Richard Dawkins sums up religion

While we are on the subject of rarity of life in the universe I would speculate that the universe is teeming with life.

When you look at our known list of the most common elements in the visible universe this is what it looks like 1.Hydrogen 2.Helium 3.Oxygen 4.Carbon. Hydrogen and Oxygen makes water, and Carbon is our other key ingredient in known life. Helium is essential to power life.

So it seems to me the Universe is almost set up to be the perfect incubator of life. I very much doubt our planet is special in any kind of way at all.
 
Woden said:
Us living on a planet perfect for life isn't lucky at all, it is exactly what should happen. Because it simply cannot happen anywhere else.
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Life on this planet probably is the result of certain chance events occurring - the universe isn't deterministic... I also don't think you can say with any degree of certainty that life cannot happen anywhere else either... It might well have happened elsewhere too.
 
Woden said:
You see space is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space. It should be no surprise that out of billions of galaxies, each with billions of stars, each with a bunch of planets, that one, at least one, would be capable of sustaining life. So it really is unremarkable that this is where we live.
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If out of all those countless planets around countless suns..only one had become capable of sustaining life...now that would be remarkable. In fact even if there are billions of planets with billions of lifeforms...that would also be remarkable....the Universe is remarkable, the fact as an individual I can experience it all is remarkable....life is remarkable....in all its forms, known and not yet known. That this all came from an infinitesimal singularity that expanded into an infinitely complex and massive universe is the most remarkable of all.

Existence is remarkable.
 
dowie said:
Others might point out that constructing supernatural explanations for any number of things has been a part of many different human cultures. I've probably mentioned cargo cults a few times in here but its a reasonable (IMO) illustration of a belief system developing in a primitive culture.

The requirement for evidence can apply to anything. I'd fully accept though that it is very easy to fall into the trap of being selective with what you become skeptical of.
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Very true.

I know people who scoff at the idea of a god but practice magic healing, read star signs or get involved in a number of other pseudoscientific concepts. The biggest irony is that we actually have evidence that these don't work (unlike the idea of a god in which no evidence exists either way).

Castiel said:
If out of all those countless planets around countless suns..only one had become capable of sustaining life...now that would be remarkable. In fact even if there are billions of planets with billions of lifeforms...that would also be remarkable....the Universe is remarkable, the fact as an individual I can experience it all is remarkable....life is remarkable....in all its forms, known and not yet known. That this all came from an infinitesimal singularity that expanded into an infinitely complex and massive universe is the most remarkable of all.

Existence is remarkable.
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Indeed.

Personally, it's the simplicity of it all which I find amazing - coupled with the parallels across different aspects of the universe. The relationship between the life-cycles of the stars in stellar evolution, which in turn allowed biological evolution, the increasing complexity of the universe & life as time progresses (along with the requirement of death for creation, both on a stellar level & biological one).
 
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elmarko said:
Very true.

I know people who scoff at the idea of a god but practice magic healing, read star signs or get involved in a number of other pseudoscientific concepts. The biggest irony is that we actually have evidence that these don't work (unlike the idea of a god in which no evidence exists either way).
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We have clearly evolved some kind of wonky internal wiring where belief in the supernatural has helped survival of our ancestors. Our species seems way too eager to believe the irrational.

I get scoffed at in my family for not believing in ghosts, they really do think I am crazy not to believe their crazy accounts of slight chills, and strange noises...
 
koolpc said:
For me, God created everything. Be it from the first instance of life. He initiated it. As for humans, we were created in the likeness of God. I believe that 100%. No evidence to suggest we came from anything else, only suppositions.

You can argue all you like, there is no 100% evidence that we came from a slug or a monkey or a cabbage leaf!

For me, it all comes down to faith as it is for 99% of people who believe in God.

Its only you non believers that like to throw up questions that one cant find a scientific answer for! I trust and believe in God! Yes, i really do! That is so hard for you guys to comprehend isnt it? Well, so be it. Its my choice. I could choose to change my mind if wanted but i havent and wont. Why? Because i love God. Simple. He means so much to me. He makes me feel alive. He is a big part of my life.

To feel the love of God in your life is incomprehensible. It is awesome!

To think, i believe in God! To believe in someone u have not seen face to face!! Waw, guys, it is true love, true faith. One that is very hard to explain.

God bless you all.
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Really? NO EVIDENCE? I'm sorry but you have to be seriously misguided to actually believe such a thing in 2013.
 
m4rk84 said:
We have clearly evolved some kind of wonky internal wiring where belief in the supernatural has helped survival of our ancestors. Our species seems way too eager to believe the irrational.

I get scoffed at in my family for not believing in ghosts, they really do think I am crazy not to believe their crazy accounts of slight chills, and strange noises...
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Remember even pigeons are superstitious! - I think it's a side product of our innate ability to make connections, akin our pattern recognition software taken to a new extreme as a result of our evolved intelligence.

I believe we also long to be special, many pseudoscientific beliefs prey on that desire.

On the subject of ghosts I know exactly what you mean, that fact people will mention a time they heard a bump once then declare without a shadow of doubt that ghosts definitely do exists & anybody who says otherwise is crazy....
 
m4rk84 said:
Well evolution is happening constantly, so naming can be difficult. Every now and then we observe that a big enough evolution has occurred over possibly hundreds of thousands of years to be fitting of a new name.

The name of our species is the "Homo sapien" however follow our known changes back through bone records and we become the "Homo heidelbergensis", and before that the "Homo erectus". The biggest visible change through these three species is our skull size to allow for a larger brain.

Let's be clear here, there can be no set time when these changes occured, the evidence is there clear as day however a Homo heidelbergensis never suddenly gave birth to a Homo sapien, the change occurred very slowly over a very long period of time. Each generation very slightly different then the last.
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This is the thing creationists can't understand, especially those that believe the earth is only 5000 years old. Which is what, 50-100 generations of humans, of course you are not going to see evolution in action with such a small time scale. It's also absolutely laughable to consider we came from Adam and Eve, doesn't the bible even say incest is a sin, so every generation of human is technically sleeping with their relatives, good luck getting into heaven guys ;)
 
Lord-Jaffa said:
This is the thing creationists can't understand, especially those that believe the earth is only 5000 years old. Which is what, 50-100 generations of humans
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It is 200 Generations.

Many creationists (young earth) do understand it...they simply reject it. Which makes it all the more irrational a position.
 
dirtychinchilla said:
I'm astounded that you've not even bothered to read the definition of evolution before denouncing it. If you had offered some evidence, I would have at least bothered to read it before telling you it was crap.
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I fully understand the definitions of evolution, what we was talking about was where human beings come from and everyone can see where they come from what more evidence do you need?. How can you say the evidence is crap. You are a dimwit.

zenf said:
Go on then, choose to change your mind and stop believing in God, if you can.
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Are you having a laugh?, If you're serious my advice to you would be to talk to your parents or look up the word incoherent. You dimwit.
 
thepharcyde said:
So who's celebrating xmas this year?
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Many i would presume, but why not remove the word christmas altogether and use the word xmas that would be more appropriate for a secular society and that way evolutionists/atheists would be far removed from the connection of Christ, makes sense to me rather than to pander to any false religious celebration of Jesus Christ like christmas where the word/name CHRIST is.
 
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