Cogito Sum

"It also demands the utmost respect for the scientific method, integrity in the conduct of research, and recognition that the validity of any scientific model comes only as a result of rational hypothesis testing, sound experimentation, and findings that can be replicated by others"

Findings that can be replicated by others!! Hmmmm?

Ape to Neanderthal, or

Neanderthal to Human, or any step in between.

I'm from Missouri, show me a computer program that can model and replicate 10-30 million dna pairs precisely changing. Like the song sings, "all I want for Christmas is a real theory".

Do not double speak and try to snow me. Show me the replications that others can independently verify. Do not show me pictures.

How does it scientifically, chemically, happen? Then replicate it and win a Nobel prize. Oh, no Nobel prize yet? Hmmm? Must be still a work in progress, eh???

I put this here because there are religious consequences.

Hitler was a Catholic that lost his faith and become a confirmed evolutionary together with all his master race, genetic cleansing minions. He was atheist and a nihilist. Judge by actions and not words.

Did he love God with his whole heart and love others as himself, helping the widows and the orphans? Quite the opposite.

QED... he did not believe in God, he was an evolutionary, and he was an atheist.

I have been on for 8 months, and this just happened today. What needs to be done for this link to show up on my Q/A page.

Thanks

This article frames the questions very well.

http://www.noetic.org/publications/review/issue61/...

1. Nothing produced everything

2. Non-life causes life

3. Randomness creates information

4. Chaos produces inductive knowledge

5. Matter produces consciousness

6. Non-reason "cause and effect", produces emotion, art, ideas

I feel like I am argueing against the irrational, and the irrational is winning. But, that is life.

Ciao

"The truth claims of atheism cannot be proved. How do we know there is no God? The simple fact of the matter is that atheism is faith, which draws conclusions that go beyond the available evidence." Alister McGrath from Oxford

The truth claim is that God does not exist. Well.....

How did the universe start, suddenly, just once, all of a sudden, for sure?

First of all, the concept of religious predestination leads to absurdities. My question above is not religious, it is philosophical with religious implications.

"There is what we might call a supernatural origin of my unique self-consciousness mind or my unique selfhood or soul." Sir John Eccles

Books by John C. Eccles

How the Self Controls Its Brain

Evolution of the brain : creation of the self

The understanding of the brain

Mind and brain : the many-faceted problems: selected reading

The Cerebellum as a Neuronal Machine

Nobel Prize conversations with Sir John Eccles

Facing reality: philosophical adventures by a brain scientist

Evolution of the brain : creation of the self

If "free will" is real, then soul exists. We all think we have free will, yet, do we? Certainly genetics, experience, and biochemistry affect how we feel and what we do. Is that all there is? Can we break the bonds of pure cause and effect in our mental processes? How can this be shown?

I saw an answer here by J.P., whom I respect a great deal, explaining by analogy why we do not have free will. Basically… if you exactly recreate the DNA, and the experiences, the human will react in exactly the same way. Since actions can be predicted, this means we have no free will. Consciousness is mechanistic and predictable.

But this seems to be a straw man analogy to get to the desired conclusion. For example, if you get into your time machine and go back in time to observe yourself, you will find that you will do everything the same, since everything is exactly the same. It is a self-evident tautology, and does not rule in or rule out free will.

The premise is that consciousness can be created by computational power. Ray Kurzweil predicts this in his book, The Age of Spiritual Machines based on, “prophesy”. Professor John Searle at UC Berkeley says this is absurd, for “computers just shuffle symbols”.

Do you think you have free will?

How can this be tested?

I usually do not do this, but, this is worth it. I apologize in advance.

http://catholiceducation.org/articles/science/quin...

This is a 30 minute debate, but it is a good one to listen to. It sounds a lot like Y!A, RS..... doesn't it.

I hate to ask this, but.. I did. Not my usual question. Sorry!

Shelley (classic romantic poet: 1792-1822), begins by saying “THERE IS NO GOD”. In his first 2 sentences, he says he does not believe in a “creative deity”, but yet, he seems to believe in a God, for he states, “The hypothesis of a pervading Spirit, coeternal with the universe remains unshaken.”

What does this mean to you? He never seems to explain and he might have meant something I am not aware of yet.

He also wrote another essay titled, "A refutation of deism". So he is against theism and deism, but in favor of what?

