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To: Mylo
Quantum mechanics is a pretty fancy way of saying "random bits of matter that accidentally came together".

So you say. :) I don't think we are a product of randomness, we aren't the mere result of a series of lucky rolls of the dice. There is, I believe, something greater than man, and that "something" isn't 'chance'.

55 posted on 09/08/2005 2:06:37 PM PDT by Recovering_Democrat (I am SO glad to no longer be associated with the party of Dependence on Government!)
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To: Recovering_Democrat

Yes, but the mathematics of quantum mechanics is inescapable. It is random.

However just because something happens randomly doesn't imply that it is by "accident".

Carbon 13 decays randomly, but at a predictable rate; and not by "accident".


61 posted on 09/08/2005 2:11:18 PM PDT by Mylo ( scientific discovery is also an occasion of worship.)
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To: Recovering_Democrat

"I don't think we are a product of randomness, we aren't the mere result of a series of lucky rolls of the dice. There is, I believe, something greater than man, and that "something" isn't 'chance'."

Replying:
IDers have a particular dislike for randomness, because they wish to think that everything is directed by some supra-natural entity (they actually mean the usual God, but pretend to accept other god-like types). Exactly how stars and planets coalesce from a circulating cloud of matter is an on-going area of investigation, but it is clear that accidents resulted in some chunks becoming large enough to perturb the system and thus accumulated at the expense of smaller chunks. This is pretty close to a random series of events.

The dislike for randomness is curious. In fact, every individual is a product of at least quasi-random events. Who we meet and have children with. And from basic facts of sexual reproduction itself, every ovum has a slightly different DNA arising from meiosis, and likewise every spermatozoon. Granted that some parts of the divided-in-two chromosomes carry genetic information from the parent, but it is random which ones happen to combine. There is increasing evidence for a degree of randomness as to the chemical environment in the womb, which appears to have influence on the degrees of femaleness and maleness in the offspring. There is, thus, a large number of random events that is part of the heritage of every individual. (Unless, of course, one takes the view that each egg and spermatozoon were individually directed by God. Nobody in biology or medical science would accept this, but as a matter of faith, it is unprovable.) Over the long course of history, there has been quasi-randomness in which individuals get wiped out by natural disasters, from impacting asteroids to which succumb to disease. Chance has always played a role in life and always will.

A disapproval of randomness and chance seems a rather peculiar feeling on which to anchor a religious faith.


211 posted on 09/08/2005 6:06:36 PM PDT by thomaswest
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