Does a New Life Form Mean God Is Dead? (Full Version)

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Brain -> Does a New Life Form Mean God Is Dead? (12/5/2010 10:19:30 PM)

It does not mean God is dead for me; because for me God was dead a long time ago for many other reasons. This new evidence or reason is in addition to the others. I think this discovery supports what Hawking said previously that science will prevail over religion.


Does a New Life Form Mean God Is Dead?

The discovery of what is apparently an entirely new form of life -- a bacteria based on toxic arsenic rather than phosphorus, one of the six building blocks of all life on Earth -- has set the scientific world abuzz, prompting White House inquiries to NASA and threatening to upend longstanding beliefs about biology.

But some say the announcement also signals an end to religious faith, or at least the beginning of the end, because it implies that life can spring forth unexpectedly on Earth or even on other planets, and in unexpected forms -- developments that seem to run counter to literal readings of biblical creation accounts.

"The polite thing to say is that discoveries such as this don't really impeach the credibility of established religion, but in truth of course they really do," David Niose, president of the American Humanist Association (AHA), a leading secularist organization, said of this week's revelations about the microbes discovered in Lake Mono in California.

http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/12/04/does-a-new-life-form-mean-god-is-dead/




[image]local://upfiles/392475/BABBF146A21D479B9915F4F493B7BB78.jpg[/image]




tazzygirl -> RE: Does a New Life Form Mean God Is Dead? (12/5/2010 10:25:45 PM)

Did you deliberately stop reading your own article?

Now, the rest of the story....

quote:

Even some vocal atheists who see belief and science as inevitable opponents -- with belief the problem, not the solution -- weren't buying the AHA's arguments about the discovery's importance.

"I regret to say that the American Humanists got the story wrong," PZ Myers, a biologist at the University of Minnesota and a famously trenchant critic of religion, told Politics Daily. Myers, who details his arguments at his blog, says the problem is their reading of the science.

"They say 'a new form of life has been discovered that apparently evolved outside the scope of all previously discovered life on Earth,' and this is not correct: the bacteria studied share a common ancestor with us, and the novelty of the discovery was not the organism, but that this entirely earthly organism was capable of incorporating arsenic into its chemistry. So no, their claims of its significant impact on our understanding of the history of life on Earth are overblown."




ScaryJello -> RE: Does a New Life Form Mean God Is Dead? (12/5/2010 10:30:15 PM)

I say that the atheists like Brain can return to religion and stop blemishing my atheist brethren.

You can't force the star shaped fact (or perhaps in this case Double Helix shaped fact) into the triangle shaped hole simply because you want to.




Reverend0Link -> RE: Does a New Life Form Mean God Is Dead? (12/5/2010 10:56:37 PM)

How can a newly discovered life form on this planet mean anything accept that as a whole we humans are unobservant? We have been the primary catalogers of the lifeforms for the last three thousand years, yet we keep finding "new" things, duh!




maybemaybenot -> RE: Does a New Life Form Mean God Is Dead? (12/5/2010 10:58:56 PM)

No, it does not.

The Bible says that God created the heavens and Earth and put man on it. God told Abraham that he created worlds without end. The Bible does not address the existence of life on another planet/galaxy etc specifically. It also does not deny life other than on Earth. Life or life form on another planet etc in no way shakes my faith, nor will it of most, dare I say all,  people of the varying Christian faiths/denominations.

I suggest reading the Book of Moses where God speaks of other universes and planets and repeatedly says they are his, He created them and created them for His own purposes, known to Him, not to man. Why would I assume that his purpose is or was to only have life on Earth ? He pretty much says, it's none of my business and I am quite OK with that.

Below is an exerpt


Moses 1:35

But only an account of this earth, and the inhabitants therof, give I unto you. For behold, there are many worlds that have passed away by the word of my power. And there are many that nowstand, and innumerable are they unto man, but all things are numbered unto me, for they are mine and I know them.


                  mbmbn

PS: Glad to see you back on the Forums, Brain.[:D]




Termyn8or -> RE: Does a New Life Form Mean God Is Dead? (12/5/2010 11:11:18 PM)

I recuse myself from the "film at eleven".

One cannot prove the other. It;s like me saying I have twenty bucks, which proves Nostradamus was right, and Freud was wrong.

The two issues have nothing to do with one another.

T




Kirata -> RE: Does a New Life Form Mean God Is Dead? (12/5/2010 11:13:03 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: Brain

It does not mean God is dead for me; because for me God was dead a long time ago for many other reasons. This new evidence or reason is in addition to the others.

God may be dead, or not. But if this is an example of your "evidence or reason" for thinking so, your brain is. [:D]

K.




gungadin09 -> RE: Does a New Life Form Mean God Is Dead? (12/5/2010 11:38:44 PM)

i don't know why it would. The fact that the Earth revolves around the sun did not mean it.

pam




DeviantlyD -> RE: Does a New Life Form Mean God Is Dead? (12/5/2010 11:43:41 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: Reverend0Link

How can a newly discovered life form on this planet mean anything accept that as a whole we humans are unobservant? We have been the primary catalogers of the lifeforms for the last three thousand years, yet we keep finding "new" things, duh!



