Creationist argument about DNA and information

Natural forces!?!?!?! What the hell are ‘natural forces’…?

…in case it has escaped your attention, there is no such thing as matter or energy. There is ‘something’ else.

This is false. Energy definitely exists. I don't know precisely what you mean by matter. I conjecture that by matter you mean inertial mass. Inertial mass exists also.

Energy is a physical quantity and inertial mass is a physical quantity.

The laws of science include conservation of energy and conservation of momentum. These two laws inertial the existence of inertial mass. Many experiments have been done to falsify these two laws.

The conservation of energy entails the existence of energy, of course. Conservation of momentum implies the existence of inertial mass. So they are both physical quantities.

So scientist deduce that the these two laws closely approximate laws of nature. If they didn't, the experiments would have falsified them already. So there is an inertial mass.

How you

Perhaps you could explain what coherent interpretation of Occam generates a conclusion that has absolutely no explanatory presence what-so-ever!

Your ‘natural forces’ are just another name for ‘natural laws’ (and that is EXACTLY what others [Darwin123 for example] have called them). 'Natural laws' are just another word for 'we don't know what the eff is actually going on here!'

So allow let me rephrase what that other poster said.

There is no law of science that contradicts abiogenesis. Neither Daniel nor you have found a formal statement of ANY law of science that contradicts the possibility of 'living things' be generated by natural and unguided processes. Therefore, it is very plausible that abiogenesis does not contradict the laws of nature as well.

There may be a law of nature that implies, 'God guides everything'. The corresponding laws of science have not produced any predictions that could be falsified even in principle. Investigations of abiogenesis have produced predictions that could have been falsified but have not.

A God that guides everything would contradict every law of science investigated by scientists. Many investigations have uncovered processes that are not directly guided. Many of these unguided processes are biological.

Every law of science that contradicts the existence of unguided biogenesis has been invalidated, thus far. There are phenomena that have not been explained by the laws of science. However, there is no logical way to deduce the existence of God from these gaps.

There also is no way to falsify the existence of a God that violates some laws of science some of the time. Therefore, there is sort of wiggle room for rational people who believe in a God. Absence of evidence does not mean evidence of absence. However, the same argument applies to abiogenesis.

Abiogenesis is consistent with all currently known laws of science. God by definition contradicts all known laws of science. So to make up the existence of a God who created life is basically making up a new law of science. In fact, every attribute one attributes to God is a separate law of science. So the existence and descriptions of God violate Occam's Razor.

Occam's razor is not a law of science, either. There are too many times that it has been violated to count. I admit that Occam's razor is not sufficient to rule out the existence of God. However, it doesn't prove His existence, either.

'There is a God' is a law of science that can not be falsified except by continuous and direct communication with

Nattering on about 'information' doesn't really help you since scientists use the word in different ways. Physicists working with thermodynamics do not use the word 'information' to denote an intelligently guided process.

Thermodynamics, well established laws of science, do not in any way contradict abiogenesis. Quantum mechanics does not contradict abiogenesis.

The thread has been split by the moderators. Let me point out that Daniel has abandoned the quantum mechanics thread. He made some convoluted argument about the path of a particle requiring the conscious guidance of an intelligent being.

He quit that thread soon after I posted those links to articles on the 'two slit experiment' where the scientist did not consciously guide the trajectory of a particle. The scientist merely heated the wave and the particles appeared.

Heating is not really guidance as the scientists, after heating, had no idea which slit the particle would go through. I listed loads of articles showing how the wave front collapses forming the particle with out conscious guidance of the scientists.

Hence, quantum mechanics does not provide a law of science that requires a conscious entity to guid it. Daniel had no answer to this.

Neither quantum mechanics nor thermodynamics really entail the existence of a conscious God. I don't know any other law of science that does so either. The currently known laws of science are consistent with an unguided biogenesis.

