Posted on 12/19/2001 6:01:45 AM PST by Stavka2
Amen
This piece is supported by no scriptural texts.
In every other aspect of their lives, Americans want 'the latest & greatest' - they want to take advantage of the increased efficiency/productivity/convenience/possibilities afforded by the greater understanding gained through decades of research and building upon the ideas of those gone before...but in their religion, they feel it is not 'pure' unless it harks back to the stone age. Sometimes my head hurts trying to understand.
Don't let me rain on your parade. I will never understand how people deliberately turn off their brains when it comes to religion.
1. Had the rate of expansion of the big bang been different, no life would have been possible. A reduction by one part in a million million would have led to collapse before the temperatures could fall below ten thousand degrees. An early increase by one part in a million would have prevented the growth of galaxies, stars, and planets.
2. The material of the observable universe is isotropic (evenly distributed) to an accuracy of 0. 1 percent. Such an accuracy is antecedently improbable and slight variations would rule out life.
3. Had the values of the gravitational constant, the strong force constant (the force binding protons and neutrons in the nucleus), the weak force (the force responsible for many nuclear processes [e.g., the transmutation of neutrons into protons]), and the electromagnetic force been slightly greater or smaller, no life would have been possible.
4. In the formation of the universe, the balance of matter to antimatter had to be accurate to one part in ten billion for the universe to arise.
5. The random coalescing of several unrelated factors necessary for life someplace in the universe is highly improbable. This can be seen by examining the factors on earth necessary for life. The point is not, however, that it is amazing that these factors came together on earth instead of somewhere else. Rather, it is amazing that they came together anywhere, and earth is used to illustrate the factors necessary. Had the ratio of carbon to oxygen been slightly different, no life could have formed. If the mass of a proton were increased by 0.2 percent, hydrogen would be unstable and life would not have formed. For life to form, the temperature range is only 1-2 percent of the total temperature range, and earth obtains this range by being the correct distance from the sun, just the right size, with the right rotational speed, with a special atmosphere which protects earth and evens out temperature extremes. In addition, the planet which had these factors just happened to contain the proper amount of metals (especially iron), radioactive elements to provide the right heat source, and water-forming compounds. Perhaps the proper temperature range could be obtained in another way. But earth shows how delicate and multifaceted are the independent factors involved in maintaining the correct temperature for life. 3
6. The chance formation of life from nonlife (abiogenesis) has been estimated at around 1 x 1040,000 Thus, the probability of life forming anywhere in the cosmos is miniscule. 4 Furthermore, in the process of reacting in some prebiotic chemical soup, the reactants often need to be isolated from their environment at just the right time and reintroduced at just the right time for the reaction to continue. This is achieved in the lab by investigator interference, but it is difficult to conceive of a mechanism to do this in nature and to do it at just the right time.
1. Davies, God and the New Physics, P. 189. 2. See Davies, God and the New Physics, pp. 177-89; The Accidental Universe (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982); John Wiester, The Genesis Connection (Nashville: Nelson, 1983), pp. 27-36, 47-50; hn Leslie, "Anthropic Principle, World Ensemble, Design," American Philosophical Quarterly 19 (Aprfl ):141-50. 3. Wiester, The Genesis Connection, pp. 42-43, 47-50. 4. For examples of these estimates, see Thaxton, Bradley, and Olsen, The Mystery of Life's Origin, pp. 113-66, 218-19; Pierre Lecomte du Noiiy, Human Destiny (New York: The New American Library of World Literature, 1949), pp. 30-39; Robert Shapiro, Origins (New York: Summit, 1986), pp. 117-31; Henry M. Morris, ed., Scientific Creationism (El Cajon, Calif.: Master, 1974), pp. 59 69
Do you really think, in the billions of years the universe has been around, that the conditions you cite could only have arisen on one out of 1043 possible planets? Do you also believe that one has to abandon any concept of God in order to believe in science? Or do you simply believe that one is not to question, period?
“Do you really think, in the billions of years the universe has been around, that the conditions you cite could only have arisen on one out of 1043 possible planets?” -I would be interested in any evidence that you may have that would contradict this… Still, we must look at all the evidence as a whole.
“Do you also believe that one has to abandon any concept of God in order to believe in science?” -On the contrary, I am stating the exact opposite. Science upholds the existence of God. More and more physicists are studying religion.
“Or do you simply believe that one is not to question, period?” -Absolutely not. To stop questioning is to stop learning.
Merry Christmas
Archaeology, history, and philosophy are the Bibles strong points.
Not if they must be rendered from within existing church tradition - as specified above.
I BELIEVE in God the Father almighty
And in Christ Jesus, his only Son, our Lord
Who was born of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary
Who was crucified under Pontius Pilate and was buried
And the third day rose from the dead
Who ascended into heaven
And sitteth on the right hand of the Father
Whence he cometh to judge the living and the dead.
And in the Holy Spirit
The holy church
The remission of sins
The resurrection of the flesh
The life everlasting.
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