avocationist
Posts: 173
Joined: Feb. 2006
|
Russell, you said:
| Quote | Now, apologies for sending what looks like a "form letter" to all our anti-evo friends, but I contend that their arguments always founder when you demand specifics: specific quotes, specific numbers, specific data...
If you let them get away with "it's common knowledge that..." or "Darwinists always claim that...", it never ends.
Works for Shi, works for Avo, even works for Thordaddy. (Oh, sure, Thor keeps coming back for more, but you'll notice he never follows up - he just changes the subject.) |
And all this because I pointed out that a lot of people are disturbed by the problems in paleontolgoy, more perhaps than anything else. And you've gone from wanting a list of paleontologists, to just a list of said people. But I have authors here in my bookcaase that discuss problems with paleontology. What is so special about this "detail" other than avoiding the details that I have brought up to discuss - such as why do you and others here think that Miller ever really refuted anything that Behe said about the flagellum in his paper the Flagellum Unspun, and what is your reaction to the very specific details that Mike Gene brings out in the assembly and function of the flagellum? But no, you think you've got brownie points for asking me to come up with names of people who have a problem with paleontology.
| Quote | | Are you familiar with the term "quote-mining"? |
Yes. I am familiar with quoting out of context. A big sin in my book. So what is quote mining?
| Quote | | Let's cut to the chase. Your whole issue is that the evidence - paleontological, molecular, whatever - leads serious students of the field to the conclusion that life on earth requires intelligent input, right? |
Yes, or at least that current theory is inadequate to the extent that when the real facts become known (if ever) that it will be fundamentally altered.
| Quote | | There's no doubt where Gould stood on that issue, and it wasn't with you. |
But it doesn't matter. Unless the items are quoted out of context so that they convey a different meaning than the author intended, there is nothing wrong with noting the sheer magnitude of of admitted problems in evolution. That said authors adhere steadfastly to evolution adds to the human interest.
Jay Ray,
| Quote | | At this point, I want to live indefinately. I'm not in any way satisfied with the length of the human lifespan. |
It's absolutely unacceptable. | Quote | | I want my personality to continue on for as long as I want it to. |
Agreed. I applaud your honesty.
| Quote | | That could be forever, that could be some amount less. So I'm not so much concerned about an afterlife as I am extending the one I am living right now. |
May I suggest you become an alchemist?
| Quote | | I'd settle for an afterlife of some sort, so long as its *me* doing the afterliving. |
That's a bit tricky. The question is, who are you?
| Quote | | However, I'm not at all persuaded by typical theological propositions for this. It's wishful thinking with no evidence whatsoever for their claims. |
Some of it is wishful thinking, and most of what people consider the "me" of them, their personality, is an encumbrance and a barrier. But one does want one's consciousness. I think there is evidence for these things, but it is not accepted by some people. However, the evidence seems to be accumulating. We are living in interesting times.
| Quote | | If it turns out I'm wrong and there is an afterlife where my personality lives on, I'm willing to listen to the organizers or controllers or managers of the thing. It could be a good time. |
But the reason I asked is that atheism doesn't usually mix with hopes for an afterlife.
| Quote | | But back down here on reality-based earth, I realize that I will die, that my body will decompose into its constituent parts, and that those parts will be taken up into later generations of life. I suppose in a wiggly sort of way this is immortality. |
Notvery satisfying, is it?
| Quote | | But the whole that is *me* will necessarily end when my body dies. I accept this fact. |
May be only the body dies.
Anyway, the answers to these questions has been my quest.
|
