Win Prizes Ask an Atheist II

[Gethelred]

Welcome to the Ask an Atheist thread II.

Previous part:

Win Prizes - Ask an Atheist - Shoe's on the other foot now!

Alright, we're going to have a change of tack. As I'm sure you can see, the thread title has been changed to Ask an Atheist. People who have a question to ask of the atheists who populate this thread - more than the christians do - should feel free to ask questions of them. If you've still got...

www.bigfooty.com

Standard board rules apply.

 

[Total Power]

Post 336.

How did you you interpret this article i posted as me being fixed on life 'originating' elsewhere? The building blocks of life most 'probably' landed on earth through a meteorite. I wasn't saying life originated elsewhere. The article i quoted cleared stated the 5 compounds been discovered on a meteor. How is that being fixated? there is a high probably this is the truth, although the soup still needs to be cooked.

We’re coming from the same place re the non-necessity of God. I just don’t see the relevance of life originating elsewhere. It’s entirely possible it did, but so what? It doesn’t change the questions that need to be asked or provide any new insights into the origin of life.

I wasn't saying life originated elsewhere. The 5 compounds of life wasn't life, they are the building blocks of life which can flourish under the right conditions. Many hypotheses in regards to abiogenesis state this.

It's just like saying flour, sugar, chocolate etc individually is basically a cake. It's not. It still needs to be cooked. I stand by what i posted, there's huge amount of evidence that the ingredients came from space.

Could the Blueprint for Life Have Been Generated in Asteroids? - NASA

Using new analyses, scientists have just found the last two of the five informational units of DNA and RNA that had yet to be discovered in samples from

www.nasa.gov

 

[nut]

What do you mean by “Instincts”?

Animals ability just to know to how to do things from birth with out being taught.

“Animal instincts are inherited behaviours that allow animals to automatically respond to certain situations without thinking”

How do these instincts get passed down to offspring?

I think instincts and how it passed down and how it may be altered over time depending on changes to environment etc is the key to evolution.

 

[carltonchelsea]

You can convince yourself of that as long as you live.

But respect for your civility.

Ok, humour me for once, give me one, I repeat one line from your most treasured book, that could have only come from the creator of the universe?
Something no person could have conceived?
Should be easy yeah?

 

[travelli]

If you look many indigenous and Aztec cave paintings going back many thousand years it does look like alien cave paintings with very weird heads and so on. Experts do say it resembles extra terrestrial beings. Why is that not a feasible theory? there's far more evidence for it than any God ever. They surely didn't have Hollywood back then to imagine such stuff, so where did those imagination come from?

Cant there be both? God and aliens?

The catholic church for one is already comfortable with it. It is even mentioned in the catecism.

 

[liz]

Cant there be both? God and aliens?

The catholic church for one is already comfortable with it. It is even mentioned in the catecism.

Plus unicorns, goblins and fairies at the end of the garden.

 

[Total Power]

Cant there be both? God and aliens?

The catholic church for one is already comfortable with it. It is even mentioned in the catecism.

What is the need to invoke God though? i just don't see the need, yes we want to be loved by someone, life is not meaningless etc etc, you want bigger answers to unanswerable questions, but no one can answer these questions, so why speculate?

 

[liz]

Animals ability just to know to how to do things from birth with out being taught.

“Animal instincts are inherited behaviours that allow animals to automatically respond to certain situations without thinking”

How do these instincts get passed down to offspring?

I think instincts and how it passed down and how it may be altered over time depending on changes to environment etc is the key to evolution.

They are coded in the genome.

 

[SBD Gonzalez]

What is the need to invoke God though? i just don't see the need, yes we want to be loved by someone, life is not meaningless etc etc, you want bigger answers to unanswerable questions, but no one can answer these questions, so why speculate?

Exactly. Humans need to love other humans and be loved by other humans. That's plenty of challenge and reward for one lifetime right there.

 

[Vdubs]

Evolution doesn’t need “God” or any other creator. Occam’s Razor suggests that if you accept the evidence that all life forms on Earth are descended from the same early life forms, trying to then insert a God into the process is clumsy and unnecessary.

