Oliver<<Is the Earth over 65 million years old?>>as previously declared..the earth is not 6000 years old...

as to being over 65 million..that seems a bit on the light-side..[big bang/let there be light...is said to be 6 billion..or so years ago...so who knows...

is carbon teqnique/dating a constant..indeed is time a constant..there are too many vairi-ables/theo-ries...to be definitive about anything..

im told that in certain lab conditions..mearly observing an affect/affects the result...and that minute things can be in two/place's at the same time..

science cannot even agree that light is a photon particle...capable of being a particle..or in a wave...

im told pressure isnt..simply the orbital planes..
being forced into lower orbitalplanes..

but somehow the THEORY..of particles..somehow shooting off at all angles..banging into the side..thats not science its delusion...

i go with orbits//interacting..even if no..'science'..says so..because i dis-believe..the random particle/presure..THEORY



GRIM>><<the putative Creator/deliberately designed us..(or Life)..to be imperfect...This actually makes sense to me.>>>me too...

but only..so we can chose..[of our own freewill]..to love..even the im-perfect]..chose/..love over hate..chose/..cooperation over war..chose faith [id]..over..the THEORY...lol..of evo-lution..of genus

<<“Go Forth and Multiply” -and let the cards fall as they will.>>jesus didnt judge/..god dont judge...why judge we?...

freewill only has any meaning..if we have a free choice

<<why did It bother?>>..think of an eternal/immortal...
simply passing time...knowing mortality..
by knowing loving its..[her]..mortal/creation...'sss

the all loving...all/..[good]..god
knowing of hate...without hating anything...

[god is all loving..witness;..even the most vile...
yet god sustains them/TOO..their living...their lives..

knowing in time they TOO..will turn to love/..

life=[light/logic/love/live]=god...
even a beast in the field..can know his creator's voice/..
by these signs...

as jesus says..that ye se me do..YE WILL DO GREATER

[greater than god?..of course not..
he was man/..got life ..from a mother

just like us

<<Creator does not appear to understand the value of morality,>>>you werre so close..a judgemental god might..but god dont judge no-one...god alone loves ALL...

best we chose love..CHOOSE TO REJECT HATE

GOD DONT JUDGE..<<..our living world;which is typically amoral.>>judge not..lest ye be judged by the same measure/..by others..not god...

note the fathers house has many rooms...[heaven/hell...and everything in between...as judged by our acts.and the others of like mind...not god

<<Which is more important,..or more 'moral',..or offers a greater guarantee of success?>>by what measure judge/you success...[mans measure..or goods/gods]

<<And how would we..(or God)..define success?>>>see those who love evil...yet love something...

even if the only love they have..is hate..[recall god/..good is the love]

<<Do nice guys/inevitably finish last,..>>depends/on..where you think the finish-line is

<<is competition/more important than cooperation,>>they arnt opposing..
[it depends on their fruit..if the tree is good etc..]

<<and is..“the fish that JW rejects”..>>jehova/witness?...
those who judge others yet ask..to be judged..by the same measure..
self judgment..it's..a bbbb-itch..

judge not/../lest...by the same measure..we too be judged

<<Perhaps/we were created..to answer these questions..for a deeply perplexed God.>>if the big bang..is a series of big bangs...[from a dot..to the uni-verse]..

then god stands outside this grain of sand..[eternal/immortal]..
infinite/beyond this finite world..

to put our confusion/our confusion..
our measure/our emoting..on god...is an absurdity..

he has seen it all..again and again..[the friend says destroy mine enemy..
the enemy asks god destroy mine/brrr-other...
the christian asks destroy the muslim..the jew asks destroy..the messengers peoples

we are all...a child of good/god..
each can know him one to one...a personal/
ever living...ever loving good..

thats the true god

jesus came to restore to...all.../..gods children..of good../god...
back to the one..who loves each of us equ-ally

se the one who/loves all
watching the same scenes..same unwindings..same/big bang.to big bang conculusions/..debaites/questions/persons...time...scroll...bye..

its all in the book of life...each question noted and replied.../
each life event recorded..

it..like god is beyond..mere big bangs..
and other such temporal things

Dear Vanna,

Any chemical reaction that uses an enzyme can occur without an enzyme. The enzyme does not make the reaction possible. The enzyme speeds up the reaction and makes it much more efficient. For example the process of photosynthesis is different in the five types of photosynthetic bacteria (purple sulfur, green nonsulfur, green sulfur, and oxygenic). These five types use different metabolic pathways and different enzymes. The theory of evolution takes into account the metabolic reactions required for an organism to function. Organisms evolve mechanisms to meet various conditions. Enzymes are proteins which are produced by transcription from DNA as other proteins are. Mutations of the DNA produce different proteins.

