People are from outer space?

[minnesota man]

Oneironaut and c4nn4bliss are blowing my mind. You guys are brilliant. I myself am a Catholic. I don't really believe in anything but I stick to things for tradition. Plus it's a "good" code to help raise children (brainwash them to be good and fit in). I'm siding with c4nn4bliss becasue figuring out the origin of man and the birth of consciousness requires an open mind. Scientific method is great in the short run but it falls apart and stifles new lines of thought.

Has anyone seen "What the Bleep Do We Know?". Great movie about quantum mechanics and the clash between it and general relativity. I think (hope) we are about to break the walls down and expand into higher dimensions. While we run around within 2 dimensions (yes we're 3D I know, but it takes so much energy to move around in the z plane.) There's got to be more.

Thanks for everyone's insight. Potheads are the best!

[C4nn4Bliss]

Everyone should have something they are a nerd about

[Oneironaut]

Evolution does not require a single missing link, but a innumerable amount. We should be surrounded by a zoo of transitional forms that cannt be put into a category as one particular certain life form.

What? How could species possibly exist like that? There needs to be some definite group whose members are all capable of interbreeding with each other. That's what a species is. If there is any outlying member incapable of interbreeding with such a group (i.e. it doesn't belong to any species) it dies.

Let me demonstrate evolution with an example from linguistics. Linguistic evolution, like biological evolution, has scientifically proven by examining the historical evidence. The two processes also work in very similar ways, but linguistic evolution is of course much faster.

We have a continuous literary record in Europe stretching all the way back to ancient Greece. From this literary record we can see that the languages we call Portuguese, Spanish, French, Italian and Romanian are all just modern forms of Latin. When the Roman Empire stretched across the Mediterranean, there was a lot of travel between areas of the empire and because of this there was a high degree of communication between distant peoples. This resulted in a very uniform language that could be understood everywhere.

After the Empire collapsed, the various groups did not have the means to travel everywhere. Hardly anyone ever went a few miles away from home. The different groups were geographically separated from each other and were unable to communicate with each other.

We all know that no child speaks exactly the same language as their parents. Every new generation invents new words and new ways of speaking. They are speaking the same basic language as the parents but with slight modifications. Over time these changes add up. In Europe, the various local dialects of Latin underwent separate courses of change and gradually the people became less and less able to understand each other. After a few centuries the different dialects had diverged to the point that they were separate languages. If you look over the documents of European history, you can see for yourself how all this happened.

And yet, we do not see a zoo of transitional languages, because you have to make yourself understood to a certain group speaking a certain language or else you are understood by nobody.

The fossil record is very incomplete because the vast majority of organisms simply don't fossilize. It is a very very rare occurrence. When we see forms "suddenly appearing", it's because some organism that had been quietly evolving with no trace suddenly found favorable conditions to thrive. Why should that not happen from time to time?

Evolution is the best explanation we have. Look at the actual fossil evidence for yourself. Read up on molecular biology. Please. If you do not, you will not understand it the way you want to understand it. And if you can't come up with an better alternative theory you are not going to convince me that this one is wrong. What other process could possibly bring about life, if not God or aliens?

[C4nn4Bliss]

What im trying to get at is that you would think that out of the millions of fossils you would find a ?missing-link? set to complete one gap in the evolutional theory.

I hear what your saying about the evolution of lingustics and its apparent that it has the "basics of evolution". I wouldn't compare the evolution of life and the evolution of language because it is much easier to acknowledge that language evolves than life. Im not at all saying that life does not evolve I am simply trying to fill gaps that I NEED to be satisfied for belief. Enoug belief for me to be able to tell someone that this is what happened and the hows and the whys.

Lets switch gears for a second?

To my understanding science has conducted experiments to basically simulate the conditions of early earth and in these experiments some produced components of DNA and RNA protiens. What I get stuck on so easily is how non-living matter could jump to even the simplest cells(bacteria). Bacteria lacks a nucleus correct?How can something like a cell which has thousands of enzymes that closely resemble todays machines have started from non-living material? To me cells basically contain power generators, factories, transportation systems and so on. The cell follows specific guidelines almost as if each cell was a mircroscopic city. How can something this complex become so complex on its own with no guidance?? I do understand that we lack the concept of infinite time and I see time as part of the equation of evolution but it baffles me that something this complex can become this complex on its own AND not to mention starting from non-living material. To me this is to complex and we are just talking about cell?s. You and me are a completely different story. I hate to say it cause ill get flamed but evolution seems to be simple-mined and over confident.

I am not ending this here I just have to take a break to eat?. Please comment back

[C4nn4Bliss]

For the evolutional process to work the fact "With time anything is possible" has to be in place. How can something like DNA create itself? Incase anyone isnt familiar or they are stoned DNA is contains all of your genetic codes and billions of complicated codes and structures.The structure itself is completely amazing and I have the utmost respect for it and however it was created by. Im sure you have all seen pictures of what a strand of DNA would look like. The spiraling sides of each DNA ladder is made of complicated sugar and phosphate compounds, and the ladders across are nitrogen compounds. Everyones codes are different which when you think of all the people in history you can start you realize the diversity it. I do not want to get into too much detail but if you want you can easily research how it works. Basically all the cells divide and almost instantly a pair is created. Just as people in society have a role to complete the enzymes have a role to complete, but that is hardly a good comparison. One enzyme is responsible for basically spell checking the entire process and has to be HIGHLY INTELLIGENT to achieve this process at the rate it does. The DNA in your body acts as the commander to all your cells and tells them exactly what to do and they do it. For this to work it HAD to have been correct from the get-go! Each cell contains a hundred thousand million atoms, yet each atom will be arranged in a specific order. How could that come out of a evolutional process?? THIS IS JUST A VERY VERY SIMPLE OVERVIEW OF DNA! SHALL WE GO INTO RNA???

[beachguy in thongs]

I'm skipping a couple pages for now, but if aliens did bring us here, then it's only because they couldn't find suitable conditions for life, anywhere near, and they brought us as cells, because we're not too far evolved to not notice our webbed-hands and feet, and an eyelid, similar to crocodiles, that kept the water out which we consider "junk in the corner of our eye".

[beachguy in thongs]

And that first atom came about through gases in space. Where did that space come from?

[BizzleLuvin]

im a cosmologist and a darwinist. i believe we evolved from bacteria that formed with the creation of the earth, which formed from the Solar Nebula Theory. i believe we came from outer-space...from an asteriod that brought the first traces of hydrogen that formed our atmosphere which set the conditions for life. thats my shpeal. i think we are all made of stars.

[C4nn4Bliss]

you say that but can you explain how our highly complex DNA came from bacteria????????????? Our DNA hasnt evolved either.

You make it sound like you dont understand just how highly advanced our DNA is, its fucking mind blowing

Take the highest form of data storage we will ever create and then make it biological and shrink it down thats your DNA in laymens terms

[C4nn4Bliss]

And that first atom came about through gases in space. Where did that space come from?

as i say this scientists are at work trying to put answers in to fit the pieces of the universal questions. Really its only a matter of time till they are able to explain it and then its only a matter of time for it to be proven wrong or right by other generations. Its a ongoing system which is why i dont put much faith in it to begin with, although i do understand its the best we got.