Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
Atheists Still Waiting for the Origin-of-Life Messiah [View all]
SEPTEMBER 23, 2016 6:38 AM
by Moshe Averick
"Despite the widespread view that Darwinian Evolution has been able to explain the emergence of biological complexity that is not the case
Darwinian theory does not deal with the question how (life0) was able to come into being. The troublesome question still in search of an answer is: How did a system capable of evolving come about in the first place?
Nature just doesnt operate like that! Nature doesnt spontaneously make highly organized
purposeful entities
And here precisely lies the (origin of) life problem
it is not just common sense that tells us that highly organized entities dont just spontaneously come about. Certain basic laws of physics (coupled with mathematical probability) preach the same sermon systems tend toward chaos and disorder, not toward order and function
Biology [i.e. a naturalistic origin of life] and physics seem contradictory, quite incompatible What is Life: How Chemistry Becomes Biology, Oxford University Press, 2012 Dr. Addy Pross, professor of chemistry, Ben-Gurion University, Israel.
Dr. Pross echoes the words of distinguished philosopher Thomas Nagel, who wrote the following in 2006, in his review of Richard Dawkins atheistic magnum opus, The God Delusion: The entire apparatus of evolutionary explanation therefore depends on the prior existence of genetic material with these remarkable properties since [the genetic system] is a precondition of the possibility of evolution, evolutionary theory cannot explain its existence. We are therefore faced with a problem we have explained the complexity of organic life in terms of something that is itself just as functionally complex as what we originally set out to explain. So the problem is just pushed back a step; how did such a thing come into existence?
In other words, despite the prodigious amounts of energy invested by people like Richard Dawkins in spreading propaganda to the contrary, Darwin provided exactly zero evidence to support an atheistic view of biology. Nothing has changed at all; the awe and wonder of the miraculous design and engineering that characterizes every single living creature on earth points as clearly to Divine creation in our day as it did in the period before Charles Darwin published his famous treatise.
In their heart of hearts, non-believers like Richard Dawkins understand that the Origin of Life problem means that their so called scientific atheism stands on a foundation of thin air and wishful thinking. That is why they longingly cast their eyes towards the horizon in hope of the imminent arrival of the atheist Origin of Life messiah who will finally explain how life can come from non-life without the involvement of that annoying Creator.
https://www.algemeiner.com/2016/09/23/atheists-still-waiting-for-the-origin-of-life-messiah/
InfoView thread info, including edit history
TrashPut this thread in your Trash Can (My DU » Trash Can)
BookmarkAdd this thread to your Bookmarks (My DU » Bookmarks)
185 replies, 14832 views
ShareGet links to this post and/or share on social media
AlertAlert this post for a rule violation
PowersThere are no powers you can use on this post
EditCannot edit other people's posts
ReplyReply to this post
EditCannot edit other people's posts
Rec (2)
ReplyReply to this post
185 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight:
NoneDon't highlight anything
5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
"Yet" means "not so far"; there is no other implication, despite your desperate longing for one (nt)
LongtimeAZDem
Sep 2016
#11
Contemplating the limits of scientific knowledge is hardly "childish superstition".
rug
Sep 2016
#24
Contemplating the limits of scientific knowledge is hardly "childish superstition".
AlbertCat
Oct 2016
#165
Hardly. Show an implication of biology (which is not a proper noun) that rebuts him.
rug
Oct 2016
#99
You haven't posted even a fragment on what implication biology has to this article.
rug
Oct 2016
#104
See #148. The chemistry professor was quoted out of sequence, with vital phrases and pages missing
muriel_volestrangler
Oct 2016
#150
The video may portray his motives well; and he may be a good scientist; but that does not imply
struggle4progress
Sep 2016
#30
See #148; Averick took certain phrases from different chapters of Pross, reordered them
muriel_volestrangler
Oct 2016
#149
That could be -- but it all rapidly falls into an uninteresting category of literary criticism IMO.
struggle4progress
Oct 2016
#164
Is there any good cosmological evidence for the inevitability of life?
struggle4progress
Sep 2016
#9
The only definite conception I could have of "life" would resemble "life-as-we-know-it"
struggle4progress
Sep 2016
#18
Our atmospheric O2 has biological origins. O2 is reactive so one might not expect
struggle4progress
Sep 2016
#29
This is less about the creation of life than it is about the creation of matter in the first place,
rug
Sep 2016
#15
Not really. It's about the arrangement of matter - ie the arrangement of atoms
muriel_volestrangler
Sep 2016
#38
Starting a process with atoms does not mean "the atoms are all there in the first place".
rug
Sep 2016
#66
'coulda, woulda, shoulda... inexorably acquires key physocal attributes associated with life.'
Joe Chi Minh
Oct 2016
#152
Yes, closing one's mind is always an option. Trouble is, to close on the truth
Joe Chi Minh
Oct 2016
#154
Until I have good reason otherwise, I will regard smacking a human with a hammer
struggle4progress
Sep 2016
#37
The difference is, in some sense, "subjective" -- but the "subjectivity" involved
struggle4progress
Sep 2016
#49
But all of your response still avoided thr fact that science can only go so far.....
guillaumeb
Sep 2016
#46
Using "belief" and "faith" in place of evidence is a common tactic of the believer.
cleanhippie
Sep 2016
#54
I would instead say, 'science is the only credible tool for finding the answer to that question'
AtheistCrusader
Oct 2016
#89
Proof is not something that is addressed by faith. Faith does not require faith,
guillaumeb
Sep 2016
#47
That the Big Bang happened can be deduced from the movement of the universe.
guillaumeb
Sep 2016
#51
Being that this is the Religion group, I figured the type of belief were talking about was implied.
cleanhippie
Oct 2016
#147
Ayup. Pure mental laziness. A desire and willingness to suspend critical thinking...
Roland99
Sep 2016
#69
You're arguing against the existence of a god unless you can explain who or what made god.
cpwm17
Oct 2016
#126
You're asking fior a natural explanation for an event that would have to be supernatural.
rug
Oct 2016
#130
"does not have to be explained" is a piss-poor answer, especially when science strives to explain it
rug
Oct 2016
#132
If it can't be explained then it can be disregarded since the "can't" be explained
cpwm17
Oct 2016
#135
If you reject both the idea of a creator and the idea of an infinte eternal universe, what's left?
rug
Oct 2016
#140
But you are then claiming if reality is difficult to explain then it must be by magic
cpwm17
Oct 2016
#173
Magic is not logic. I'm sorry your difficulty in explaining has led you to that error.
rug
Oct 2016
#174
It's time people see how Moshe Averick manipulated the quotes from Professor Pross
muriel_volestrangler
Oct 2016
#148
Last I heard, rug, Dawkins now describes himself as an agnostic. The facts
Joe Chi Minh
Oct 2016
#151
You do know that Einstein was an agnostic pantheist, right? He didn't believe in a personal god...
Humanist_Activist
Oct 2016
#176
Oh look, Rug posting a post that dishonestly quote-mines a scientist to support creationism...
Humanist_Activist
Oct 2016
#175
Rug's OP is an inside-joke. A reply to another over-the-top OP by another DUer.
DetlefK
Oct 2016
#177
Face it, rug, you're promoting an infamous intelligent design advocate
muriel_volestrangler
Oct 2016
#181