Re: Panspermia
Trevor,
What we have is really more of a list of your biases.
When you say there is "no evidence" for a god (creator) that is absurd. All the evidence is open to interpretation. You yourself have said: "By all rights, virtually everything we hold up as "truth" today in science will eventually be proven wrong...or at least incomplete." (I notice you did not mention this) And yet you insist on rolling out monumental assertions as if they are uncontestable facts! That is inconsistent logic, in my book.
What hypothesis have you applied to your "Gaia" type philosophy? Eh? So that's different? Do you think your philosophy does not affect your understanding of science? Maybe it doesn't, but you should have the humility to recognise that there are many Creationists whose world view has not prevented them from doing (and even enabled them to do) great science - such as Damadian and Newton who have been mentioned.
You say "If you accept god through faith there are eleventy squillion questions that arise, each that have no testable hypothesis." You must have done a LOT of research to know this!
You say "There are far more rational and logical explanations available for that which we encounter than "god did it".
That's highly debatable. Please bear with me as I try to show you how that falls over.
Suppose you and I were walking along a remote beach by the ocean, nobody else in sight, no visible evidence anyone has been on the beach. We come across an ornate sandcastle complete with a moat, turrets, a little drawbridge made of icecream sticks and string. A little flag flies from the top.
You might say "Look some clever person has made a beautiful sandcastle" .
What if I said "No, there's no evidence anyone was here - look, no footprints. This sandcastle - like structure was made by the natural forces of wind, rain and sea splashing on the sand. We know wind can pick up sand into a pile, and flowing water can make interesting shapes of it. People throw icecream sticks and string away and they can float around. The universe is so old, a sandcastle like this had to arise somewhere, there's probably many more of them on a planet out there."
You'd have me certified. And yet this sandcastle is "eleventy squillion" times less complex than a bacteria. I'm sure you get the picture.
The evidence for God is ALL around you, and I'm NOT talking about the so-called "God of the gaps" BTW, why is it that you guys, whenever there are two POSSIBLE explanations for a phenomenon, (a) naturalistic and (b) "God did it", why assume always that the naturalistic answer is the correct one? Especially when you yourself have said: "By all rights, virtually everything we hold up as "truth" today in science will eventually be proven wrong...or at least incomplete." Is that not your BIAS? Of course you BELIEVE there is NO evidence for a god, so therefore the answer HAS to be naturalistic.
Having said this, I'd be REALLY interested in your ideas for a hypotheseis to test how a caterpillar could evolve the DNA necessary to turn into a butterfly, through small mutations and natural selection. A lot of what purports to be science is really just 'faith' based guesswork, and would be called such if it were not for the big names spouting it.
OK. God of the gaps.
Gap 1. What force started the big bang?
Gap 2. How did chemicals gather to create life?
Gap 3. How did a single cell organism become a multi-cell organism?
Gap 4. What is the origin of Sexual reproduction?
What will be the hypothesis, how will you repeat the experiments to prove the answers?
You say: What's more, why you[r] god, and not someone else's? Why your interpretation of how god works, and not mine? Why one god and not many?" Again, that's a theological question, not a scientific one. I have many reasons why I am trusting in God, I'm happy to elaborate based on logic and my experiences to anyone who wants to hear.
Trevor, you say: "I do not exclude the possibility that there may be a creator." But in reality you do. You are only saying this in the hope you appear thoughtful and reasonable. Be honest with yourself.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