God requires belief in Him to help His Creations. That is a hypothesis that is often added to the hypothesis that God exists. So that is two laws of nature that at present seem unfalsifiable. Then there is, 'God blesses people who believe in him AND do good deeds.' That is three unfalsifiable hypotheses.

That doesn't mean God exists, but he may be very different from what Daniel envisions. Just because God exists doesn't mean that he cares about whether anyone 'believes' in him. He doesn't communicate with each of us directly, so there is no way falsify this. Daniel is left with the option to find a law of science that requires the existence of God. He himself claims that he requires 'evidence' for the existence of God, though he never presented real evidence.


I can not say whether there is a God or not, but I do know that the God hypothesis is not necessary to explain the existence of life. You may find the God hypothesis sufficient. On the condition that you are right, let us hope He blesses us each and every one without the unexplained requirement for belief!
 
Quote mining is when you pick out quotes that say something else than if they had been seen in their context.


Well there are no "Quotes" in original source documents unless they are from third parties and are Parenthetically Cited, they only become "Quotes" when others Quote them.


It is a kind of lying, and you do it all the time.


Really?? That's why you overwhelmed us here with your many examples SUPPORTING your claims?? :rolleyes:

POST ONE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


In fact, your unethical use of quotes is so common that it would seem like a pure coincidence if you happened to get a quote right. You are in the habit of bringing a quote from some authority (like Orgel or Shapiro) and only bring their criticism, while their solution to the criticism is left out, thus giving the false impression that they think that natural abiogenesis is impossible.


POST ONE!!!!!!!!!!!

I am the critic here, I SUPPORT my position by bringing up criticisms, Hard Facts!!
99.9% of the Citations I post are from evolutionists/materialists (Hostile Witnesses). Their beliefs of 'If Pigs could Fly Chemistry' Hypotheticals (not 'solutions') are IRRELEVANT to the matter and are "Out of Context"!! :rolleyes:



After all, relying on authorities is also a fallacy.


You're not only completely clueless on the application of "Quote Mining" Fallacy, you haven't a clue what an Argument from Authority Fallacy is...

Argument/Appeal to Authority (Fallacy)--- This fallacy is committed when the person in question is not a legitimate authority on the subject. http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/appeal-to-authority.html

Are you saying, that Dr. Leslie Orgel and Dr. Shapiro are not legitimate authorities on abiogenesis?? :jaw-dropp My Word (lol, btw)

Thanks for Illustrating :thumbsup:


regards
 
Because I see you're online ATM, Daniel:

Which of the hundreds of Gods and creation stories should I prefer and why?
 
...
The conservation of energy entails the existence of energy, of course.
...

Exactly the opposite. Variation in the quantity of anything entails it exists (at least a some point), a conserved quantity is compatible with non-existence.

E.g. The number of horses in existence is variable, the number of unicorns in existence is a conserved quantity.
 
I always find it interesting how creationists are willing to ignore the work of thousands of people for decades (if not more) and push it away with 'I didn't see it happen / I don't understand it so it is wrong', yet at the same time apply none of that criticism to their own (interpretation of their) holy book, which by the way took a fraction of the effort to write compared to even the most obscure scientific field.


1. Stereotype Fallacy: 'creationists'.

2. Straw Man Fallacy: "are willing to ignore the work of thousands of people for decades (if not more) and push it away with 'I didn't see it happen / I don't understand it so it is wrong" la la la.

3. Then you bring The Bible in to 'Cherry on Top' your Op-Ed, eh? :boggled:


@ Daniel, there are experiments (done in the 80's I think I remember) where prokaryotic ribosomes were cleared of their proteins and they were still able so synthesize proteins, hence a ribosome stripped of proteins IS still a ribosome.


And So??? LOL SEE Notarized Question in previous post....Errr, the same question which you've been 'whistling past the graveyard' by for the majority of this thread. :rolleyes:


In the RNA world hypothesis the RNA 'comes' from self assembled ribonucleotide strings (experimentally proven to form)...


