Science, the Bible & Evolution

[Crystal Thielkien]

ParaNormalIAm

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   posted 06-19-2006 08:09 PM                       
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quote:
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Originally posted by Catastrophe:
quote:
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A meteor striking the Earth or other object may produce an impact crater.
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A meteor cannot produce a crater since by definition it burns up in the atmosphere.


 
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Pity, it's difficult to know the difference between a comet strike and an asteroid impact.
An asteroid could be clumped up bits of rubble, one massive stone, or a Binary asteroid.

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http://myspace.com/oharry1

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Posts: 1396 | Registered: Sep 2005   

[Crystal Thielkien]

Catastrophe
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Rate Member   posted 06-20-2006 05:43 PM                       
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But you should know that a meteor cannot strike.

 

Any more than you can determine your fate ...

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We think ourselves unhappy when a comet appears, but the misfortune is the comet's
Bernard de Fontenelle
The Plurality of Worlds (Paris 1686)

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Posts: 3324 | From: UK | Registered: May 20

[Crystal Thielkien]

+Faith+

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   posted 06-21-2006 03:54 AM                       
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I’ve found God, says man who cracked the genome
Steven Swinford


THE scientist who led the team that cracked the human genome is to publish a book explaining why he now believes in the existence of God and is convinced that miracles are real.
Francis Collins, the director of the US National Human Genome Research Institute, claims there is a rational basis for a creator and that scientific discoveries bring man “closer to God”.



His book, The Language of God, to be published in September, will reopen the age-old debate about the relationship between science and faith. “One of the great tragedies of our time is this impression that has been created that science and religion have to be at war,” said Collins, 56.

“I don’t see that as necessary at all and I think it is deeply disappointing that the shrill voices that occupy the extremes of this spectrum have dominated the stage for the past 20 years.”

For Collins, unravelling the human genome did not create a conflict in his mind. Instead, it allowed him to “glimpse at the workings of God”.

“When you make a breakthrough it is a moment of scientific exhilaration because you have been on this search and seem to have found it,” he said. “But it is also a moment where I at least feel closeness to the creator in the sense of having now perceived something that no human knew before but God knew all along.

“When you have for the first time in front of you this 3.1 billion-letter instruction book that conveys all kinds of information and all kinds of mystery about humankind, you can’t survey that going through page after page without a sense of awe. I can’t help but look at those pages and have a vague sense that this is giving me a glimpse of God’s mind.”

Collins joins a line of scientists whose research deepened their belief in God. Isaac Newton, whose discovery of the laws of gravity reshaped our understanding of the universe, said: “This most beautiful system could only proceed from the dominion of an intelligent and powerful being.”

Although Einstein revolutionised our thinking about time, gravity and the conversion of matter to energy, he believed the universe had a creator. “I want to know His thoughts; the rest are details,” he said. However Galileo was famously questioned by the inquisition and put on trial in 1633 for the “heresy” of claiming that the earth moved around the sun.

Among Collins’s most controversial beliefs is that of “theistic evolution”, which claims natural selection is the tool that God chose to create man. In his version of the theory, he argues that man will not evolve further.

“I see God’s hand at work through the mechanism of evolution. If God chose to create human beings in his image and decided that the mechanism of evolution was an elegant way to accomplish that goal, who are we to say that is not the way,” he says.

“Scientifically, the forces of evolution by natural selection have been profoundly affected for humankind by the changes in culture and environment and the expansion of the human species to 6 billion members. So what you see is pretty much what you get.”

Collins was an atheist until the age of 27, when as a young doctor he was impressed by the strength that faith gave to some of his most critical patients.

“They had terrible diseases from which they were probably not going to escape, and yet instead of railing at God they seemed to lean on their faith as a source of great comfort and reassurance,” he said. “That was interesting, puzzling and unsettling.”

He decided to visit a Methodist minister and was given a copy of C S Lewis’s Mere Christianity, which argues that God is a rational possibility. The book transformed his life. “It was an argument I was not prepared to hear,” he said. “I was very happy with the idea that God didn’t exist, and had no interest in me. And yet at the same time, I could not turn away.”

