Knowledge, belief & agnosticism (Agnosticism)

by clayto , Saturday, March 08, 2008, 17:17 (6102 days ago) @ dhw

Quote "That I cannot fully accept the poetic atheist idea of a lump of matter ... whether suddenly or through George Jelliss's step by step procedure ... unconsciously collecting all the necessary ingredients to bring itself to life, enable itself to reproduce, and provide itself with the potential for an almost infinite range of hereditary adaptations and variations. No matter how people try to gloss it over with words like 'simple' and 'natural', I can't "accept" it, let alone "fully accept" it. Nothing to do with other forms of creation. This is unique." - 1. It looks to me quite likely that when the conditions for life are present then often (not necessarily always) life develops, just as for example when the conditions for fire are present a flame develops - 2. Why should this not be so? - 3. We now know that on this planet the conditions for life are much more varied and range between much greater extremes than was previously thought, though we do not yet have evidence for other planets - 4. I suspect (I do so wish I knew!) that life is a a natural and widespread phenomenon throughout the universe, arising where the widely varied conditions are found and that there is nothing particularly mysterious or 'unique' about it - 5. It seems to me that what would be mysterious is if did turn out that life is uncommon, even 'unique' and not 'natural' in much the same way that fire is natural - 6. Once we have life / reproducibility in any form I can see no reason why its development should not be virtually limitless - 7. Why should this not be so? - clayto