:rolleyes: That's what we've been waiting for...? Any year now?


The ribosome is the result of a long time of selection.


Yes and Invisible 3 toed gnomes are creating dark matter by throwing pixie dust in a black hole behind the crab nebula.


But you are right, Shapiro's Metabolism first theory is quite elegant too, I'm surprised you are using it to prove a point though.


1. Why do you think it's elegant TOO, if what you're saying about RNA is TRUE?? (LOL Hysterically). You just unwittingly imploded your own argument :thumbsup:

2. I'm not using his 'Metabolism First' argument, he doesn't have one. :boggled:

Dr. Orgel has a summary of both though...

"However, solutions offered by supporters of geneticist or metabolist scenarios that are dependent on “if pigs could fly” hypothetical chemistry are unlikely to help."
Orgel LE (2008) The Implausibility of Metabolic Cycles on the Prebiotic Earth, PLoS Biology.
http://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.0060018


oy vey
 
Well there are no "Quotes" in original source documents unless they are from third parties and are Parenthetically Cited, they only become "Quotes" when others Quote them.

Here you go, from the "early" days of this thread:
http://www.internationalskeptics.com/forums/showthread.php?p=11163362

You quoted Paul Davies in an attempt to use one paragraph of a larger article to push your whole information/dna/god-knows-what nonsense. It was a classic quote mine, as you would see that is not his position at all if you'd bothered to read the whole thing. Though even if you did that I'm sure you'd wilfully misinterpret his point.
 

Natural forces
!?!?!?! What the hell are ‘natural forces’…?
Natural forces, natural laws, the world as we know it, without magic. Is that so difficult?

…in case it has escaped your attention, there is no such thing as matter or energy. There is ‘something’ else. Therefore there is no such thing as ‘natural forces’.
I don't do philosophy so it has in fact escaped my attention. Philosophers have some difficulty even with the term " exist", so I think I'll just continue using the concept of matter and energy that has served us so well so far, and leave the deep thinking to people like you.

Perhaps you could explain what coherent interpretation of Occam generates a conclusion that has absolutely no explanatory presence what-so-ever!
Did you read the context? We were discussing creationism vs science, and if you think natural forces have no explanatory powers, then consider the explanatory powers of creationism: clearly much less! Natural forces seem to follow laws that can be used for predictions, whereas creator gods that follow their own whims, not so much.

Your ‘natural forces’ are just another name for ‘natural laws’ (and that is EXACTLY what others [Darwin123 for example] have called them). 'Natural laws' are just another word for 'we don't know what the eff is actually going on here!'
I fail to follow you. Is a creator God any better? The god-in-the-gaps is precisely what people choose when they have no ****** idea of what is going on.

…so your interpretation of Occam goes…” I have no idea what this means and nor does else…but that can't possibly matter!”
This seems to be a pure fantasy on your part, and it cannot be deducted from anything I wrote. Because you have some integrity, and can admit when you are wrong, I shall try to explain how I see Occam's Razor.

This is not a tool that measures the truth value of one model against another, it merely tells us that the most parsimonious model is the one that is most promising. Creationism uses as it's driving force a hitherto unknown entity with absurd powers for which there is no other use than to create the world, and possibly life (as we know, computers work, satellites follow their orbits and so on, without any apparent need for a creator God). Conventional scientific models do not use such an entity, and has the same (or better, in my view) explanatory power, so Occam's Razor tells us that science is the way to go.

This could be wrong. There really could be a creator god (or billions of little creator elves), and the natural forces (or laws, or whatever) could change at any moment at the whim of the creator god(s). Occam's Razor can lead us astray.

Likewise, Occam's Razor tells us nothing about the "why", or how things "really are". In fact, science does not give such answers at all. Last-Thursday-ism could be the real thing, but that is again the domain of philosophers. As I see it, science will never get a final result; the models (you know, the forces of nature, laws, and all that stuff) will forever be refined, but we are always asking "what happened before that", "can these particles be subdivided any further", and so on.

