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Atheists and Agnostics risk infinite loss for no gain
RE: Atheists and Agnostics risk infinite loss for no gain
(October 3, 2013 at 5:19 pm)SavedByGraceThruFaith Wrote: But why would we not be getting radio waves?
Most civilizations would be emitting them for at least 100 years.

How do you know this? Perhaps you have a degree in xenobiology?
When I was young, there was a god with infinite power protecting me. Is there anyone else who felt that way? And was sure about it? but the first time I fell in love, I was thrown down - or maybe I broke free - and I bade farewell to God and became human. Now I don't have God's protection, and I walk on the ground without wings, but I don't regret this hardship. I want to live as a person. -Arina Tanemura

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RE: Atheists and Agnostics risk infinite loss for no gain
(October 3, 2013 at 5:19 pm)SavedByGraceThruFaith Wrote: But why would we not be getting radio waves?
Most civilizations would be emitting them for at least 100 years.

That would be because there are no civilizations emitting radio waves close enough to Earth for us to detect. The probability of a civilization and the probability of life are two very different things. You can't have a civilization before having life, but there could be plenty of life while civilizations might be one to a galaxy or less. For all we know, we're the elder race of the Milky Way, or even the universe.

That we've been emitting radio waves for around a century doesn't allow us to extrapolate to other civilizations. They could be in their Stone Age or Renaissance or advanced far beyond our primitive Earth radio eons ago.
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RE: Atheists and Agnostics risk infinite loss for no gain
(October 3, 2013 at 5:19 pm)SavedByGraceThruFaith Wrote:
(October 3, 2013 at 5:02 pm)Mister Agenda Wrote: And we've sent probes out farther than Pluto! If, out of the hundreds of billions of star systems in each of the hundreds of billions of galaxies in our universe, we can't find exolife by the time we get to the edge of our own little solar system with probes that couldn't detect life unless they bounced off of it, we get to say 'no sign of any life, outside of Earth, anywhere in the universe so far' as if we've nearly exhausted all of the possibilities already instead of only barely starting to make the first eyeblink of an exploration into the possibility of life on other planets. There's literally no way to know the odds of life on a given earth-like planet with only one to extrapolate from. We know it's possible. That's all we know for sure about it. Is it so unlikely that it probably only happened once in the whole universe? Conceivably, but for all we know, it could also happen on every world with liquid water.

But why would we not be getting radio waves?
Most civilizations would be emitting them for at least 100 years.

Most civilizations would be emitting radio waves for at least 100 years? Where are you getting this? And why do you assume that life in other parts of the universe would necessarily develop technical civilizations? The universe could be teeming with life that would not know how to build a transmitter. We just don't know.

In any case, 100 years isn't a long time for radio waves to travel in the vastness of space.
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RE: Atheists and Agnostics risk infinite loss for no gain
(October 3, 2013 at 5:19 pm)SavedByGraceThruFaith Wrote:
(October 3, 2013 at 5:02 pm)Mister Agenda Wrote: And we've sent probes out farther than Pluto! If, out of the hundreds of billions of star systems in each of the hundreds of billions of galaxies in our universe, we can't find exolife by the time we get to the edge of our own little solar system with probes that couldn't detect life unless they bounced off of it, we get to say 'no sign of any life, outside of Earth, anywhere in the universe so far' as if we've nearly exhausted all of the possibilities already instead of only barely starting to make the first eyeblink of an exploration into the possibility of life on other planets. There's literally no way to know the odds of life on a given earth-like planet with only one to extrapolate from. We know it's possible. That's all we know for sure about it. Is it so unlikely that it probably only happened once in the whole universe? Conceivably, but for all we know, it could also happen on every world with liquid water.

But why would we not be getting radio waves?
Most civilizations would be emitting them for at least 100 years.
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Again!

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If those radio waves have been traveling for 100 years... then they would have gotten as far as... wait for it... 100 light years!, because... you see... radio is an electromagnetic wave, also known as light, but radio is referred to a particular set of frequencies of these waves which lies beyond the normal visible light.

So, how many planets are within 100 light-years of our own?
not many

But let's make it easier for you...
First off, we are the result of at least 3 mass extinctions on this planet.
Maybe, on some other planet, they got it right the first time, and they've been through Quantum Mechanics some 100 million years ago.
How many planets are within 100 million light years?
Quite a few.
Why don't we pick up any of their radio waves?
Maybe they only used radio wave for a short time and we missed them.... and they are now using "sub-space communications", or whatever... or, they haven't reached us yet, or they're blocked by some star, or nebula...
SETI keeps looking. Maybe one day, we'll find artificial radio waves out there...
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RE: Atheists and Agnostics risk infinite loss for no gain
(October 3, 2013 at 5:19 pm)SavedByGraceThruFaith Wrote: But why would we not be getting radio waves?
Most civilizations would be emitting them for at least 100 years.

