Thirty-three percent of Americans believe that “humans and other living things have existed in their present form since the beginning of time” rather than evolving gradually through a process of natural selection, as described by Charles Darwin more than 150 years ago.

"Nothing should be believed, except that which was tested through direct observation and logical deduction." Epicurus 341 BC – 270 BC

One-third of Americans reject the idea of evolution? That right there tells me evolution is naturally selective. It bypasses some, for whatever reason.

Have you ever been asked why you believe radio carbon dating is real? I have.

But the same questioning person has no problem telling me its all about faith. Faith in creationism. Faith that sex outside of marriage (and of course only between a man and a woman) is a sinful abomination. Faith that every word, every tittle, every iota, is passed down from God almighty and if I don't believe it all as a whole, then throw it all away and fear eternal damnation. And not just for me, but my whole family.

The elegant mental image of Adam and Eve riding a dinosaur to church to get married comes to mind.

Or just maybe as Epicurus famously said, "death is nothing to us." When we exist, death is not; and when death exists, we are not. All sensation and consciousness ends with death and therefore in death there is neither pleasure nor pain. The fear of death arises from the belief that in death, there is awareness.

TBD...

If we evolved from apes, why do we still have apes? Also, maybe I'm simply misunderstanding, but doesn't evolution violate the 2nd law of thermodynamics?

I won't shatter your world with the common ancestor thingy Wiz, but you may find it notable that Mark Twain once said, "“I wonder if God created man because He was disappointed with the monkey.”

As for the other thingy, and thank GOD (No pun intended) for Wikipedia:

The second law is an empirically validated postulate of thermodynamics, but it can be understood and explained using the underlying quantum statistical mechanics. In the language of statistical mechanics, entropy is a measure of the number of microscopic configurations corresponding to a macroscopic state. Because thermodynamic equilibrium corresponds to a vastly greater number of microscopic configurations than any non-equilibrium state, it has the maximum entropy, and the second law follows because random chance alone practically guarantees that the system will evolve towards such thermodynamic equilibrium.

Hmmmmmm............

Ha. You gotta love Mark Twain. Or at least Samuel Clemens. Wait, how could both of them ever been on earth at the same time? But they were, you say?

Isn't it also true that the sum of the squares of the two shorter sides of a right triangle will equal the square of the longest side, or restated as A^2 + B^2 = C^2?

Good argument Dave, about our evolving from apes being refuted by the fact that apes still exist.

Wow, I wonder how so much air can exist, when water covers 71% of the planet? Or how can birds exist while lizards still roam the earth?

Can I get a "because they are not mutually exclusive?" Ha, and can I get a "What What!"

Ops. Now I've become collectively exhaustive.

Breathe some air and drink some water. Maybe watch a bird swoop down and snatch up a lizard. Do it often enough and you will evolve spiritually, I mean for real!

this post makes me think a little of a video someone in the 3D world showed me a while back.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VyQipO4miw

All of the many wonders of nature tell me that we came from somewhere. I am tending to believe that life always existed, even before the earth was formed, and we were all thrown down here, so as what went wrong before the big bang could all be worked out down here. (Is that a run on sentence?) No one knows how long Adam and Eve were hear before that tree of knowledge thingy. Now this is really out there: have speculated that Eve laid a bunch of eggs which populated the earth. (It does say somewhere that they were the parents of all living... And that her child birthing pangs would be increased.)

What I am saying is that life had to have always existed. About what Emerson Lake and Palmer sang, "There is no end to my life, no beginning, death is life." ELP has another song about being born in life's fire and we have come from the "grave" or something. But I don't base it all on ELP songs, just an awakening 20 years ago about rocking down angels, a couple years before Arlo wrote Doors to Heaven.

leo,,,you give me much to ponder

It's a jungle out there.

Some more if you dare ....



“Learn from the mistakes of others. You can never live long enough to make them all yourself.”
― Groucho Marx

it's a squirrel's world, but it wouldn't be nuthin without a possum or a raccoon.

hawks catch mice.

the guy showed compassion.

but if the pope is gonna keep throwing birds out the window, he might want to switch to hawks and eagles or something?….geez louise

G1, in the context of evolution, that quote (the one you posted from groucho) would seem to be worth pondering.

still, pushing the envelope can sometimes be a good thing?

G1 I love the infinite wisdom of Groucho!

Yes, you simply misunderstand.