From the perspective of an atheist, listening to a believer, on whether God exists.

1. Which God? Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Buddha, etc.

2. Which sect (assume Christian): Catholic, Methodist, Calivinist, Lutheren, Episcopal, many others, etc.

Note: the atheist is justifiably skeptical right now. In their mind, all these choices, and I as a believer made the right choice, and everyone else is wrong.

3. The Bible. The fact is that many books were written, and few were chosen. How do they as a skeptic know they were the right books to select.

4. Dogma and doctrine that is developed by people to decide what the Bible meant and what the specific religion is. More faith.

When looked at this from an atheists standpoint, thru their eyes, it seems absurd. The believer is many faith steps away from God. They are right, and others are wrong. The atheist is still at step 1. No wonder we argue and never get anywhere.

Step 1, "Why did the universe start, suddenly?

Why did the universe just begin?

How did life start? accepting evolution.

Why are we conscious?

I have asked this before, but I have not one good answer.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;...

Atheists, not scientists, believe its time to end religion. Science never proves or disproves religious origin and all unbiased scientists will cop to that. Only the hard-core atheists use science as evidence for their claims, but they are irrational about it.

The above was a great lead in for:

http://www.deism.com/dogmatic%20atheism....

Then, a leading atheist, based on science, changes his position.

http://www.biola.edu/antonyflew/flew-int...

I believe there is room for a creator!

This was an answer to a post in Philosophy that surprised me.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Ao8Rb...

Atheists, not scientists, believe its time to end religion. Science never proves or disproves religious origin and all unbiased scientists will cop to that. Only the hard-core atheists use science as evidence for their claims, but they are irrational about it.

The above was a great lead in for:

http://www.deism.com/dogmatic%20atheism.htm

Then, a leading atheist, based on science, changes his position.

http://www.biola.edu/antonyflew/flew-interview.pdf

There is room for a creator!

I hate posing this question, but, thought it could spark some debate for the thinkers here. By the way, it is a valid question!

NEW YORK (AP) _ A British philosophy professor who has been a leading champion of atheism for more than a half-century has changed his mind. He now believes in God -- more or less -- based on scientific evidence, and says so on a video released Thursday.

At age 81, after decades of insisting belief is a mistake, Antony Flew has concluded that some sort of intelligence or first cause must have created the universe. A super-intelligence is the only good explanation for the origin of life and the complexity of nature, Flew said in a telephone interview from England.

Flew said he's best labeled a deist like Thomas Jefferson, whose God was not actively involved in people's lives.

"I'm thinking of a God very different from the God of the Christian and far and away from the God of Islam.....

"My whole life has been guided by the principle of Plato's Socrates: Follow the evidence, wherever it leads."

http://www.livescience.com/othernews/atheist_philo...

Very good analysis of the issues related to being dogmatic, either atheistic or theistic. If you do not like reason and logic, then do not read. I usually do not post links, but, could not do this justice without a link.

http://www.deism.com/dogmatic%20atheism.htm

I had some negative posts on faith so I want to pursue this.

Scientists (or businessmen) must have extra-ordinary faith that their efforts, experiments, analysis will prove or discover a new area of knowledge (or income). If they have no faith, they will not proceed. They use their ability of reasoning and action to succeed. This is true for artists, entrepreneurs, statesmen, and others.

Believers must have extra-ordinary faith that their belief in God, their efforts in living a moral life, their growing in God’s word, and even sacrifice, will ultimately prove that they made the right choices when they are judged by God. If they have no faith, they will not do what they need to do, when the moment comes, in all the actions they take.

“The Lord possessed me at the beginning of His way, before His works of old. I have been established from everlasting, from the beginning, before there was even an earth. When there were no depths I was brought forth, when there were no fountains abounding with water. Before the mountains were settled, before the hills, I was brought forth; while as yet He had not made the earth or the fields, or the primal dust of the world.

When He prepared the heavens, I was there, when He drew a circle on the face of the deep, when He established the clouds above, when He strengthened the fountains of the deep, when he assigned the sea its limit, so that the waters would not transgress His command, when He marked out the foundations of the earth, then I was beside Him as a Master Craftsman.” -- Proverbs 8:22-30

How would anyone back then know that the mountains arose and were not created when the Earth was created? This did not take one day. [more to write but out of characters]