Atheists are more intelligent than Religious people

[Obelix]

10 billion years older than the plant in fact....

[TheNugget]

10 billion years older than the plant in fact....

 

I agree, but about the length of time of the universe. I think it's a safe bet that life exists elsewhere - if it doesn't I think I'm on the God side as that would be extraordinarily unlikely and lead me to theorise in favour of a celestial being casting fairy dust in the Earth.

[Carlinate]

^

 

This is why I think it bothers you.

 

I'm agnostic too, I make no knowledge claims either way.

 

I'm also not a theist, like you.

 

So what does that make us both?

 

Logical?

 

Not prepared to hold any belief ( on this particular matter ) which cannot be proven using verifiable facts, and seeing no reason to do so as the possibility of either contention ever being proven is less than likely.

[Hairyloon]

The liklehood of it occurring is almost certain.

 

You only need 40 amino acids to create a self replicating peptide. The chance of that exact sequence occurring in a primordial goop is about once every six months for a litre of goop. Once you have that, you are off.

 

Can I press you for a reference for that?

I'm not doubting it, but assuming it is a proper paper, then it looks to be one worthy of further study.

 

But that would give us an ocean full of proteins, and I'll assume also nucleic acids and othe complex organic molecules. It is a long way from there to life as we know it.

[Carlinate]

It sees to me that people are taking up their own labels and the argument is over the definition of those labels.

 

Then maybe those people doing the defining should take a look at themselves and ask themselves what their problem is.

 

If someone on the forum tells me they are atheist, agnostic or theist then I take them at their word.

 

Requesting a definition so that you can pick holes in it and then try to persuade them that they've got it wrong and are really something different is weird behaviour.

 

There's probably a name for that also.

[TheNugget]

Then maybe those people doing the defining should take a look at themselves and ask themselves what their problem is.

 

If someone on the forum tells me they are atheist, agnostic or theist then I take them at their word.

 

Requesting a definition so that you can pick holes in it and then try to persuade them that they've got it wrong and are really something different is weird behaviour.

 

There's probably a name for that also.

 

Keyboard Warriorism?

[Hairyloon]

It doesn't seem that unlikely to me that in the course of 14 Billion years life has evolved. 14 Billion is an extremely long time.

 

Not as long as you might think.

It is analogous to the idea that an infinite number of monkeys randomly typing will produce

the complete works of Shakespeare. Intuitively, with a very long time scale the idea of a novel gene looks possible.

Let's try the monkey analogy with real numbers. Lets have 30 million,million monkeys. Give the the monkeys a simple keyboard with only 30 keys to increase the chances. Have them hit the keys twice a second for a million million years and ask how much Shakespeare would

they produce.

The answer is they would produce no sentence longer than “much ado about nothing”...

[Carlinate]

I claim that Santa exists.

 

Prove me wrong silent bob.

 

The santa analogy is stupid.

 

The scriptures are over 1,800 years old and whole religions have been founded on the contents.

 

No one has ever claimed that santa is real only children, their parents and people attempting to sound clever and failing miserably in these type of discussions.

 

Who the hell is silent bob?

[SnailyBoy]

Logical?

 

Not prepared to hold any belief ( on this particular matter ) which cannot be proven using verifiable facts, and seeing no reason to do so as the possibility of either contention ever being proven is less than likely.

 

Okay, do you accept theist claims on the existence of the Christian God have met the burden of proof?

[Carlinate]

Keyboard Warriorism?

 

That's definitely one of them, they tend to be defined by a tendency to insult people and when called on it run whining to the mods to complain.

 

Basically they like to dish it out but are unable to take it.