Dinosaurs, early relatives coexisted

sfgate.com ^ | Friday, July 20, 2007 | David Perlman, Chronicle Science Editor

[my_pointy_head_is_sharp]

UC Berkeley scientists, digging deep into a remote New Mexico hillside, have discovered a trove of fossil bones that they say is evidence that dinosaurs and their early relatives lived side by side for tens of millions of years before the relatives slowly died off and left the dinosaurs to dominate the ancient world.

Until now many scientists had thought that dinosaur "precursors" -- perhaps their ancestors -- disappeared suddenly long before the dinosaurs themselves rose to prominence, but the bones dug up by Berkeley paleontologists show evidence of a different story.

The discovery of a wide variety of creatures all mingled together in layer upon layer of rocks dating from Earth's late Triassic period between 235 million and 200 million years ago, they say, shows that the strange relatives of the dinosaurs remained on the scene while the dinosaurs evolved into truly dominant creatures during the Jurassic period, between 120 million and 200 million years ago.

[null and void]

I’m not quite sure what that sentence was supposed to say, but, there are deep craters all over the moon.

As to the ones facing us, I gather that a bullet hole suddenly appearing in a wall behind you wouldn’t cause you to think that you’d dodged a bullet, but would cause you to think that you’d fired a bullet?

Enjoy your buck (skunk?) hunt, but I’d strongly recommend you avoid combat...

[Nathan Zachary]

"Via archeology, there has been no proof of several momentous occurrences in the Bible. The ones that come to mind are Moses and his follower's exodus from Egypt"

Of course there have been many discoveries which confirm the biblical record, INCLUDING Moses and the exodus of the Jews from Egypt. I guess you didn't see the discovery of those chariots wheels under all that water.
I guess every single biblical account has to be proven to satisfy some people, and even then that isn't enough. Biblical prophecy is another proof of the bible being the inspired word of God, but that too isn't enough for some people.

But when it comes to a con-artist like Nostradamus, the Godless have no trouble clinging to that drivel.

[Doe Eyes]

And thinking of it as a creation, forces one to assume there is a Creator.

From a technology standpoint, we are not far from DNA creation.

I think of some computer geek sitting there creating really bizarre creatures using the DNA libraries (C+++++) and being countered by another geek into viruses.

[GunRunner]

You'll provide us with a link to who said that of course... Na I didn't think so.

Its an argument that has been made to me on blogs when I brought up the stars that are millions of light years away. Google creationism and light trails, I'm not going to do the work for you. And by "best explanation", I didn't mean "most plausible" or "most convincing"; I meant most entertaining.

But maybe you'll explain why the moon only has deep craters on it facing earth that could only have been created by objects originating from earth.

Here's a scale picture of how far the moon is from the Earth; it points out the ridiculousness of your argument.

As you can see, there's plenty of room for extraterrestrial objects to collide with the moon.

[Nathan Zachary]

"There is nothing in Genesis to indicate that the universe is only 6,000 to 10,000 years old."

That's hard to say. There was no way to determine time until God created the sun and earth, so it can be argued that vast amounts of time passed from between the division of the waters to when God created light (which is before the creation of the sun as well) But, "By the word of God the heavens were made, their whole array by the breath of his mouth...He spoke and it was created; he commanded, and there it stood." (Ps.33:6-9). , so the argument that it was instantaneous is hard to dispute.

[GunRunner]

I guess you didn't see the discovery of those chariots wheels under all that water.

No, I didn't. Is there any proof that this wasn't a sailor throwing damaged goods overboard? I'm sure they find license plates in the ocean all of the time, but that doesn't mean cars drive underwater.

[Delacon]

“Something determined mostly by us. Though evolution brought us to where we are, our own technology (specifically, biotech and nanotech) and our own choices will have far more to do with what we become.”

I liked your post. But I would like to point out that though we may have some more control than we’ve had in the past over “what we become”, we don’t have control over what genetics and our environment “allow” us to become. A teacher of mine predicts that the jaw will continue to get smaller and smaller as more people survive as a result of refined foods. And I ask you this, if we evolve to a level where everyone survives to an age of reproduction regardless of intelligence(or the level of intelligence of their parents) all the “positive” traits that we wish to come to pass through biotech and nanotech technology, won’t these advances be negated by an over abundance of stupid people. It sure seems to be driving evolutionary force already.