Yeah, what he said. [;)]




Termyn8or -> RE: Does a New Life Form Mean God Is Dead? (12/5/2010 11:52:40 PM)

How can something die which has not been alive at some time ?

There is a theory that Man creates God. That the superconcious of all of us working together actually does meld, and therefore as power, can actually do something. This differs from the other theory that all the universe is actually God and as a being of course, we are but small parts of it.

Either way, this hypothesis simply does move move of it's own accord, no matter what.

T




Brain -> RE: Does a New Life Form Mean God Is Dead? (12/6/2010 12:21:49 AM)


The rest of the story sounds like gobbledygook to me meaning it's just like creation theory; nonsense.


quote:

Did you deliberately stop reading your own article?

Now, the rest of the story....




Brain -> RE: Does a New Life Form Mean God Is Dead? (12/6/2010 12:28:09 AM)

This "a bacteria based on toxic arsenic rather than phosphorus, one of the six building blocks of all life on Earth " IS new.




Brain -> RE: Does a New Life Form Mean God Is Dead? (12/6/2010 12:51:51 AM)

For decades we heard Earth is the only place in the universe with life because Earth is special and now that we're discovering life is possible on other planets the story changes to rationalize the existence of God. The church has also re- written the bible to fit the circumstances and it would not surprise me if this may be a case where this applies. Thank you, nice to be back.




Brain -> RE: Does a New Life Form Mean God Is Dead? (12/6/2010 12:54:47 AM)


Why did the church put Galileo in prison if it did not mean it?

quote:

ORIGINAL: gungadin09

i don't know why it would. The fact that the Earth revolves around the sun did not mean it.

pam





Brain -> RE: Does a New Life Form Mean God Is Dead? (12/6/2010 12:57:12 AM)


Sorry, but our scientific analysis has improved significantly.

quote:




Yeah, what he said.




Brain -> RE: Does a New Life Form Mean God Is Dead? (12/6/2010 1:17:00 AM)

Sellout! Can't take the heat defending atheism.

quote:

ORIGINAL: ScaryJello

I say that the atheists like Brain can return to religion and stop blemishing my atheist brethren.

You can't force the star shaped fact (or perhaps in this case Double Helix shaped fact) into the triangle shaped hole simply because you want to.





Fellow -> RE: Does a New Life Form Mean God Is Dead? (12/6/2010 1:38:33 AM)

The atheists and the true believers have many similar traits: both are totally and rigidly certain they know and every piece of information is used by them to "prove" their point. Arguing about religion with an atheist or with a theist is totally futile exercise: one can only agree, praise the God or almighty natural Science  and then become a best friend. 




DCWoody -> RE: Does a New Life Form Mean God Is Dead? (12/6/2010 1:38:39 AM)

You do not live up to your name.




Termyn8or -> RE: Does a New Life Form Mean God Is Dead? (12/6/2010 2:49:45 AM)

FR

Life is a game.

In a mixture of ethylene glocol and 30% glycerin, life prevails. In former years I had to dispose of this life, either in the drain or out in the parking lot. It's the optical fluid in a big TV. In some models it has to be changed from time to time, like every five years or so. Nobody thought anything could live in there, yet it became cloudy, thus requiring me to go make some money. This is a totally sealed environment almost, no food could get in, and nothing can escape. Seriously bottled up.

Well in the chanbers of this fluid lives a bacteria. It may have it's genesis in that fluid but I am not sure of that. Strangely, bright blue or green light promotes it's growth greatly. Seems like a plant. But when removing the [self] contaminated fluid, it is considered poisonous, even moreso than it's original components. They say don't even get it on your skin.

It is a form of life, it is helped by shorter wavelengths of visible light. It multiplies, and then becomes a problem, pretty much a cataract. There is no other source of food. Certain situations make it cloudy, which must be corrected. In other situations it gains volume and leaks, withiout actually becoming cloudy. But the condition should still bew corrected, or it will leak. You don't want that.

Life will happen wherever it can, and on this planet it could, and did, in spades. How many species' of life are there ?

But it still doesn't prove shit.

T




Edwynn -> RE: Does a New Life Form Mean God Is Dead? (12/6/2010 3:05:45 AM)


It is instructive to note that so many people in our society only trip over what little understanding of science they may have by way of some political rag, and only find interest in it insofar as it may serve some political or theological or atheological purpose.

I had already read through the story in a legitimate setting and it never occurred to me that this wonderful and highly interesting discovery would be co-opted for such low purpose. I can't say it's surprising, but it does go a long way in explaining why advancement of civilization is so far behind concomitant advancement of science. For too large a portion of society, what usefulness in furthering or creating new ideological battlegrounds a new discovery may provide is of far more importance than mundane considerations such as utility to mankind or progression of civilization.

No matter how beautiful the new cup or fine glass of discovery, some will always see and use it as just another ideological spittoon. 






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