Not this creationist BS again...

[Schnix]

Creationism now apparently has a large base in the UK as well! I just don't understand how you can call yourself a "scientist" and seriously believe this nonsense.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7613403.stm

[Olaf]

If we came from nothing and go into nothing... that encourages people to lead reckless and materialistic lifestyles

Rev Greg Haslam, Westminster Chapel, London

Pretty revealing.

[eumaas]

If we came from nothing and go into nothing... that encourages people to lead reckless and materialistic lifestyles

Rev Greg Haslam, Westminster Chapel, London

Pretty revealing.

And so it is that we, as men, do not exist until we do; and then it is that we play with our world of existent things, and order and disorder them, and so it shall be that non-existence shall take us back from existence and that nameless spirituality shall return to Void, like a tired child home from a very wild circus.

[Schnix]

"Creationism is anti-science," says Mr Porteous Wood. "Teaching it to children is a form of intellectual child abuse, because it gives them the wrong facts about life."

I like this guy. If you need an Adam & Eve to avoid leading a "reckless and materialist" life , fine, but don't go on debunking an entire faculty in the process. Of course with the Alaskan G.I. Jane in the mix, I might end up scratching the U.S. as a possible career destination.

The lab nerd in me has to post this:

[matedog]

I'm no subscriber to Christian Creationism, but I do wonder how/when things started.

[Schnix]

I'm no subscriber to Christian Creationism, but I do wonder how/when things started.

You mean life as we know it didn't start with "Greetings from Asbury Park"?

[Wolter]

I'm no subscriber to Christian Creationism, but I do wonder how/when things started.

May I suggest (as I have probably done several times in the past) both Richard Dawkins' The Ancestor's Tale as a great overview of Neo-Darwinian evolutionary theory (including some plausible speculations about possible origins of life) and Daniel Dennett's Freedom Evolves as a fantastic argument for the evolutionary development of free will from non-sentience in a deterministic world?

[threecoffins]

I'm no subscriber to Christian Creationism, but I do wonder how/when things started.

You mean life as we know it didn't start with "Greetings from Asbury Park"?

[Flex]

I'm no subscriber to Christian Creationism, but I do wonder how/when things started.

May I suggest (as I have probably done several times in the past) both Richard Dawkins' The Ancestor's Tale as a great overview of Neo-Darwinian evolutionary theory (including some plausible speculations about possible origins of life) and Daniel Dennett's Freedom Evolves as a fantastic argument for the evolutionary development of free will from non-sentience in a deterministic world?

And may I suggest the one true book, The Bible?

[Wolter]

I'm no subscriber to Christian Creationism, but I do wonder how/when things started.

May I suggest (as I have probably done several times in the past) both Richard Dawkins' The Ancestor's Tale as a great overview of Neo-Darwinian evolutionary theory (including some plausible speculations about possible origins of life) and Daniel Dennett's Freedom Evolves as a fantastic argument for the evolutionary development of free will from non-sentience in a deterministic world?

And may I suggest the one true book, The Bible?

Dude, I'm reading that right now. The Israelites are in some pickle right now, what with Bablyon invading them...if only they'd listen to Jeremiah...

[Flex]

Dude, I'm reading that right now. The Israelites are in some pickle right now, what with Bablyon invading them...if only they'd listen to Jeremiah...

Brah, don't give away any spoilers!

[matedog]

I'm no subscriber to Christian Creationism, but I do wonder how/when things started.

May I suggest (as I have probably done several times in the past) both Richard Dawkins' The Ancestor's Tale as a great overview of Neo-Darwinian evolutionary theory (including some plausible speculations about possible origins of life) and Daniel Dennett's Freedom Evolves as a fantastic argument for the evolutionary development of free will from non-sentience in a deterministic world?

What's the gist?

[matedog]

I'm no subscriber to Christian Creationism, but I do wonder how/when things started.

You mean life as we know it didn't start with "Greetings from Asbury Park"?

Whoever this Schnix person is, I like him/her. But no, obviously The Castiles* was Genesis.

*Joke made for probably Jimmy Jazz only

[Dr. Medulla]

I'm no subscriber to Christian Creationism, but I do wonder how/when things started.

May I suggest (as I have probably done several times in the past) both Richard Dawkins' The Ancestor's Tale as a great overview of Neo-Darwinian evolutionary theory (including some plausible speculations about possible origins of life) and Daniel Dennett's Freedom Evolves as a fantastic argument for the evolutionary development of free will from non-sentience in a deterministic world?

Shouldn't Hoy go back even farther, to the Big Bang and the initial expansion (timely, too, given the LHC), before the separate topic of life on this planet? It is a tough question to wrap one's head around (I admit I can't): either there's always been matter in the universe, either infinitely compressed or dispersed, either expanding or contracting; or somehow a significant amount of something came out of nothing. You don't even need to introduce an unnecessary and silly concept like a supernatural being that is infinite in all traits and capabilities for either notion—always something or something from nothing—to be tough to fathom.

[eumaas]

I made this.