[null and void]

As a demonstration project the entire DNA of a virus was created (well, they didn’t make their own dirt) from scratch using the published DNA sequence, commercially available chemicals and equipment just last year. Injected into cells it replicated itself, caused a full disease process and made active virus.

Sleep well tonight, knowing that...

[Diego1618]

And thinking of it as a creation, forces one to assume there is a Creator.

Well....like I said earlier....somewhere, "Just what would you call it then?"

[null and void]

See post #135.

And FWIW, I don’t rule out there being a Creator...

[Nathan Zachary]

It has been proven over and over again balistically that the craters could only have been created by objects origionating from earth. I'm not about to hash over all that with you, serves no purpose. I'm well aware that those who cry 'evolution' have a shabby explanation for everything, no matter if it contradicts other shabby explanations for everything.

Darth Vader took all the material that is missing from the evolution of the grand canyon which should be evident at it's opening to the pacific ocean, and built a death star out of it.

There are so many flaws and contradictions of evolutionary theory, they would take days to list here. And more pile up every year.

I'm fully aware however, that an evolutionist will argue until blue in the face that elephants lived in the artic, even though it's impossible for an elephant to survive for any length of time in that climate, just as it is impossible for the tropical plants found in their stomach's and even in their mouths to grow in that climate as well.
But heck, lets just say tetonic plate shifting accounts for that, even though that statement places the artic circle even closer to the pole if one is to believe tetonic plate theory.

[firebrand]

God has a soft spot for that "rustic" look.

Giving new meaning to the phrase "intelligent design"?

[null and void]

Nahhh, he’s an interior designer...

[firebrand]

I have a logical proof: God is a truism.

[Nathan Zachary]

"As a demonstration project the entire DNA of a virus was created (well, they didn’t make their own dirt) from scratch using the published DNA sequence, commercially available chemicals and equipment just last year. Injected into cells it replicated itself, caused a full disease process and made active virus."

Of course all the apparatus, chemicals, beakers, etc. was available "accidentally" billions of years ago when rocks formed from nothing exploding, then miraculously in defiance of the laws of gravity in space in the presence of a large gravitational body, somehow clung together forming a moleten body, (which isn't supported by geological study) and rain clouds from outerspace came and rained on them for billions of years, cooling it off eventually creating biological soup. Then this happened against all odds, infinite odds, and happened again and again against the same odds untill all life on earth appeared...

Yet somehow you have trouble believing in God... Sheesh.

[Nathan Zachary]

"And FWIW, I don’t rule out there being a Creator..."

At least there hope for you then. :o)

[null and void]

And you choom, have real trouble following even the simplest of contexts.

Please note that my post was in response to Doe Eyes’ post #143.

Next see if you can possibly wrap your mind around how that *might* relate to my post.

Also, did you *happen* to notice that I specifically said that they “didn’t make their own dirt”???

[AnotherUnixGeek]

But I would like to point out that though we may have some more control than we’ve had in the past over “what we become”, we don’t have control over what genetics and our environment “allow” us to become.

I think that a very high degree of control over genetics is not that far off - even if it were by the standards we use to judge technological advancements, it'll happen in the blink of an eye compared to the evolutionary forces required to show a visible reduction the size of the average human's jaw.

As long as we can maintain the science and civilization necessary for technology to thrive and grow, we've basically placed ourselves outside of a lot of evolutionary processes. This has been true as long as man has developed and used technology (e.g. I use my 20/15 LASIK eyes to scan this web page, instead of being eaten by some hyena I didn't see coming), and the impact grows greater as the technology grows greater. Our own genetic manipulations and nano-technology based modifications to our bodies will have far more impact on the human race over the next 100 years than evolution could have on us over the next 100,000 years. For example, I'd be very surprised if human aging weren't under serious assault, if not completely conquered, by the time 2107 rolled around.

[Nathan Zachary]

"Also, did you *happen* to notice that I specifically said that they “didn’t make their own dirt”???"

Yes I did. Thought you were being sarcastic.

[null and void]

No. I was acknowledging that the “creation” of the viral DNA was merely the rearranging of existing stuff, as is pretty much all of human creation.

Sorry I snarked at you in that post.