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Subject: 
Re: Evolution vs Scientific Creationism
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.off-topic.debate
Date: 
Wed, 10 Jul 2002 21:13:21 GMT
Viewed: 
4789 times
  
In lugnet.off-topic.debate, David Eaton writes:

I think my own explanation is that your question forces conditions that
weren't. Like me asking you if you stopped killing babies or some nonsense
like that, since you never *were* killing babies in the first place.

Essentially, there *is* no "before" the Big Bang. Humans perceive time (and
space for that matter) as some sort of Newtonian line, going forever
backwards and forwards-- but really, it's not. Energy defines time, and visa
versa. Hence, with no energy, there's no time, and without time, there's no
energy. And since matter & energy are the same, yadda yadda... Basically the
answer is that it's a big kludge, and the question is kinda making
assumptions it shouldn't be making.

I can accept the matter and energy thing, but wouldn't that suppose that life
and non-life are merely facets of the same thing, which would suggest that
evolution and cosmology are intertwined?

However, I think the best explanation is that time is *curved*. Hence, the
universe is curved back upon itself. What was before the Big Bang? We were.
Right now is before *and* after the Big Bang. Similar to California being
west of Maryland. Is it west of Maryland? Yes. But it's *also* east of
Maryland if you go around the world far enough.

Yes.  It is a paradox, and thus illogical (at least to our understanding)

At some point, you'd have to acknowledge that some
stuff came from nowhere, which seems illogical within the perimeters of
evolution (to me, at least).

Well, I'd pose the same question on Creationism. Where'd God come from?

Precisely.  But my point is that whether you believe in Evolution or believe in
Creationism, both POVs require the same leap of faith, or whatever you want to
call it.  Neither one, it seems to me, explains our universe any better than
the other.

The other thing that always gets me about Creationism is that Creationists
often say something like "I can't imagine something as complex as a human
being something that came out of non-sentient thought". Or something to the
effect of the universe being too beautiful and complex a place to NOT be the
creation of some being with a specific intent. But I just reverse that on
anyone who says such a thing: I can't imagine God being something that's not
the product of some non-sentient being. God's too fancy and amazing and
complicated to be something naturally occurring-- so I can't accept the
explanation that "God was *always* there" or some such. That just doesn't
jive with me...

I agree with you.  Both explanations lack logic; it just seems to me that it
really wouldn't matter *intellectually* which one one held to be true.

What I am reacting to is the notion that a belief in God is somehow
anti-intellectual or intellectually compromising.

-John



Message has 2 Replies:
  Re: Evolution vs Scientific Creationism
 
(...) Evolution isn't trying to explain the universe. You seem to be stumbling over that. (...) Now *THIS* I can agree with (the reaction, not the notion). It's an impression I've had for a long time in .debate, although I don't think anyone's (...) (22 years ago, 10-Jul-02, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
  Re: Evolution vs Scientific Creationism
 
(...) I'd sure say so. One root problem being (I think) that science has an awful definition of what it means to be alive. Evolution wants to separate itself from cosmology because it doesn't really have anything to say about the Big Bang or the (...) (22 years ago, 10-Jul-02, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)

Message is in Reply To:
  Re: Evolution vs Scientific Creationism
 
(...) I think my own explanation is that your question forces conditions that weren't. Like me asking you if you stopped killing babies or some nonsense like that, since you never *were* killing babies in the first place. Essentially, there *is* no (...) (22 years ago, 10-Jul-02, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)

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