Creation vs. Evolution

[Thalassamania]

Ok, who's going to step up with the "grass stains out of denim" tip so we can close this thread and call it a day?

R

Sorry, didn't know that was a hint. My wife refers to me as the "stainmaster" and takes great joy in loaning out my stain skills to the nurses whom she supervises.

Grass ... a hard one. If fresh, an enzyme detergent like Tide rubbed in well often will work. Next step is to pre-treat with white vinegar and or alcohol. Last step (whites only) is to try to power through with 50/50 mix of bleach and hydrogen peroxide that is then diuted 1:3 with water. Leave it on for an hour or so, rinse very well and throw it in the washer.

 

[SeaYoda]

...The other thing is that I don't have any tolerance for arguing about any of this. I think anyone who disagrees with me is wrong and I've built up that belief over a few decades now of intellectual investment and I don't have the time or patience to try to convince anyone of otherwise. If I have to explain to you what the Big Bang theory actually is, or what the Cosmic Microwave Background Radation is, or what fluctuations in that radiation have to do with inflation and relate that to Grand Unified Field Theories -- I just don't care. And if you don't think those are important to the discussion, I really don't care. It'd take me a decade to bring you up to speed and I don't have the time.

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
I think that is one of the funniest things I've ever heard!!!

 

[lamont]

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
I think that is one of the funniest things I've ever heard!!!

Its entirely serious. Starting from zero it would take me a decade to explain fully why I believe in evolution and I don't have the time.

 

[wardric]

Its entirely serious. Starting from zero it would take me a decade to explain fully why I believe in evolution and I don't have the time.

I actually believe you

 

[wardric]

View attachment 35878

 

[Thalassamania]

Good that someone else "gets" the former. I was reading Dawkins and stuff on genetics at about the same time as I was reading about neural networks and something just "clicked" and I had an "aha" moment where I understood why so many people had mistook evolution for intelligent design -- because genetics is like a neural network -- and a freakishly complicated one. Of course it looks like its intelligent -- because it is intelligent to a much larger level than any of the machine intelligence that we've invented so far. ...

I’m a descendent of McArthur and Levins (so to speak). I had a similar epiphany to yours, but it stepped over into the metaphysical as well. Yes, genetics and the interplay between genetics and the environment (especially the enormous number of positive and negative feedback loops between the genes, elements of the environment and the genes and the environment) can easily be viewed as a neural network (in fact should be). For that matter it can be viewed as intelligence. Wanna call it “god?” I don’t require the particular semantic cop-out, but I’m open to it.

The cosmology stuff was more towards bread and butter stuff for me. I didn't get to graduate level cosmology, but I availed myself of all the symposium that came through, so I saw a lot of presentations on stuff like hydrogen absorption lines in spectra of distant galaxies due to intervening gas clouds and such -- there were also a lot of good presentations on competing models of the formation of solar systems then because the extrasolar planets were all starting to be discovered when I was in school. Wish I had the copious free time again...

Just give up all this diving foolishness and you’ll have plenty of time. After all … a grown man in a black rubber shut making Darth Vader noises … really!

 

[SeaYoda]

Its entirely serious. Starting from zero it would take me a decade to explain fully why I believe in evolution and I don't have the time.

Sorry if I offended you, but it might take me a decade to explain why it's funny to me. Part of it is that I knew you were serious, just got my funnybone I guess. No harm intended.

 

[SeaYoda]

View attachment 35878

Is that the descent of man?

 

[wreckchick]

Sorry, didn't know that was a hint. My wife refers to me as the "stainmaster" and takes great joy in loaning out my stain skills to the nurses whom she supervises.

Grass ... a hard one. If fresh, an enzyme detergent like Tide rubbed in well often will work. Next step is to pre-treat with white vinegar and or alcohol. Last step (whites only) is to try to power through with 50/50 mix of bleach and hydrogen peroxide that is then diuted 1:3 with water. Leave it on for an hour or so, rinse very well and throw it in the washer.

.... and with that I find that this thread has come to a logical conclusion.

Last one to leave lock up!

lamont, you made by brain hurt a little but the comparison between neural networks and the evolutionary branching is something I never would have thought of but makes perfect sense to me. Kinda wish you had the spare decade to make the rest of the post turn into English, but c'est la vie.

R

 

[redacted]

Its entirely serious. Starting from zero it would take me a decade to explain fully why I believe in evolution and I don't have the time.

If the big bang and evolution are how we got to where we are today (seems like the most reasonable explanation to me), where does it all go? The big implosion? Such a cycle need have no beginning or end. But life would just be a period within a cycle.