Just in case you somehow missed my article about Intelligent Design, the Coast Guard, birds-of-paradise and helicopters, it would probably be civil of me to provide you with the missing link.
"Let the stranger praise you, not your own mouth," said King Solomon, so I'll shut up now. You, on the other hand, should feel free to heap accolades into the Comment box.
I'm afraid my internet access is severely limited while I'm away from home, Jay, but I love it already. Actually reading it is just a formality.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Tom. And if you have access to a fax machine where you are, please e-mail me the number. I wrote an amazing song but I'm afraid to put it out over e-mail.
ReplyDeleteWe're all praying for your Mom.
With apologies to Douglas Adams:
ReplyDelete"'I refuse to prove that I exist,' says God, 'for proof denies faith and without faith I am nothing.'
"'Ah, but intelligent design is a dead giveaway,' says man. 'It proves you exist. Therefore you don't. QED.'
"'Oh, I hadn't thought of that!' says God and promptly vanishes in a puff of logic.
"'Well, that was easy,' says man who, for an encore, goes on to prove that black is white and gets killed at the next pedestrian crossing."
I'm getting a vibe that James believes that he has just committed humor.
ReplyDeleteJames, I liked your contribution very much (Reform Clubbers are not cementheads), although IMO the last paragraph gilded the lily.
ReplyDeleteI myself am still unresolved on ID, even after reading up on it heavily, since it is a subject of interest hereabouts. When I first ran across the concept a few years ago, I was dumbstruck at the possibility that G-d would leave us such obvious clues.
Then again, some say He used to make the lame to walk and the blind to see, which is some real obvious stuff, too.
LA, I suggest you confused Mr. Homnick's prose poetry for polemic. Remember (or research) that Plato could not solve Aristophanes. That oil exists at all and that man could use it as he has is a miracle in its own way. That was the point, I think.
Jay, thank you for your warm thoughts. I'm working on Dad's computer, which I suspect is a bootleg Commodore 64. But I can say without fear of contradiction that your article I didn't read is your best one yet.
Sing your new amazing song directly into your fax machine, dial (900) SEX-GIRLZS, hit "SEND," and tell 'em TVD sent you.
Your new tune will find me through the usual channels. As always, the secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions.
Tom, thanks for the kind words.
ReplyDeleteIncidentally, the first premise of Jewish theology is that God must leave clues or else He has no right to expect Man to devote himself to His purpose.
As for the song, I desperately need to speak to you... like, yesterday.
Hey Tlaloc,
ReplyDeleteMaybe God didn`t create a perfect world because He didn`t WANT to? The whole concept of the fall of Man and the cursing of nature by Sin makes it pretty obvious that God was doing us a favor making things as carefully as He did. He could have made it much worse; we could have only one orifice, or given us all giraffe necks and raised the salary of chiropracters!
If Darwinism is correct, why haven`t we seen the emergence of myriad new species of microbes as a result of environmental pressures caused by industrialization? Why don`t we see that on Bikini island or Johnston atoll which are radioactive because of nuclear tests? Where have all the Dinosaurs gone? Why can`t we create life in a lab? What about the Fermi Paradox (where are the extraterrestrials?) Why do we sleep, when sleeping is DANGEROUS to our survival? What about homosexuality? Hardly a survival trait. Why is there only one race of man, when humanity should have split in different directions after leaving Africa?
It seems to me that Darwin leaves a lot of loose ends as well!
I repeat. To believe that fossil fuels, the basis of the entire structure of modern transportation, are capable of that role because of an accident is an affront to the human intellect.
ReplyDeleteYet evolutionists are stuck driving cars and flying in planes and shooting rocket ships into space, using a key property of a substance that exists in Nature - and arguing that there was no natural or scientific reason that this substance should acquire that property.
For people who are capable of objectivity about these matters, this is a startling realization, astonishing really.
tlaloc
ReplyDeleteAbout evolution and microorganisms, you said:
``Uh we have. Perhaps you've heard of super-bugs, disease that have evolved to be resistant to the typical antibacterial agents used in hospitals? That's just one example.``
None of these are new species; they are simply stronger versions of our old friends.
About Dynosaurs:
``They died out due to some sort of environmental shift which changed the ecology of the planet so that the niches they previously occupied successfully no longer existed or were more successfully occupied by new organisms (generally mammals).``
This begs the question. WHY did all of the dynosaurs except birds die out while mammals did fine. Dinosaurs came in all shapes and sizes and were every bit as active as mammals but they`re gone. Some of them should have evolved. They didn`t, and only the kind which can fly survived. How did Natural Selection work so selectively?
``Among the most widely utilised are retroviral vectors - viruses which have been modified to provide a highly efficient means of transporting genes into various kinds of cells``
Recombinent DNA is not the same as creating life from nonlife, and you know it! Altering the genes of a species hardly counts as creating life.
``Why do we eat when eating is dangerous? Obviously because we need to. Our bodies can't run 24/7 without breaking down. Sometimes they need to stop and refresh.``
Disingenuous; different creatures have different sleep requirements, some getting along on quite little. We even see considerable difference in humans. Natural selection should have evolved most life forms to require a minimum of sleep.
``Actually having a certain percentage of the adult population be homosexual can be a group survival advantage. It allows for adults who will not have offspring, which means they can spend more of their energy on group goals and less on individual child rearing. This isn't hypothetical it's been seen in various social animals that homosexuality can be advantageous as a subset of an overal population.``
And how did Natural Selection determine this? You haven`t answered the question.
``Um hello! Here's a list of some of the different species of "man":``
No kidding, Sherlock! And only Homo Sapiens survived. Why is that? Why hasn`t H Sapiens split, was the question.
Why are you and your ilk so disturbed, tlaloc? If Darwinism is such a slam-dunk, why does it bother you so much that people disagree? Your problem is that you have been unable to prove your case in 145 years, and you know it! Why did Stephan Jay Gould postulate a Neo-Darwinian theory of sudden evolutionary change? Because you guys know you are not on as solid a ground as you pretend.
Try opening your mind. It makes more sense than having apoplexy every time someone criticized Darwin. If the facts are with you, you will win the argument. Why isn`t there any opposition to quantum theory, or relativity? Because these theories have been proven adequately.
By the way, I`m not an I.D. proponent. I`m just somebody who used to believe in Darwinism until I saw too many contradictions to ignore. I think there are major problems which Darwinian Evolution does not answer adequately.