ALL of you ALWAYS return to this defense. What is remarkable is that you think it actually is one. That it somehow corroborates your position.
What defence? As you see above, Occam's Razor is not a defence, but a guideline.

What are these ‘natural forces / laws / whatever ‘ and where do they come from?

None of you can every answer this question.

…ever!
Probably true. Science has an endless quest, but what about the opposition? Is creationism able to give a better answer? Any evidence for its position that is not based on incredulity, or even worse, ignorance? Just how many creators are there? Do they still exist? Why did they create anything in the first place? And so on.

Why is it only science that is held to the high standards?

…oh yeah…and all those ‘natural laws’...for some inexplicable reason they all seem to function remarkably consistently with the equivalent scientific and physical laws that us humans have created to describe and predict them.
That is a strange accusation. Our models are mysteriously in agreement with what we model? Is that not what we have tried to achieve?

I have snipped the rest of your wall of text because it seemed like a long rant without new arguments, but if you feel there is something I did not reply to, I apologise, and will try to do it next time.
 
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I am the critic here, I SUPPORT my position by bringing up criticisms, Hard Facts!!
99.9% of the Citations I post are from evolutionists/materialists (Hostile Witnesses). Their beliefs of 'If Pigs could Fly Chemistry' Hypotheticals (not 'solutions') are IRRELEVANT to the matter and are "Out of Context"!! :rolleyes:
...

Wow; that's a new one to me. I've seen creationists do as Daniel does, and re-define science to make creationism fit (make his creationist molehill the equal of the science mountain by cutting the mountain down); and I've seen creationists do as Daniel does, and narrowly define "information" so only "goddidit!" will fit; but this is the first time I've ever seen a creationist justify quote-mining by saying that the bit he cherry-picked from an article is the only important bit, and that everything else, including the conclusion which is the point of the article, is "IRRELEVANT to the matter and...Out of Context!!"

Congratulations, Daniel- you just defended your quote-mining by defining it. Thanks for admitting to it (and Illustrating :thumbsup:)
 
........Invisible 3 toed gnomes are creating dark matter by throwing pixie dust in a black hole behind the crab nebula........

How far away is the Crab Nebula, in light years? How do we know?

Oh, that's right, we don't, because astronomy isn't a (Daniel)science. I remember now. So, we're obviously just guessing.
 
It's when you pull a few statements out of an old research paper that's nearly 20 years old and use it out of context.


SHOW where and how it's "Out of Context" !!!! oy vey


Actually, it was very specifically pointed out.


It wasn't.


Daniel: Errr... Where'd you get Functional RNA??

Jodie: Evolution


LOL. Begging The Question (Fallacy): "evolution", what's that? Please post the Scientific Theory of evolution...?


** Jodie: quote mining------->** "There is no reason to presume than an indifferent nature would not combine units at random, producing an immense variety of hybrid short, terminated chains, rather than the much longer one of uniform backbone geometry needed to support replicator and catalytic functions. Probability calculations could be made, but I prefer a variation on a much-used analogy. Picture a gorilla (very long arms are needed) at an immense keyboard connected to a word processor. The keyboard contains not only the symbols used in English and European languages but also a huge excess drawn from every other known language and all of the symbol sets stored in a typical computer. The chances for the spontaneous assembly of a replicator in the pool I described above can be compared to those of the gorilla composing, in English, a coherent recipe for the preparation of chili con carne. With similar considerations in mind Gerald F. Joyce of the Scripps Research Institute and Leslie Orgel of the Salk Institute concluded that the spontaneous appearance of RNA chains on the lifeless Earth "would have been a near miracle." I would extend this conclusion to all of the proposed RNA substitutes that I mentioned above."
Shapiro, Robert: A Simpler Origin for Life; Scientific American, Feb 2007.