His epiphany came when he went hiking through the Cascade Mountains in Washington state. He said: “It was a beautiful afternoon and suddenly the remarkable beauty of creation around me was so overwhelming, I felt, ‘I cannot resist this another moment’.”

Collins believes that science cannot be used to refute the existence of God because it is confined to the “natural” world. In this light he believes miracles are a real possibility. “If one is willing to accept the existence of God or some supernatural force outside nature then it is not a logical problem to admit that, occasionally, a supernatural force might stage an invasion,” he says.


http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2220484,00.html

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(Psalms) 31:5,
"Into your hands I commit my spirit; redeem me, O LORD, the God of truth."

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Posts: 159 | Registered: Dec 2005   

[Crystal Thielkien]

Ishtar was here 777

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  posted 06-22-2006 07:29 AM                       
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Earth Surrounded by Giant Fizzy Bubbles

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/060620_space_bubbles.html

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The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane."

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[Crystal Thielkien]

Ishtar was here 777

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  posted 06-22-2006 07:44 AM                       
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June 19, 2006


Earliest hominid: Not a hominid at all?

ANN ARBOR, Mich.—The earliest known hominid fossil, which dates to about 7 million years ago, is actually some kind of ape, according to an international team of researchers led by the University of Michigan. The finding, they say, suggests scientists should rethink whether we actually descended from apes resembling chimpanzees, which are considered our closest relatives.

U-M anthropologist Milford Wolpoff and colleagues examined images and the original paper published on the discovery of the Toumaï cranium (TM 266) or Sahelanthropus tchadensis, as well as a computer reconstruction of the skull. Two other colleagues were actually able to examine the skull, Wolpoff said, in addition to the images and the computer reconstruction.

The research team concluded that the cranium did not sit atop the spine but in front of it, indicating the creature walked on all fours like an ape. Hominids, he said, are distinguished from all other primates by walking upright. Hominids are everything on the line leading to humans after divergence with chimpanzees. Upright bipedalism is the single best way of identifying which fossils are hominids.


http://www.umich.edu/news/?Releases/2006/Jun06/r061906

well aint that a hoot!?

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The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane."

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[Crystal Thielkien]

Catastrophe
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Rate Member   posted 06-22-2006 07:47 PM                       
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quote:
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“One of the great tragedies of our time is this impression that has been created that science and religion have to be at war,”
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Science and religion are not at war. Some very silly people who reject science are at war with the facts.

 

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We think ourselves unhappy when a comet appears, but the misfortune is the comet's
Bernard de Fontenelle
The Plurality of Worlds (Paris 1686)

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Posts: 3324 | From: UK | Registered: May 2002   

[Crystal Thielkien]

Brooke

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   posted 06-25-2006 02:18 AM                       
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'Darwin's tortoise' dies, age 176

Saturday, June 24, 2006; Posted: 1:42 a.m. EDT (05:42 GMT)

SYDNEY, Australia (AP) -- A 176-year-old tortoise, believed by some to have been owned by Charles Darwin, has died in an Australian zoo.

The giant tortoise, known as Harriet, was long reputed to have been one of three tortoises taken from the Galapagos Islands by Darwin on his historic 1835 voyage aboard the HMS Beagle.

However, historical records, while suggestive, don't prove the claim, and some scientists have cast doubt on the story, with DNA tests confirming Harriet's age but showing she came from an island that Darwin never visited.

According to local legend, Harriet was just five years old and probably no bigger than a dinner plate when she was taken from the Galapagos to Britain.

She spent a few years in Britain before being moved to the Brisbane Botanic Gardens in Australia's tropical Queensland state in the mid-1800s, where she was mistaken for a male and nicknamed Harry, according to Australia Zoo, which later bought the 150-kilogram (330-pound) tortoise.

The Queensland-based zoo is owned by "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin and his wife Terri.

"Harriet sadly died last night after, thankfully, a very short illness," senior veterinarian Jon Hanger told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on Friday.

