James Le Fanu: Why Us? (The limitations of science)

by xeno6696 , Sonoran Desert, Thursday, July 23, 2009, 00:13 (5601 days ago) @ David Turell

Dr. Turell,
> My contentions stand on a four-legged table, developing temporally in the following order: 1) The universe, whose parameters are so finely adjusted, allows life. 2) The origin of life from inorganic matter. 3) The enormous complexity of the coding system DNA/RNA which drives and controls life. 4) The human mind which makes US different in kind, not degree. I have no idea what the total odds are, when compiled in order, and of course, as Matt notes, there is no reasonable way to estimate and calculate them. - Which is why I feel at this point I need to attack your 1). - We can't safely make that claim. See your final sentence above. As far as knowledge goes all we can do is state that our universe indeed, exists, and it is capable of supporting life. To infer that it is "finely tuned" for life makes a series of assumptions that can only be safely made with a helluva lot more knowledge than we currently possess.

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\"Why is it, Master, that ascetics fight with ascetics?\"

\"It is, brahmin, because of attachment to views, adherence to views, fixation on views, addiction to views, obsession with views, holding firmly to views that ascetics fight with ascetics.\"