Thoughts on society.....

[El Duque]

What is the point of this question?

If nobody can answer it to your satisfaction does that mean that you've proved that 'God'did it?

That mad jew has really done some damage.

Back then they nailed them to a cross and nowadays the insane morons have T.V. sows with 1900 numbers.

My how we have evolved.

 

[imported_realraul]

no worries willow. i know i joined the debate at its' death but i thought i would just add my two cents worth.


nobody can prove anything el duque. in the end it comes down to you either believe in god or you don't. there is no proof to sway your decision either way. but why the attitude ? there is good and evil in all facets of life, why should religon be any different ?

 

[chilli]

did any one see the Evolution show on SBS last night at 7.30 pm ? if the environment had not changed the world would still have dinosaurs

 

[chilli]

<table cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0 width="100%" border=0> <tbody> <tr valign=top> <td valign=top width="5%"></td> <td width="70%">
<h1>&lt;HEADLINE>Ice mummies and artefacts emerge after dung age remnants surface&lt;/HEADLINE></h1> &lt;DATE>January 18 2003&lt;/DATE>
<br clear=all> Glacial warming has led to some breathtaking discoveries, writes Usha Lee McFarling. &lt;BOD> Gerry Kuzyk was hiking in the remote reaches of the Yukon River when the biologist caught the putrid smell of caribou dung through the chill air. Then he found the biggest pile of animal droppings he had ever seen, 2.4 metres high and stretching over 800 metres of mountainside. Kuzyk, a researcher with the Yukon Department of Renewable Resources, knew there weren't enough caribou in the entire territory to create such an epic mound. And there hadn't been caribou in the area for nearly a century. "It was like being in The Twilight Zone," said Rick Farnell, a colleague who helped investigate the find. "You could see them from a distance - big, black bands of faeces. I'm talking tonnes of it." The mystery was solved by lab analysis. The dung, the product of innumerable migrating caribou herds, had been frozen for thousands of years and only recently exposed by melting ice. Scientists also discovered an arsenal of Stone Age darts, arrows and spears. <br clear=all>&lt;ISLANDAD> >
</table>

 

[imported_kier]

I haven't been following this thread closely - but I thought I'd just put in a little snippet about the theory of scientific investigation.

It's odd to see people dismiss a (genuine) scientific theory because it isn't "truth".

Science cannot (and never has) claimed to be in ownership of truth. It is, however, governed by the pursuit of verifiable truth - and this is where science separates from belief (or faith).

The problem with scientific investigation is that it is impossible to PROVE that something is true. It is however, possible to prove something is not true.

eg - someone could not prove that all swans were white, regardless ofhow many white swanshe could present- but one black swan would be all that was required to explicitly disprove the theory.

This has lead to what is known as a "Popperian" theory of science, or "Falsificationism". Science - using evidence and rational processes - prepares the best theory that is possible. This theory is then tested until proof of a failing can be found. If failings are uncovered then what is known as a "paradigm shift" occurs and a new path of investigation takes place.

An example of this would be the paradigm shift in Physics, when the rules of Newtonian motion couldn't account for the results at particle or cosmological levels.....leading to the "new" paradigms of quantum/relativity - which are themselves undergoing the same process.

To cut to the chase - no scientist would claim to be in possesion of the "truth".......the goal for the scientist is to create something that cannot be dismissed with evidence.

 

[chilli]

<table cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0 width=370 align=left border=0> <tbody> <tr> <td align=left> First truly artificial organism engineered </td></tr> <tr> <td class=space5 align=left></td></tr> <tr> <td align=left>15:4016January03</td></tr> <tr> <td class=space5 align=left></td></tr> <tr> <td>NewScientist.com news service</td></tr> <tr> <td class=space10 align=left></td></tr> <tr> <td align=left> The world's first truly artificial organism has been engineered by researchers in California. The bacterium makes an amino acid that no other organism uses to build proteins. The work is being hailed as "a very great accomplishment" and the technique promises to open unique avenues for manufacturing drugs. Amino acids are the fundamental building blocks of life, making up the proteins which constitute all living cells. The DNA of every organism on Earth contains three-letter codes, known as codons, for 20 such amino acids. Now, a team led by Peter Schultz of the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla has managed to coax E. coli bacteria to produce a 21^st amino acid and use it to make a protein, using only natural food sources such as sugar and water.</td></tr></tbody></table>

 

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[chilli]

<span>Jonathan Montaldo Thomas Merton: Activism Of The Spirit</span>
<span>Summary:</SPAN><span> When the renowned Trappist monk and best-selling author, Thomas Merton died suddenly in Bangkok, Thailand in 1968, his death sent shock waves throughout the world spiritual community. People everywhere mourned his passing, and today, his popularity continues to thrive.
What is it about Merton and his timeless writings that so captures all who encounter him?
In this dialogue, Jonathan Montaldo, Director, Emeritus of the Merton Center at Bellermine University invites us to explore the man, the mystic, saint and the powerful social activist who operated on behalf of the world while remaining within the walls of his Trappist monastery. Montaldo says that people respond to Merton's writings because he wrote from the deepest part of his soul.
An authentic monk in the spirit of Meister Eckhart, Merton cherished the silence and lived his life in prayer and contemplation. " Merton introduced the concept that everyone deserved to live a contemplative life," to have this leisure, to have this silence.
The search for God, to live an inner life, to do inner work, to know oneself, Merton was very Augustinian in that sense. He believed that to know yourself truly is to know God, who is intimately involved in your innermost self."
</span>