"She'd been sick yesterday with, in effect, heart failure. She had a very fairly acute heart attack and thankfully passed away quietly overnight," Hangar said.

Irwin said he considered Harriet a member of the family.

"Harriet has been a huge chunk of the Irwin family's life," Irwin said Saturday.

"She is possibly one of the oldest living creatures on the planet and her passing today is not only a great loss for the world but a very sad day for my family. She was a grand old lady."

Harriet was believed to be the world's oldest living tortoise, and one of its oldest living creatures. Despite her longevity, however, Harriet is not the world's oldest known tortoise.

That title was awarded by the Guinness Book of World Records to Tui Malila, a Madagascar radiated tortoise that was presented to the royal family of Tonga by British explorer Captain James Cook in the 1770s. It died in 1965 at the ripe age of 188.

Scientist Paul Chambers cast doubt on Harriet's Darwin connection in an article in the New Scientist magazine and a book, "The Unexpected History of the Giant Tortoise."

Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/06/24/tortoise.die.ap/index.html

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"The most incomprehensible thing about our universe is that it can be comprehended." - Albert Einstein

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[Crystal Thielkien]

Brooke

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   posted 06-25-2006 02:21 AM                       
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Well, if we learned anything else today it is that tortoises can live a lonnngggg time!

The lifespan of animals may be a worthy thing to explore here.

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"The most incomprehensible thing about our universe is that it can be comprehended." - Albert Einstein

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Posts: 1102 | Registered: Oct 2005

[Crystal Thielkien]

Brooke

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   posted 06-25-2006 03:05 AM                       
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The following examples of extreme old age have been chosen from the
reliable records of zoos and aquariums all over the world.

MAMMALS YEARS
Elephant 69
Horse 50
Hippopotamus 49
Chimpanzee 40
Grizzly Bear 32
Bison 30
Lion 30
Tiger 25
Elk 22
Mountain Lion 20
Beaver 19
Wolf 16
Squirrel 16
Chipmunk 12
Cottontail 10
House Mouse 4

BIRDS YEARS
Turkey Buzzard 118
Swan 102
Parrot 80
Great Horned Owl 68
Eagle 55
English Sparrow 23
Canary 22
Humming Bird 8

REPTILES YEARS
Giant Tortoise 152
Box Turtle 123
Alligator 68
Snapping Turtle 57
Cobra 28
Cottonmouth 21

AMPHIBIANS YEARS
Giant Salamander 55
Toad 36
Bullfrog 30
Mud Puppy 23
Green Frog 10
Newt 7

FISH YEARS
Catfish 60
Eel 55
Carp 47
Mosquitofish 2

INSECTS YEARS
Cicada 17
Ant (queen) 15


http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/natbltn/400-499/nb486.htm

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"The most incomprehensible thing about our universe is that it can be comprehended." - Albert Einstein

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Posts: 1102 | Registered: Oct 2005   

[Crystal Thielkien]