"Quote Mining" ------> WHERE and HOW ?? :boggled:



Except gorillas typing on typewriters don't have covalent bonds on their finger tips that attract the right letters to type words.


So 'covalent bonds' are "The Cause"?? :jaw-dropp

Michael Polanyi chairman of physical chemistry at the University of Manchester (UK)...

"As the arrangement of a printed page is extraneous to the chemistry of the printed page, so is the base sequence in a DNA molecule extraneous to the chemical forces at work in the DNA molecule. It is this physical indeterminacy of the sequence that produces the improbability of any particular sequence and thereby enables it to have a meaning—a meaning that has a mathematically determinate information content."
Polanyi, M., Life’s irreducible structure, Science 160:1308, 1968



http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/next/evolution/first-metabolic-processes-detected-outside-of-cells/

"Perhaps even more astounding is their detection of ribose 5-phosphate, a precursor to RNA. RNA is DNA’s single-stranded cousin—it encodes information, can replicate, and helps jumpstart chemical reactions. This finding suggests that oceanic metabolic processes could have, over time, engendered the conditions necessary for RNA precursors to appear.

The reactions observed so far only go in one direction—from complex sugars to the simpler, end-product molecules they’ve seen like pyruvate. Researcher’s still haven’t seen it go the other way, where reverse reactions create, rather than break down, complex sugars. Without evidence of those, some biologists are skeptical that these circumstances gave rise to today’s pathways. But, other scientists argue, chemical reactions are reversible. So maybe it’s just a matter of time."


So then you SUPPORT absolutely nothing by posting a PBS link?? :rolleyes: (you think that's better than Wiki?)

You unwittingly Imploded your own Argument within the Quote you just posted :rolleyes: Read real slow, the "GREEN Part" :thumbsup:

And, Jodie...

"I then spent decades running a laboratory in DNA chemistry, and so many people were working on DNA synthesis — which has been put to good use as you can see — that I decided to do the opposite, and studied the chemistry of how DNA could be kicked to Hell by environmental agents. Among the most lethal environmental agents I discovered for DNA — pardon me, I'm about to imbibe it — was water. Because water does nasty things to DNA. For example, there's a process I heard you mention called DNA animation, where it kicks off part of the coding part of DNA from the units — that was discovered in my laboratory." --- Dr. Robert Shapiro
https://www.edge.org/conversation/robert_shapiro-robert-shapiro%E2%80%94life-what-a-concept



Daniel: "Christian de Duve, the Nobel laureate, once wrote a letter to Nature which was headed, 'Did God Make RNA?' Because it's hard to think of any other manner in which RNA out of purely abiotic chemistry would assemble itself on the early Earth." --- Dr. Robert Shapiro
https://www.edge.org/conversation/ro...what-a-concept



Jodie: See above, it's not a definitive "yes" yet but it seems to cast doubt on Mr. Shapiro's opinion.


This is Incoherent. Dr. Shapiro was the one that brought it to light. :boggled:

This is Dr. Shapiro's follow on conclusion to Christian de Duve, the Nobel laureate's comment...

"Because it's hard to think of any other manner in which RNA out of purely abiotic chemistry would assemble itself on the early Earth".

This is so mind numbingly tedious, post a coherent substantive argument or take this as my last reply to you. mmm K?


Wrong, they were there.


So your Rebuttal is "Na'ahh"?? How Scientific of you.


Daniel: Please show a Functional 30 mer- RNA or larger that formed spontaneously, "Naturally".....Outside a Cell/Living Organism, CITE SOURCE!

Jodie: It's just a matter of time.


What on Earth?? :confused:

1. Jodie (lol), didn't you say above... to more or less the same question: "evolution" and "covalent bonds"??
So which is it: "evolution", "covalent bonds", "a matter of TIME"....?

2. Argument to the Future Fallacy.


regards
 
The beauty of the scientific method is that it is open to questioning and revision.