Why does evolution + God make more sense than just evolution? What does God add to the process or explanation if the process?

We believe that God always was, and although it is inconceivable and inexplicable for us humans, it makes sense that God created the very essence of life. It had to start from ....?

 

[Vdubs]

Animals ability just to know to how to do things from birth with out being taught.

“Animal instincts are inherited behaviours that allow animals to automatically respond to certain situations without thinking”

How do these instincts get passed down to offspring?

I think instincts and how it passed down and how it may be altered over time depending on changes to environment etc is the key to evolution.

Great example- we had a whippet in our family and at 6 months of age, took him down to Torquay beach for a "walk". First time there. He had been a kennel dog until then. In fact a failed show dog as he grew a little too long. First thing he did was sprint up to other dogs and demand or invite them to chase him. He was uncatchable, as we know whippets are. But it was amazing watching this for 2 hours., Purely innate ability, which as you call this instinct, is spot on. That was not taught. It is part of that breed. They just know they are the fastest sprinters in the canine world, and they love letting everyone know about it. Of course we found other whippets there doing exactly the same.

 

[Roylion]

We believe that God always was, and although it is inconceivable and inexplicable for us humans, it makes sense that God created the very essence of life.

To many it doesn't make sense. Especially when there is no evidence in support of such.

 

[Vdubs]

To many it doesn't make sense. Especially when there is no evidence in support of such.

does everything else we experience in life make complete sense to you?
everything you experience and have read about is totally rational, explicable and evidence based?
great that you can pin all your arguments and standpoint on a theory that has been sought after by man

 

[Roylion]

does everything else we experience in life make complete sense to you?

Yep. Why wouldn't it?

everything you experience and have read about is totally rational, explicable and evidence based?

If I'm to believe in the truth of something that is put to me, then yes that needs to be evidence based. There is always a rational and evidence based explanation for most so called "mysterious" phenomena. If there isn't, then there is no reason to believe the veracity of the claimed phenomena. That includes the claimed phenomena of "God".

great that you can pin all your arguments and standpoint on a theory that has been sought after by man

What theory would this be? Evolution?

 

[Vdubs]

Ok, humour me for once, give me one, I repeat one line from your most treasured book, that could have only come from the creator of the universe?
Something no person could have conceived?
Should be easy yeah?

As you no doubt know, the Bible was physically written by men, inspired by God. Not written by God.

But- 2 Tim 3:16
16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.

Scripture came from God himself. That’s it. It was breathed out from his inner being. The Bible is, through and through, literally, God’s own Word. That simple fact itself is profoundly significant. But we clutter it up by thinking that the phrase speaks to the process of God’s breathing out his Word. And it does not. It does not say anything about how God gave his Word through the human authors, through visions or through direct communication or through angels or sometimes through writing to correcting an errant church. Neither does the term God-breathed say anything about the copies of the original Word (the “autographs”), nor the later translations in various languages, and eventually the English language. The phrase tells us that, when God caused his divine word to be written by human authors, he breathed it through them.

 

[Roylion]

As you no doubt know, the Bible was physically written by men, inspired by God.

That they were 'inspired by God' is a subjective opinion, devoid of any supporting evidence that the writers of the Bible were in fact 'inspired by God'.

 

[carltonchelsea]

As you no doubt know, the Bible was physically written by men, inspired by God. Not written by God.

But- 2 Tim 3:16
16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.

Scripture came from God himself. That’s it. It was breathed out from his inner being. The Bible is, through and through, literally, God’s own Word. That simple fact itself is profoundly significant. But we clutter it up by thinking that the phrase speaks to the process of God’s breathing out his Word. And it does not. It does not say anything about how God gave his Word through the human authors, through visions or through direct communication or through angels or sometimes through writing to correcting an errant church. Neither does the term God-breathed say anything about the copies of the original Word (the “autographs”), nor the later translations in various languages, and eventually the English language. The phrase tells us that, when God caused his divine word to be written by human authors, he breathed it through them.

So there it is, its fan fiction, man made and literally zero that only a god could elucidate to!
Got it!