The synthetic bacterium is not the creation of life. It was the placement of a synthetic chromosome in an existing cell. It may lead to the creation of man made life, but that is a long way away.

Intelligent design is the assertion that "certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection." It is a modern form of the traditional teleological argument for the existence of God, but one which avoids specifying the nature or identity of the designer. Anything produced by humans is not included in that definition. I am cautious about releasing life forms whether synthetic or natural into new environments.

Dear OUG,

In postulating a god born of a mother Christianity differs from true monotheistic religions like Islam, Judaism and Bahai'i. The ancient Greek, Roman and Norse Gods were human in form. Christianity with its humanoid god is a modification made to Judaism so it would be acceptable to the pagan world by introducing a God like the pagan gods.

Oliver- No one believes in Apollo or Zeus. I've never seen anyone discuss theology of evolution from the perspective of Apollo, therefore that's completely irrelevant to the whole ID- Evolution- theology discussion.

Lastly, and most importantly, you seem to have forgotten the fact that I'm replying to this thread which is a discussion on an article. In that article, the author only refers to the Christian faith. Therefore your complaint lacks foundations from the beginning. However, this is all a moot point anyway, so I'll allow you to have the last word with your silly, baseless whinging.

quanda
Pigs lining up on the tarmac...where? :)

Davidf
"reason is the slave of the passions"

Gosh we could go off on all sorts of tangents here david, including asking the question is there really such a thing as free will? Or go down the Hobbsien path of determinism.

Is morality contrived or natural? Even when contrived (through religion, law etal) it does depend on a certain sense of natural altruism otherwise the man-made creation could not possibly hope to survive even despite the manipulation of emotions like guilt. The fact guilt can be manipulated suggests a 'natural' tendency.

The theists among us may see that natural tendency as needing enhancement via a structured supernatural moral framework.

runner
The difference is that there is more evidence for evolution than creationism. So the faith based argument is not applicable, given that faith is 'belief without reason'. The evidence for natural selection or 'favoured genes' is all around us.

I tend to prefer the idea that that religion continues to be just one aspect of an evolutionary process (more social than biological).

I have no difficulty in accepting the multitude of religions and spriritual beliefs, but creationism is based purely on faith; there is no room for movement, question or review for many fundamentalists in the face of evidence no matter how compelling. Some may argue that spirituality itself is a natural phenomenon of the human psyche.

Atheists tend to knock the religious cherry pickers but I am grateful for them over the fundamentalist anyday. Lest we should turn back the clock and stifle free thought, abstract thinking and with it innovation and resourcefulness.

David f,
Without a biological catalyst, a metabolic reaction may never occur.

(EG Without a specific enzyme, a metabolic reaction may require excess heat to initiate it, and either that heat energy is not available, or the heat energy could harm the organism.)

Indeed it takes enzymes to actually join the base pairs and create DNA initially, and it takes enzymes to also split the base pairs and enable transcription to occur. Without enzymes, most metabolic reactions inside a cell cannot occur, and without those metabolic reactions, the cell dies.

For every metabolic activity, there are normally a series of specific enzymes required, and the production of those enzymes is rarely covered by the theory of evolution.

So far as the synthetic cell is concerned -> baby steps.

It was only 60 years ago that DNA was discovered. Add another 60 years on, and it may be possible to artificially manufacture DNA that will create a new species, although I don't believe it should be released on Earth, due to the possibility that it could adversely affect existing life forms.

So to reduce risk to current species, synthetic life forms developed in the future would have to be released elsewhere.