And that there is no One True Way.
So while I personally find the RNA first hypothesis very convincing, I am fully open to consider that I am wrong and I find the experiments and arguments for the metabolism first world quite compelling and an interesting way to explore abiogenesis.
In fact I am also open to the fact that abiogenesis might be a mix of the two, or a pathway we just haven't discovered / thought of yet.

Should creationism and ID ever come up with an actual testable and verifiable hypothesis and experiments I'm even open to that. But so far their branch of 'science' has given nothing but arguments from incredulity and ridicule (which in my opinion you mirror perfectly)
A full protein ribosome for instance would have been a good reason to suspect some form of intelligent direction as there is currently no real pathway to suggest how that might evolve. But since this is not the case, it too points to abiogenesis and speciation to be unguided processes following non-intelligent chemical reactions.
 
There is no law of science that contradicts abiogenesis. Neither Daniel nor you have found a formal statement of ANY law of science that contradicts the possibility of 'living things' be generated by natural and unguided processes. Therefore, it is very plausible that abiogenesis does not contradict the laws of nature as well.


You're not gonna bring up the OJ Trial again are you?? :rolleyes:

The 2nd Law of Thermodynamics "Pillar of Science" contradicts Abiogenesis...IAW: The Law of Biogenesis.

I've already explained this to you twice. So, what you do here is Post...get that post Jacked Yard :thumbsup:; THEN take a Siesta for a Time then repost the same refuted nonsense @ a later time?

Were you expecting a different result?

oy vey
 
...
Yes and Invisible 3 toed gnomes are creating dark matter by throwing pixie dust in a black hole behind the crab nebula.
...

I don't understand why anyone is bothering to argue with someone who thinks invisible 3 toed gnomes are creating dark matter by throwing pixie dust in a black hole behind the crab nebula.

Hmmmm...I was making a different point with the above; but now that I think about it, that's really not so far from what Daniel actually does believe.
 
I don't understand why anyone is bothering to argue with someone who thinks invisible 3 toed gnomes are creating dark matter by throwing pixie dust in a black hole behind the crab nebula.

Hmmmm...I was making a different point with the above; but now that I think about it, that's really not so far from what Daniel actually does believe.

Heretic,

You know it's to do with the FSM's noodly appendage.

At least that is not inconsistent with known science or observations.
 
The beauty of the scientific method is that it is open to questioning and revision.


You don't even know what The Scientific Method is! :boggled:


And that there is no One True Way.


oh brother. Is there Absolute TRUTH?


So while I personally find the RNA first hypothesis very convincing, I am fully open to consider that I am wrong and I find the experiments and arguments for the metabolism first world quite compelling and an interesting way to explore abiogenesis.


ha ha ha. Sir, you've been arguing RNA for weeks now and then you post this?? :jaw-dropp

You find it convincing!!!! Can you post the Step in the Scientific Method we're 'convincing' shows up?? My word.


Should creationism and ID ever come up with an actual testable and verifiable hypothesis and experiments....


Here it is, for the 164th time in this thread...

The "Null Hypothesis"...

Nature/Natural Law CAN NOT create Life.

If you can't FALSIFY the NULL (which Nobody on the Planet can/will EVER do), then Ya hear that Sound??? ...that's you and your World-View circling the Drain at Light Speed !!

"To do a hypothesis test, you will actual have two hypotheses: the null hypothesis and the alternative hypothesis, which are stated in such a way that they are mutually exclusive (you can’t have both hypotheses be true). The null hypothesis is the conclusion that is considered the defaultyou will accept this hypothesis if you fail to find sufficient support for the alternative hypothesis."-- csun.edu
http://www.csun.edu/~dgw61315/ECON309lect7Bhypotesting.doc

Here's the Alternative Hypothesis (The Basis of your 'World-View)...

Nature/Natural Law CAN create Life.

Go ahead....? :thumbsup:


regards
 

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