Not an atheist, have a question.

[Mister Agenda]

Drive-by gone already?

[Tonus]

The universe had a start, it took quite some time for earth to form and for life to exist... that -to me- does not make any sense at all..!

Without sufficient knowledge and understanding, there are many things that will not make sense to us. It is understandable that people in the distant past found certain concepts to be logical (say, that the Sun rotated around the Earth) and others to be nonsensical (that Earth was one of many planets circling the Sun, which was one of millions of stars circling the black hole at the center of our galaxy) based on a lack of knowledge and understanding. As our knowledge and understanding grow, we can discard the things that are wrong and get closer to the truth of any particular matter.

I think we're too far along now to believe that the universe is the science project of some bored cosmic superhero.

[Whateverist]

Drive-by gone already?

There is still plenty of incoherent shit lying around from his visit if you'd care to examine it. Maybe you could tell the rest of us what he was on about.

[JuliaL]

But ALL organisms require chemistry to survive.

I had a sales rep who left me with a great idea loosely stated, "The answer to any question is: It depends."

ALL organisms require chemistry? Well, only loosely and only if you restrict yourself to the usual carbon based replicators that surround us.

My paraphrase of Schroedinger's definition of life is:
any self replicating pattern which can focus a stream of energy on itself in order to maintain or lower its own entropy.

Electronic based (e.g. computer viruses) only need chemistry insofar as they need impure silicon on which to reside.
Larger than mammal systems such as corporations, religions or societies only require chemistry because that is what makes up their subunits.
Hooloovoos (hyperintelligent shades of the color blue) only require properly shaped crystals for residence while interacting with other beings.

So, it depends on what definitions you use for 'require', 'chemistry', and 'organism.'...and probably 'survive.'

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

But ALL organisms require chemistry to survive.

I had a sales rep who left me with a great idea loosely stated, "The answer to any question is: It depends."

ALL organisms require chemistry? Well, only loosely and only if you restrict yourself to the usual carbon based replicators that surround us.

My paraphrase of Schroedinger's definition of life is:
any self replicating pattern which can focus a stream of energy on itself in order to maintain or lower its own entropy.

Electronic based (e.g. computer viruses) only need chemistry insofar as they need impure silicon on which to reside.
Larger than mammal systems such as corporations, religions or societies only require chemistry because that is what makes up their subunits.
Hooloovoos (hyperintelligent shades of the color blue) only require properly shaped crystals for residence while interacting with other beings.

So, it depends on what definitions you use for 'require', 'chemistry', and 'organism.'...and probably 'survive.'

Fair enough. For 'require' let us substitute Attila The Hun's left nut. For 'chemistry', we'll use the definition 'slightly soggy doughnut'. For 'organism', we can easily define that as 'highly ornate but moderately tarnished brass door-knocker'. Lastly, let's agree to use the definition 'card table with a wonky leg'.

Clearly, then, what I should have said was, 'All highly ornate but slightly tarnished brass door-knockers Attila The Hun's left nut slightly soggy doughnut card table with a wonky leg.'

Thank you SO much for reminding me how easy it is to make up definitions for words. Life is so much simpler when we depart from boring old definitions that everyone agrees on.

You rock. Seriously.

Boru

[GirlyMan]

Hi,

I'll get straight to the point.

If nothing keeps something from happening can it not happen?

If I let go of something in my hand, a pen lets say.. and there is absolutely nothing keeping it from falling to the ground, can it not fall? if yes Plz explain.

Here you go.

[Simon Moon]

But ALL organisms require chemistry to survive.

(sigh)

Well, at least I tried.

It was a bad idea from the start but a friend of mine insisted on doing this.

Thank you for your time anyway.

Finally, there is local saying here that goes "Never preach something and act against it, the shame on you shall be great"

Good bye everyone.

What exactly was it that you tried?

What I saw was a poor understanding of science, and fallacies.

I hope that isn't you best effort.

[Chas]

Why did it take so long for life to emerge after the big bang? I think when the entire history of the universe is finally written, you will find that 10 billion years is but an instant relative to its enormously long life span.

I don't understand the significance of this.

Why does only one kind of life exist(carbon based)? Why isn't there life everywhere? I don't know...that is a question that bothers me as well....but I don't think it can be the basis of an argument in support of God.

Chemically, carbon works better than any other element in the range of conditions in an Earth-like environment. There are more compounds of carbon than compounds that don't contain carbon.

We don't know that life isn't ubiquitous in the universe. I suspect that most or all of complex life will be carbon based due to its properties.

[archangle]

it's simple kid.

First the pieces had to be made. Big stars at first. They didn't last very long but they got thing rolling.

After that the pieces of life were in place and given accleration, it was much smaller. There was probably life somewhere. Water pieces are fairly easy to make and most stars do it. So is the most of the other stuff. so life was probably around before us.

Give it time girl, they will find it soon enough. I remember when they said "you can't be sure we haven't seen any planets yet!!". I said, BS ... they are out there just based on simple chemistry and physics,

Evidence I use for this claim? 65 million years from dead dinosaurs to humans, that's fast to me.

[ShaMan]

If I let go of something in my hand, a pen lets say.. and there is absolutely nothing keeping it from falling to the ground, can it not fall? if yes Plz explain.

What is a "pen"?