Brooke

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   posted 06-25-2006 03:08 AM                       
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Maximum Recorded Lifespan of 58 Animals
1. Tortoise 188 years
2. Lake Sturgeon 152 years
3. Human 122 years, 5 months
4. Fin Whale 116 years
5. Blue Whale 110 years
6. Humpback Whale 95 years
7. Elephant (African) 80 years
8. Turtle (eastern box) 75 years
9. Parrot (African grey) 73 years
10. Alligator 66 years
11. Horse 62 years
12. Chimpanzee 59 years, 5 months
13. Orangutan 59 years
14. Eagle (eastern imperial) 56 years
15. Seal (Baikal) 56 years
16. Hippopotamus 54 years, 4 months
17. Gorilla 54 years
18. Camel 50 years
19. Grizzly Bear 50 years
20. Rhinoceros (Indian) 49 years
21. Brown Bear 47 years
22. Condor (California) 45 years
23. Goldfish 43 years
24. Hyena (spotted) 41 years, 1 month
25. Boa constrictor 40 years, 3 months
26. Vulture 39 years
27. Polar Bear 38 years, 2 months
28. Giraffe 36 years, 4 months
29. Dolphin 35 years
30. Rhinoceros (Sumatran) 35 years
31. Cat 34 years
32. Ant (queen) 30 years
33. Kangaroo (red) 30 years
34. Panda (giant) 30 years
35. Dog 29 years, 6 months
36. Lion 29 years
37. Porcupine (Old World) 27 years, 4 months
38. Tiger 26 years, 4 months
39. Wombat 26 years, 1 month
40. Aardvark 24 years
41. Sheep 24 years
42. Jaguar 22 years
43. Raccoon 20 years, 7 months
44. Frog 20 years
45. Koala 20 years
46. Porcupine (normal) 20 years
47. Vampire Bat 19 years, 6 months
48. Pigeon 18 years, 6 months
49. Rabbit 18 years
50. Duck-billed Platypus 17 years
51. Guinea Pig 14 years, 10 months
52. Hedgehog 14 years
53. Shrew (non-human) 12 years
54. Hamster 10 years
55. Gopher (eastern pocket) 7 years, 2 months
56. Anchovy 7 years
57. Partridge 6 years, 3 months
58. Mole 5 years

Primary Source: Max Planck Institute web site http://www.demogr.mpg.de/; also Longevity Records: Life Spans of Mammals, Birds, Amphibians, Reptiles, and Fish, by James R. Carey and Debra S. Judge.

http://www.canongate.net/Lists/Animals/MaximumRecordedLifespanOf58

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"The most incomprehensible thing about our universe is that it can be comprehended." - Albert Einstein

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Posts: 1102 | Registered: Oct 2005 

[Crystal Thielkien]

Brooke

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   posted 06-25-2006 03:10 AM                       
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11 Examples of Unusual Mating Habits
1. PENGUINS
Penguins prefer to be `married', but they suffer long separations due to their migratory habits. When reunited, a pair will stand breast to breast, heads thrown back, singing loudly, with outstretched flippers trembling. Two weeks after a pair is formed, their union is consummated. The male makes his intentions known by laying his head across his partner's stomach. They go on a long trek to find privacy, but the actual process of intercourse takes only three minutes. Neither penguin will mate again that year.
The male Adele penguin must select his mate from a colony of more than a million, and he indicates his choice by rolling a stone at the female's feet. Stones are scarce at mating time because many are needed to build walls around nests. It becomes commonplace for penguins to steal them from one another. If she accepts this gift, they stand belly to belly and sing a mating song.

2. HIPPOPOTAMI
Hippos have their own form of aromatherapy. Hippos attract mates by marking territory, urinating and defecating at the same time. Then, an enamored hippo will twirl its tail like a propellor to spread this delicious slop in every direction. This attracts lovers, and a pair will begin foreplay, which consists of playing by splashing around in the water before settling down to business.

3. THE MALE UGANDA KOB
Exhaustion is the frequent fate of the male Uganda kob, an African antelope. Like many species of birds and mammals, the kob roams in a social group until the mating season, when the dominant male establishes a mating territory, or lek. But the females decide which territory they wish to enter and then pick the male they think most attractive. He then mates with all the females until he is too weak to continue (usually due to lack of food) and is replaced by another.

4. SQUID
Squid begin mating with a circling nuptial dance. Teams of squid revolve around across a `spawning bed' a 200 metres in diameter. At daybreak they begin having sex and continue all day long - they only take a break so the female can drive down and deposit eggs. When she returns to the circle, the two go at it again. As twilight falls, the pair go offshore to eat and rest. At the first sign of sunlight, they return to their spot and do it all over again. This routine can last up to two weeks, ensuring a healthy population of squid.

