Junk DNA: goodbye!: Review article (Introduction)

by Balance_Maintained , U.S.A., Friday, March 13, 2015, 00:56 (3324 days ago) @ dhw

Theists are not the only ones that look at the probabilities. That is why people like Steven Hawking agree that the probabilities for life occurring our infinitesimally small. Moreover, that is why they have to keep coming up with older ages, multi-verses, and other increasingly absurd theories to try and bolster the probabilities. String Theory is a direct response to the fact that the chances of our universe existing without divine intervention are practically nil. The chances of both the universe, planet earth, AND life existing are beyond nil, that is to say, far beyond statistically impossible.-
And this, my friend, is the atheist answer: http://www.science20.com/stars_planets_life/calculating_odds_life_could_begin_chance-They dodge the bullet again by trying to say that well, it didn't have to start with life, and then inventing another million monkeys scenario. -The skip DNA, and go to RNA:-"For the purposes of today's column I will go through the probability calculation that a specific ribozyme might assemble by chance. Assume that the ribozyme is 300 nucleotides long, and that at each position there could be any of four nucleotides present. The chances of that ribozyme assembling are then 4^300, a number so large that it could not possibly happen by chance even once in 13 billion years, the age of the universe."-Then they skip a specific RNA and say, well.. just any assemblage will do, and then we can use natural selection.-"The calculation assumes that a single specific ribozyme must be synthesized for life to begin, but that's not how it works. Instead, let's make the plausible assumption that an enormous number of random polymers are synthesized, which are then subject to selection and evolution. This is the alternative hypothesis, and we can test it."-And yes, experiments show that could work, but ONLY if the RNA elements were ENGINEERED to begin with. "In vitro RNA selection does not demonstrate that complex ribozymes could have arisen naturally in a prebiotic soup, because the in vitro experimental conditions are wholly unrealistic, revealing at every turn the fingerprints of intervening intelligence. RNA World researchers have taken their own engineering of ribozymes as analogous to plausible prebiotic processes, when in fact the two situations are profoundly different. Indeed, aspects of ribozyme engineering, together with other lines of evidence, support a very different view of biological origins from that advocated by RNA World researchers."-So, you have the atheistic acknowledgement that it is statistically impossible, then they engineer a solution and say "Look! Randomness works!" (provided that some intelligent being first creates a perfect environment and randomly generates trillions of RNA strands and binds them all together at the same spot and the same time....shhhhhhh)

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What is the purpose of living? How about, 'to reduce needless suffering. It seems to me to be a worthy purpose.