this is obvious proves that Christians aren't the only ones with a case of overstated self-importance and pretentiousness.
Hmm... #2, the existence of matter. You say that the existence of matter is a amazing thing that you don't think would happen by chance? Now, of course, we know nothing at all about how matter originally came to be, or if there is an 'originally'.... those questions are beyond what modern science can answer or seriously try to answer. So all I can do is say 'we must assume that matter came into existence somehow', without saying how because I have no clue... but I would not say that it requires some kind of god.
#3... if somehow such a "ball" formed I think the explosion was inevitable eventually. Beyond that... yes, each step does require cooincidence and luck. But so does everything! More is based on luck than most people would like to think... including the evolution of the world, for sure.
I can of course see how this is disturbing to many people and how they retreat from it into the familiarity of religion, but that just proves again that human nature is far from perfect... then again, the existence of war does that.