Question

[Jocenel]

Me and my husband are thinking we might be atheist. What is bothering me is if there is no God I don't understand where did the first cell come from? If we just existed fine, but what started it all? If you guys have an opinions please share.

[The Grand Nudger]

We don't know. We have some damn good ideas, but ultimately, we don't know. Oftentimes religion purports to answer questions for which we have no answers in actuality. For some that's a problem, for others it isn't. That's one of the big draws of religious thought, answers to seemingly un-answerable questions, and human beings don't handle uncertainty very well.

[Darwinian]

Me and my husband are thinking we might be atheist. What is bothering me is if there is no God I don't understand where did the first cell come from? If we just existed fine, but what started it all? If you guys have an opinions please share.

You sound like a theist in disguise attempting to pose a question that an atheist can't answer. Am I right?

[Jocenel]

Well I was raised religious, but I can see the atheist point of view. I just don't understand how we started is the only thing thats really stopping me from being atheist. I guess we can say we don't know I mean it was a long time ago how is anyone to know. Just looking for ideas I mean do you guys believe in the big bang theory? How do you think it just started? or are you satisfied with just not knowing?

[Phil]

Me and my husband are thinking we might be atheist. What is bothering me is if there is no God I don't understand where did the first cell come from? If we just existed fine, but what started it all? If you guys have an opinions please share.

Building a protocell is trivial and a process that happens quite naturally in a soap solution. The lipid bilayer is called a vesicle. they will grow if there are hydrocarbon chains available and ordinary shear forces (as in waves) will cause them to divide.

Head swimming yet?

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Me and my husband are thinking we might be atheist. What is bothering me is if there is no God I don't understand where did the first cell come from? If we just existed fine, but what started it all? If you guys have an opinions please share.

You sound like a theist in disguise attempting to pose a question that an atheist can't answer. Am I right?

I think you are but some atheists can answer and one did

[NoMoreFaith]

Its also worth noting that the major arguments against abiogenesis (the creation of organic matter from non-organic materials).

As stated nobody has the full answer yet, but we can show the individual parts can certainly occur naturally, with complex amino acids found in meteorites for instance and recreation in labs, which can link together to form proteins etc

I'm not a biochemist so the interactions are somewhat more complex than I can certainly describe and doing so would probably be dangerously inaccurate, but the fact remains that there is observable reactions which combined with billions of years, and the fact we exist make for a sound premise to state that a supernatural design agent is highly unlikely to be required in the process of life.

But the main point is; There is no shame in I Don't Know, the question is, does God belong in the gaps of our ignorance.

[Phil]

Its also worth noting that the major arguments against abiogenesis (the creation of organic matter from non-organic materials).

As stated nobody has the full answer yet, but we can show the individual parts can certainly occur naturally, with complex amino acids found in meteorites for instance and recreation in labs, which can link together to form proteins etc

I'm not a biochemist so the interactions are somewhat more complex than I can certainly describe and doing so would probably be dangerously inaccurate, but the fact remains that there is observable reactions which combined with billions of years, and the fact we exist make for a sound premise to state that a supernatural design agent is highly unlikely to be required in the process of life.

But the main point is; There is no shame in I Don't Know, the question is, does God belong in the gaps of our ignorance.

The mechanism of how a protocell can form is well known. The mechanism to form a modern cell isn't known yet but one must walk before one runs.

[Werewolff]

NMF, to be fair, what about the multiverse of the gaps?

[Minimalist]

Science cannot provide a definitive answer as yet. However, why would any of the 'gods' ever invented by the mind of man provide you with a better answer?

When Marduk heard the words of the gods,
His heart prompted him to fashion artful works.
Opening his mouth, he addressed Ea
To impart the plan he had conceived in his heart:
"I will take blood and fashion bone.
I will establish a savage, ‘man’ shall be his name.

--Babylonian

Two such beings, self-created out of nothing, were the Ungambikula. Wandering the world, they found half-made human beings. They were made of animals and plants, but were shapeless bundles, lying higgledy-piggledy, near where water holes and salt lakes could be created. The people were all doubled over into balls, vague and unfinished, without limbs or features.

With their great stone knives, the Ungambikula carved heads, bodies, legs, and arms out of the bundles. They made the faces, and the hands and feet. At last the human beings were finished.

--Australian Aboriginal

"Now, let us make ones like unto you and me, so that they may rule over and enjoy these lesser creatures," sang Tawa, and Spider Woman shaped the Thoughts into woman and man figures like unto their own. But after the blanket magic had been made, the figures remained inert. So Spider Woman gathered them all in her arms and cradled them, while Tawa bent his glowing eyes upon them. The two now sang the magic Song of Life over them, and at last each human figure breathed and lived.

-- Hopi

Really, are these any more ridiculous than 'god' playing in the dirt?

[The Grand Nudger]

From the Ash and the Elm we arose, breathed to life by Vili, Ve, and Odin. Their gifts to us are reason, love, magic, and skill on the field of battle. In return all they ask is that we fight the jotun alongside them in ragnarok, this life is merely training for that battle.