 

[chilli]

Although it's been alternately touted and debunked, the era of functional artificial intelligence may be dawning. For one thing, the processing power and data-storage capabilities required for thinking machines are now coming into existence. Researchers also have refined more acutely the algorithms and concepts behind artificially intelligent software. &lt;P. ?AI has somewhat a spotty history. One problems that it was overhyped? said Omid Moghadam, manager of application software technology management in Intel?s Microprocessor Lab. ?In reality, the power to do anything serious didn?t exist.? p and &lt;> Additionally, the explosive growth of the Internet has created a need for machines that can function relatively autonomously. In the future, both businesses and individuals simply will own far more computers than they can manage--spitting out more data than people will be able to mentally absorb on their own. The types of data on the Net--audio, text, visual--will also continue to grow. XML, meanwhile, provides an easy way to share and classify data, which makes it easier to apply intelligence technology into the computing environment. "The database industry will undergo more change in the next three years than it has in the last 20 due to the emergence of XML," Spector said. A new order
Artificial intelligence in a sense will function like a filter. Sensors will gather data from the outside world and send it to a computer, which in turn will issue the appropriate actions, alerting its human owners only when necessary. When it comes to Web searching, humans will make a query, and computers will help them refine it so that only the relevant data, rather than 14 pages of potential Web sites, match. IBM's approach to artificial intelligence has been decidedly agnostic. There are roughly two basic schools of thought in artificial intelligence. Statistical learning advocates believe that the best guide for thinking machines is memory. Based in part on the mathematical theories of 18th century clergyman Thomas Bayes, statistical theory essentially states that the future, or current events, can be identified by what occurred in the past. Google search results, for example, are laundry lists of sites other individuals examined after posing similar queries ranked in a hierarchy. Voice-recognition applications work under the same principle. By contrast, rules-based intelligence advocates, broken down into syntactical and grammatical schools of thought, believe that machines work better when more aware of context.

 

[Cronulla_Mania]

I can't believe i ventured back into this thread

But Kier, i read your post, and i can partially see what you are saying, but could you perhaps say in another way what you mean by "the goal for the scientist is to create something that cannot be dismissed with evidence." ??

Cheers,
Moffo

 

[imported_MrAngryOne]

The next step in evolution will be when all humans realise that there no "God" and we have the earth's and our own future in our own hands.

When this occurs humans will quickly realise the sun will one dayexplode taking the earth with itand we must learn to travel to other galaxies to survive long term.

 

[Willow]

Well Moffo, I don't know why I'm back here either. But trust me, its just a fleeting visit.
Itis pleasing to know that you are now 'partially' understanding what Kier is saying... a little frustrating I must admit because I've said much the same thing (a poorer version that is) a dozens times over. This is no disrespect to kier ofcourse who obviously explains things a thousand times better than I.
Now if a few others partially understood, we might be getting somewhere.

 

[ONEYE]

Although it's been alternately touted and debunked, the era of functional artificial intelligence may be dawning. For one thing, the processing power and data-storage capabilities required for thinking machines are now coming into existence. Researchers also have refined more acutely the algorithms and concepts behind artificially intelligent software. &lt;P. ?AI has somewhat a spotty history. One problems that it was overhyped? said Omid Moghadam, manager of application software technology management in Intel?s Microprocessor Lab. ?In reality, the power to do anything serious didn?t exist.? p and &lt;>

 

[Leisotto]

And the debate raged

Apologies for not getting on here more often. Looks like the debate has fizzled, and after 735 posts, nothing has been resolved. One wonders if a thread like this offers a good lesson on life. I mean, arguing about religion resolves nothing, so why argue about it? Ditto for Politics. If we could somehow get along with each other (whilst maintaining our differences), than the world would be a much more ideal place. Once we can all learn to live with people that are different to us, we will have truly evolved and advanced.

Regards,
Leisotto

 

[imported_realraul]

If we could somehow get along with each other (whilst maintaining our differences), than the world would be a much more ideal place. Once we can all learn to live with people that are different to us, we will have truly evolved and advanced.

if you're talking about the world being one big happy place, it can never happen. mainly because:

1 - there is too much money to be made

2 - every person is a racist.

 

[Treye Harder]

lezzotto you will have to try harder tool

 

[Cronulla_Mania]

"2 - every person is a racist."

Don't agree, i think that is rubbish actually

Cheers,
Moffo

 

[CanadianSteve]

if you're talking about the world being one big happy place, it can never happen. mainly because:
1 - there is too much money to be made
2 - every person is a racist.

Coming back to the original nature vs. nurture question of post#1, I would ask:

What is the nature of man? Are we basically good, or evil? Are we only motivated by greed and self-interest?

 

[THE ONEYE SHOW]

with Rachael Kohn
on Sunday 19/1/2003
Summer Series - Neale Donald Walsch
Summary:
Forget the Bible. A former school-teacher and radio-show host is now dispensing the word of God in his bestselling series of books, Conversations with God. In their daily conversations God gives Neale advice on how to unlearn Christian notions of "original sin" and just to be "who you really are." God tells him that the way to achieve these goals is to read and re-read Conversations with God – all three volumes. Find out why millions of people think he's right.

Details or Transcript:

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