Ask an atheist

[Hitti-Litti]

But to me Creationist believe they must protect life all life old and young for they are all Gods creatures make more sense than a theory about The weak die out and the strong survive.

I wouldn't start an argument about evolution if my knowledge of it was as weak as yours. Evolution isn't about the survival of the strongest. Those who are the best in adapting to their environment are the ones that will survive, not the strongest.

 

[Pwnzerfaust]

Well, to be fair to him, he probably doesn't understand just how little he understands about evolution, cosmology, etc. I've found that the vast majority of creationists simply do not understand evolution at even middle school level, which contributes greatly to their incredulity. Of course there are others who, for some reason or another, simply don't want to understand, perhaps for fear of damaging their worldview or somesuch, but the bulk I've met simply weren't educated, or didn't pay attention in school.

 

[GenjiKhan]

Well, to be fair to him, he probably doesn't understand just how little he understands about evolution, cosmology, etc. I've found that the vast majority of creationists simply do not understand evolution at even middle school level, which contributes greatly to their incredulity. Of course there are others who, for some reason or another, simply don't want to understand, perhaps for fear of damaging their worldview or somesuch, but the bulk I've met simply weren't educated, or didn't pay attention in school.

There are situations where they said that they understood evolution,but when you speak to them,they use fallacies to justify their believes,like saying "So,you're saying that Hitler was right" or "Are you saying that monkeys are our relatives?" . If you discuss evolution with a Creationist,bring a dictionary,because it seems they speak a different language from the most of the people .

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

Inspired by the other Ask a ... thread, Evolution made understandable for Creationists.

First off, the most important question about evolution is of course: how did life originate? Answer: Life, which is the absence of death by the way, wasn't created, it evolved. It originated when single cell organisms started popping up.

There. Phew. I feel like a weight has been lifted off our collective shoulders now we've cleared that age-old divisive discussion out of the way

 

[timtofly]

Inspired by the other Ask a ... thread, Evolution made understandable for Creationists.

First off, the most important question about evolution is of course: how did life originate? Answer: Life, which is the absence of death by the way, wasn't created, it evolved. It originated when single cell organisms started popping up.

There. Phew. I feel like a weight has been lifted off our collective shoulders now we've cleared that age-old divisive discussion out of the way

Where do single cells originate from?

 

[Truronian]

Where do single cells originate from?

A very interesting question. The bones of the currently accepted model are out lined here. Abiogenesis models are all still relatively new and have only had certain stages reproduced in a lab (such as amino acid formation), it's an exciting area of research (or so my biochemist freind tells me ).

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

Where do single cells originate from?

Thanks Tim, you're a great wingman

Well, you see. Single cell organisms are like darkness. I'm sure you can fill in the rest.

 

[timtofly]

A very interesting question. The bones of the currently accepted model are out lined here. Abiogenesis models are all still relatively new and have only had certain stages reproduced in a lab (such as amino acid formation), it's an exciting area of research (or so my biochemist freind tells me ).

Thanks, so we have carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen swirling around and eventually "banging" together in the proper amounts. How did specks of nothing originate into bodies of gas (stars) and solid (planets) to provide a home for these said "life" friendly molecules?

Thanks Tim, you're a great wingman

Well, you see. Single cell organisms are like darkness. I'm sure you can fill in the rest.

Thanks for the good laugh. I would say though that darkness is still darkness and the molecules are the "light". The molecules formed single cell organism and the darkness became less evident. Hydrogen and Helium make great lights to disperse the darkness even more.

 

[Ajidica]

How did specks of nothing originate into bodies of gas (stars) and solid (planets) to provide a home for these said "life" friendly molecules?

Gravity and various molecular and nuclear forces.

 

[Flying Pig]

Gravity and nuclear forces.

The moral of the story being that 'I don't know' doesn't equate to 'magic'. God can do it without having to twist natural rules on their heads, after all.

 

[El_Machinae]

See, the real issue is that you wonder why there's something instead of nothing. It doesn't matter if there're excellent theories and evidences for how stars and planet and different atoms form. It doesn't matter if there're excellent theories and evidences for how the different stages of life happened on Earth. The real question is 'why is there stuff?'.

I don't know.

 

[PeteAtoms]

How did specks of nothing originate into bodies of gas (stars) and solid (planets) to provide a home for these said "life" friendly molecules?

The universe does not accommodate or conform to life. Life conforms to the universe.

Think of life behaving like a liquid inside a vessel. The vessel does not alter it's shape around the liquid's, the liquid takes the shape of it.

A sentient puddle should not think that the hole it happens to find itself in was designed or "just right" for its existence.

 

[cardgame]

See, the real issue is that you wonder why there's something instead of nothing. It doesn't matter if there're excellent theories and evidences for how stars and planet and different atoms form. It doesn't matter if there're excellent theories and evidences for how the different stages of life happened on Earth. The real question is 'why is there stuff?'.

I don't know.

Why wouldn't there be?

 

[warpus]

"Hey warpus, where did you get that bacon?"
"I bought it at the store"
"How'd it get to the store?"
"It came there from a butcher"
"How'd it get to the butcher"
"From a pig farm, I suppose"
"How'd it get there?"
"Two pigs made love and gave birth to it"
"how'd those two pigs get there?"

...

"See, you can't really prove that you got that bacon from the store. You must have gotten it from God"

 

[GenjiKhan]

"Hey warpus, where did you get that bacon?"
"I bought it at the store"
"How'd it get to the store?"
"It came there from a butcher"
"How'd it get to the butcher"
"From a pig farm, I suppose"
"How'd it get there?"
"Two pigs made love and gave birth to it"
"how'd those two pigs get there?"

...

"See, you can't really prove that you got that bacon from the store. You must have gotten it from God"

And how this god got here? Guess it must have gotten it from god too .

 

[Pwnzerfaust]

How did specks of nothing originate into bodies of gas (stars) and solid (planets) to provide a home for these said "life" friendly molecules?

"Specks of nothing"? Sorry, what? Do you even understand what you're saying there?

The gas clouds coalesced due to mutual gravitational attraction, until such time as there was enough hydrogen (the most common element in the universe by a very large margin) close enough to each other (usually requires at least, say, 1% of the sun's mass--not sure how small the smallest fusing stars are) to begin nuclear fusion. Planets formed in much the same way--materials accumulate into disks around starts due to gravitational and tidal forces, orbiting in one direction due to conservation of momentum, and gradually coalescing into planetary bodies if they're fortunate enough to not get drawn into the star itself.

 

[timtofly]

"Specks of nothing"? Sorry, what? Do you even understand what you're saying there?

The gas clouds coalesced due to mutual gravitational attraction, until such time as there was enough hydrogen (the most common element in the universe by a very large margin) close enough to each other (usually requires at least, say, 1% of the sun's mass--not sure how small the smallest fusing stars are) to begin nuclear fusion. Planets formed in much the same way--materials accumulate into disks around starts due to gravitational and tidal forces, orbiting in one direction due to conservation of momentum, and gradually coalescing into planetary bodies if they're fortunate enough to not get drawn into the star itself.

So all of this coalesced and now it is expanding back out again?

 

[Azash]

Why did you choose atheism over agnosticism?

 

[Whiskey_Lord]

I didn't. It's a matter of semantics, really.

 

[bathsheba666]

So all of this coalesced and now it is expanding back out again?

Try googling big bang (and see what Sheldon has to say on the subject.)

What is locally coalescing is what has been expanding out from the beginning.

Do you really, seriously, not know about the big bang?