More "miscellany" PART TWO (General)

by David Turell @, Sunday, November 27, 2022, 17:50 (487 days ago) @ dhw

PART TWO

Earth vs Venus

dhw: But I don’t know any more than you do why he would want to design Venus plus the countless billions of extinct and extant heavenly bodies in the universe. I find your belief that they are/were all required for us and our food a bit of a strain on my credulity, and I have to say that the apparent pointlessness of these almost infinite numbers and histories is a major factor that has led me to agnosticism.

DAVID: You have clearly expressed a criticism of the God you imagine. Accept God as I do above.

dhw: There is no criticism of God when I say there are mysteries which make no sense to me and prevent me from believing in him (while not disbelieving in him). You have never understood that agnosticism is a confession of ignorance, and that the best an agnostic can do is explain why he cannot accept (or in some cases reject) different theories.

DAVID: And I can decide to accept the mysteries and look forward for humans explaining them though research.

dhw: Of course you can. In the meantime, please stop making silly remarks about me out-thinking or criticizing your God. Your comment shows just how similar your approach is to that of Richard Dawkins, as I have pointed out many times before: “If there is something that appears to lie beyond the natural world as it is now imperfectly understood, we hope eventually to understand it and embrace it within the natural.” (The God Delusion, p. 14). Pots and kettles!

I still believe humans can find answers to some of the conundrums and embrace God, not naturalism.


QUANTUM MECHANICS RULE LIFE

QUOTE: […] it’s all but certain that every aspect of the Universe, particles and fields alike, are themselves quantum in nature. What that means for reality, exactly, is something we’re still trying to puzzle out."

DAVID: this is the basis of reality. dhw will complain God should have made it simpler. But since it is like it is, it must be required as God views its need in His design.

dhw: I’m sorry, but while reading this article, I never once thought of God. The quote above sums up all my thoughts precisely, because the fact of the matter – as I have said over and over again when this subject is raised – is that I can predict with absolute certainty that if I step in front of a moving bus, I am going to get hurt. Frankly, ignoramus that I am, I don’t understand quantum reality. (Worth repeating the Feynman quote: “If you think you understand quantum mechanics, you don’t understand quantum mechanics.”) But I am prepared to believe that the reality we all experience is real! Heaven help anyone who doesn’t share that belief!

Feynman is long gone. He made basic contributions but the new knowledge is built on them and do understand lots more.


Birth canal and tooth development

DAVID: of course, pelvic changes accommodated large head sizes. How did such coordination happen? Natural changes are very unlikely. Design is better theory.

dhw: Once again you use the word “natural” as meaning the opposite of design. Given the flexibility of cells and cell communities to respond to new demands, I would say that it is natural that the pelvis would adapt to accommodate larger head sizes. Reading between the lines, I do not see any necessity for your God to keep popping in, performing operation after operation after operation...If he exists, it would make far more sense for him to have designed cells to be flexible and to design their own adaptations by cooperating with one another, as shown most clearly in the article about “Bacterial intelligence”.

How do Mother's cells know a bigger head is coming? The problem is coordination between three parties: Dad's initial input of his DNA, the fetal DNA result, and Mom's DNA controlling pelvis shape. None of the three DNA's talk to the other naturally.


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