5. PORCUPINES
The answer to one of our oldest jokes: `How do porcupines do it?' `Veeery carefully!' is not quite true. The truth is more bizarre than dangerous. Females are only receptive for a few hours a year. As summer approaches, young females become nervous and very excited. Next, they go off their food, and stick close by the males and mope. Meanwhile the male becomes aggressive with other males, and begins a period of carefully sniffing every place the female of his choice urinates, smelling her all over. This is a tremendous aphrodisiac. While she is sulking by his side, he begins to `sing'.
When he is ready to make love, the female runs away if she's not ready. If she is in the mood, they both rear up and face each other, belly-to-belly. Then, males spray their ladies with a tremendous stream of urine, soaking their loved one from head to foot - the stream can shoot as far as 7 feet.
If they're not ready, females respond by 1) objecting verbally 2) hitting with front paws like boxers 3) trying to bite 4) shaking off the urine. When ready, they accept the bath. This routine can go on for weeks. Six months after the beginning of courtship, the female will accept any male she has been close to. The spines and quills of both go relaxed and flat, and the male enters from behind. Mating continues until the male is worn out. Every time he tries to stop, the female wants to continue. If he has given up, she chooses another partner, only now she acts out the male role. To `cool off', females engage in the same courtship series, step-by-step, in reverse order.
It is advised never to stand close to a cage that contains courting porcupines.

6. GEESE
Two male geese may form a homosexual bond and prefer each other's company to any female's. Sometimes, however, a female may interpose herself between them during such a courtship, and be quickly fertilised. They will accept her, and weeks later the happy family of three can be seen attending to its tiny newborn goslings.

7. WHITE-FRONTED PARROTS
These birds, native to Mexico and and Central America, are believed to be the only species besides humans to kiss. Before actually mating, male and female will lock their beaks and gently flick their tongues together. If kissing is satisfying for both parties, the male boldly takes the next step, by regurgitating his food for his girlfriend, to show his love. White-fronted parrots also share parenting, unlike many other species. When the female lays her one egg, both parents take turns incubating it. When the baby hatches, the couple feed and care for their offspring together.

8. GRASSHOPPERS
Why are grasshoppers so noisy? It's because they're singing to woo their partners. They have as many as 400 distinct songs, which they sing during their courtship and mating cycles. Some males have a different song for each distinct mating period - for example, there may be a flirting song, then a mating song.

9. SEAGULLS
Lesbian mating is practised by between 8% and 14% of the seagulls on the Santa Barbara islands, off the California coast. Lesbian gulls go through all the motions of mating, and they lay sterile eggs. Homosexual behaviour is also known in geese, ostriches, cichlid fish, squid, rats and monkeys.

10. RED-SIDED GARTER SNAKES
These snakes are small and poisonous, and live in Canada and the Northwestern United States. Their highly unusual mating takes place during an enormous ****. Twenty-five thousand snakes slither together in a large den, eager to copulate. In that pile, one female may have as many as 100 males vying for her. These `nesting balls' grow as large as two feet high. Now and then a female is crushed under the heavy mound - and the males are so randy that they continue to copulate, becoming the only necrophiliac snakes!

11. LYNX SPIDERS
When a male lynx spider feels the urge, he will capture his beauty in his web and wrap her in silk. Offering her this elegant meal (the silken web) is his way of wooing. When the mood is right, the female, distracted by her feast, will allow her suitor to mount her and begin mating. Oblivious, she ignores him and enjoys her supper

http://www.canongate.net/Lists/Animals/11ExamplesofUnusualMatingHabits

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"The most incomprehensible thing about our universe is that it can be comprehended." - Albert Einstein

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Posts: 1102 | Registered: Oct 2005   

http://forums.atlantisrising.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=15;t=000522;p=35

[archaeologist]

Among Collins’s most controversial beliefs is that of “theistic evolution”, which claims natural selection is the tool that God chose to create man. In his version of the theory, he argues that man will not evolve further.

“I see God’s hand at work through the mechanism of evolution. If God chose to create human beings in his image and decided that the mechanism of evolution was an elegant way to accomplish that goal, who are we to say that is not the way,” he says.

it is always funny to read things like this because this guy an dso many others have access to a Bible and it clearly states what God used to create man and no form of evolution was part of the act. man always seems to ignore the truth that is right in front of them to go off and create a fanciful idea they can never prove inspite of what God Hinself said.

God spoke and it was. there was no process, no millions of years, no evolution.