In the vacuum of space, radio waves travel at the speed of light. In 100 years, a radio wave would only travel 100 light years, that is a ridiculously tiny distance in the universe. Right now a civilization that matches our own could be transmitting radiowaves in our direction. But what if they are 5 billion light years away, the earth will be gone by then. And thats assuming that the radiowaves are aimed at us and even if they are using radiowaves as a form of communication. Also we have picked up some weird waves from space, look up the WOW signal
'The more I learn about people the more I like my dog'- Mark Twain

'You can have all the faith you want in spirits, and the afterlife, and heaven and hell, but when it comes to this world, don't be an idiot. Cause you can tell me you put your faith in God to put you through the day, but when it comes time to cross the road, I know you look both ways.' - Dr House

“Young earth creationism is essentially the position that all of modern science, 90% of living scientists and 98% of living biologists, all major university biology departments, every major science journal, the American Academy of Sciences, and every major science organization in the world, are all wrong regarding the origins and development of life….but one particular tribe of uneducated, bronze aged, goat herders got it exactly right.” - Chuck Easttom

"If my good friend Doctor Gasparri speaks badly of my mother, he can expect to get punched.....You cannot provoke. You cannot insult the faith of others. You cannot make fun of the faith of others. There is a limit." - Pope Francis on freedom of speech
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RE: Atheists and Agnostics risk infinite loss for no gain
SUV, do you have any idea just how big the Universe is?

In fact we don't even have to go that far out. Do you have any idea just how big our own Galaxy is? And how far away even relatively nearby stars are?

Put it this way - it's a hell of a walk.
At the age of five, Skagra decided emphatically that God did not exist.  This revelation tends to make most people in the universe who have it react in one of two ways - with relief or with despair.  Only Skagra responded to it by thinking, 'Wait a second.  That means there's a situation vacant.'
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RE: Atheists and Agnostics risk infinite loss for no gain
(October 3, 2013 at 5:34 pm)Rationalman Wrote:
(October 3, 2013 at 5:19 pm)SavedByGraceThruFaith Wrote: But why would we not be getting radio waves?
Most civilizations would be emitting them for at least 100 years.

In the vacuum of space, radio waves travel at the speed of light. In 100 years, a radio wave would only travel 100 light years, that is a ridiculously tiny distance in the universe. Right now a civilization that matches our own could be transmitting radiowaves in our direction. But what if they are 5 billion light years away, the earth will be gone by then. And thats assuming that the radiowaves are aimed at us and even if they are using radiowaves as a form of communication. Also we have picked up some weird waves from space, look up the WOW signal

But in 500 years after their last signal, their 100 years of signal are out to a sphere of 600 light years. Now a civilization could lie in any direction from Earth and each could have such a sphere. Seems like we should have had something already.
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RE: Atheists and Agnostics risk infinite loss for no gain
(October 1, 2013 at 8:23 am)SavedByGraceThruFaith Wrote:
(October 1, 2013 at 8:21 am)Airyaman Wrote: Jesus Christ, son of god? Yeah, kinda hard to believe someone is a son of a god and remain an atheist or agnostic.

Son of God means that God became a man through a miraculous birth.

Jesus Christ is God.

Miraculous? How about ridiculous.

He became a man to sacrifice himself to himself in order to "save" humanity. You know, because wiping them out in a flood didn't work.

Some perfect god that is.

Edit - also incest, what's up with that?
No creator in the heavens above (I am the lightning)
Rest your weary mind
No demons in the furnace below (I am the frenzy)
I have realized I AM GOD
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RE: Atheists and Agnostics risk infinite loss for no gain
(October 3, 2013 at 7:23 pm)Stimbo Wrote: Put it this way - it's a hell of a walk.
http://www.google.com/search?q=where+are...F_TQaKM%3A

to put it lightly
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RE: Atheists and Agnostics risk infinite loss for no gain
And that's just our Galaxy. The space between galaxies is far more unimaginably vast.

Your god is too small, TCP.
At the age of five, Skagra decided emphatically that God did not exist.  This revelation tends to make most people in the universe who have it react in one of two ways - with relief or with despair.  Only Skagra responded to it by thinking, 'Wait a second.  That means there's a situation vacant.'
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