No, but I have seen Westboro Baptist Church videos, and I'm aware of brainwashing. But their views don't represent the majority of Christians any more than the people who think aliens created the human race represent all atheists.
I personally think God created it all but left it up to the creation to decide when and how it would come back to the Source (i.e. God). And you're still missing the point...just because there's suffering doesn't mean God doesn't care. Again, what is life without suffering? Heck, that kind of stuff actually can make you stronger and even if someone dies in an unfortunate way, maybe someone close to them will grow spiritually stonger by coping from the loss. You never know the reasons but just because life isn't fair and bad things happen to seemingly innocent people doesn't mean God hates or doesn't care about us. One last time, what is life without suffering? Although not addressed to me, I'd like to point out that organized religion is not the only way to think about the subject of God. As a matter of fact, I think organized religion is dangerous and encourages people to follow a set of rules for salvation rather than build a true relationship with their creator (whatever that means to the practitioner).
i didn't say there weren't any. i don't follow organized religion. i was just curious to which contradictions you were referring, since you keep saying "all contradictions" but didn't say any specifically. no need to be a smartass
So anybody here think intelligent design could be in play? Unlikely, but hard to rule out that concept imo
Yes, especially when one considers the complexity of math and science. Every little mechanism has to fit perfectly together, or we would not exist. I will give a few examples of complex structures: DNA and genetics, quantum mechanics and modern physics, and the combination of kinetics, thermodynamics, and equilibrium to successfully complete a chemical reaction. As I study science, I wonder how anything so complex could possibly form without a God, and I wonder if man will ever be able to explain life's processes in full.
Imagine one billion years. That's how long it took to create single celled organisms on Earth. That's how complex things exist... A **** load of time.
that doesn't rule out intelligent design though. one can argue that evolution and the rest of the universe is set up like dominos, and the one who set them up put them in motion and stood back to watch.
You can't rule much of anything out if you believe in all powerful beings. That's the beauty of the belief. Nothing, however otherwise unbelievable, is impossible.
Except you have to consider that if things didn't happen that way we wouldn't be here to be aware of it. So that everything could be random but because we have no way of evaluating an alternate reality where things didn't turn out the way it did. Next you have to consider if we are designed there are many problems with the design. For example why design such a marvelous immune system that frequently damages the rest of the body through things like arthritis or even simple inflammation? Why do we have such things as an appendix or a coccyx bone or other vestigial elements?
Wait a second...wasn't this the plot of Prometheus? It's a trap! What a laugh-out-loud bad movie that was...
I thought it was a pretty darn good movie but ofcourse I don't come in to a movie expecting there to be zero plot holes especially in a Sci-fi movie.
I was entertained by it and I'll see the sequel, but I expected a lot more from Ridley Scott. There were a number of dreadful scenes/developments, in my opinion.
We were indeed designed. Designed by the laws of thermodynamics and classical mechanics. such laws have little care for arthritis or even simple inflammation. But rather only the stability of the system. Life is a construct on - what persists continues to persist. At some point, out of some process and interaction with protein molecules, a molecule of nucleic acids persisted through replication via proteins...and replicating itself imperfectly at that. Thus the foundation for the information transfer and basic principle of natural selection began. We are designed to age. If we did not, we'd have ceased to exist long ago. The reason DNA exists after billions of years because it replicated imperfectly, and one particular strange never stuck around too long. It was constantly mixed and reinvented through crossing over and sex to give it the variation it needed to be adaptable. So the real question becomes, where did the fundamental building blocks and the fundamental physicals laws come from? Are those designed? Time and space have a beginning - there is a point either neither existed. The big bang wasn't just about all this stuff exploding, it was the creation of time and the space that it would expand into. There was no before. There was no place. No thoughts, no decision, no other reality where anything happened or existed. Oh you could create some previous universe that collapsed or some weird bubble multi-verse - but all these reintroduce time and thus just makes for an endless Russian Doll within a doll game. At some point, time had a beginning. Why did time begin? Thats the most boggling question to me. You can believe that there is some omnipotent presence out there, not bound by space, not bound by time - which means it does not move, think, speak, or act. Thoughts afterall imply time. You can believe that, and in that comfort, take the most noble of human emotions as a previous poster has done...and embrace "love". Or you can see the universe as a process, devoid of such a presence, and come to the conclusion that the 11 dimensional vibrating strings we are all made up of will go on existing long past the expiration date of our DNA, with all our thoughts and memories snuffed out except for what is recorded on a cd or harddrive,....and then realize we are just these mechanical processes and there is no point to any of this. And so what are you left with. Might as well enjoy the incredible experiences we have while we are here. Might as well embrace that noblest of human emotions as a previous poster has done, and embrace "love". All roads lead to the same place.
All roads lead to the same place? I'm not sure that is clear in the slightest. All roads coming from a condition where everything has to be provable lead to the same place. You mention that we are mechanical processes. True. The question then becomes how the laws of mechanics and thermodynamics came into being. If you believe that God created the universe, you would further believe that God created the laws of mechanics and thermodynamics as part of that creation. The Big Bang theory started with a single speck. Who put the speck there? All roads do not necessarily lead to the same conclusion.
intelligent design isnt "disproved" by the notion that we aren't superhumans. the idea is not about some "guy" making universe catered to us.
What's to say our idea of time has any relevance to anything outside our realm of experience? The hydrogen atoms that are in your body are billions of years old. Do those atoms care about time? It's all very fascinating to think about.
