And right until the end, Arthur would gladly accept and believe magic and/or aliens before he would accept the existence and truth of a Supernatural God.
But as I wrote at the Old Dead Blog on his passing in ’08 (sorry for the lower case, it was a thing for me back then for some reason)…
“2008; a new odyssey beyond even his amazing imagination:
more than a prolific author of futuristic novels, arthur c. clarke was in truth a visionary, or a seer of things to come, and in fact was the inspiration for things that might never have been, were it not for his insight and imagination.
but even he was unable to imagine or comprehend the ultimate journey beyond the stars when his life on earth was done…may God accept him into Heaven and keep his soul and brilliant mind for the rest of us to meet and greet when our own time comes.”
He knows the Truth now; that Magic and Aliens and God are not mutually exclusive concepts, quite the opposite as they are One and the Same…
In the original “Cosmos” TV series. Carl Sagan used the Heike crab as an example of evolution. The more the crab’s carapace looked like the face of a samurai, the more likely it would be thrown back by a fisherman. So in the end, all Heike crabs had carapaces that looked like the faces of samurai.
Sagan sort of overlooked the fact that there was a conscious entity selecting those crabs for survival; the fishermen who didn’t eat them.
He pretty much shot down his own argument in favor of “spontaneous evolution” without even realizing it.
Evolution is he process of selecting for favorable mutations and deleting unfavorable ones. Humans who traded fur for sweat glands could persistence hunt better and survived in higher rates than those who didn’t gain that mutation.
Whether the selection is intellectual or physical doesn’t matter, it’s still selection. The difference is that conscious selection can make bigger mistakes, for instance selecting for seedless fruits and vegetables.
While true in this case, the “conscious entity” need not even be sentient for this mechanism to work. The same mechanism is available for any prey / predator pair. Predatory birds aren’t so intelligent that we should credit them with the intelligent design of bugs.
In the desert where I live, almost all the native plants are either painfully spiny as all get out or taste atrocious (the aptly named creosote bush, which dominates out here). This is how they survive in spite of the javelinas, coyotes, mustangs, deer, burros, and big cats. The selection factor isn’t intelligence, it’s selective predation.
Creationists have the problem of explaining why they insist on cramming God into a Human mold.
An all powerful all knowing God certainly will not fit into that tiny space. There is no reason our existence can’t be explained by pre-existing conditions dictated by such a God, so Evolutionary Theory is just as, if not more, valid as an explanation.
If there is anything I’ve learned over the years it is that our limited intellect limits our understanding.
In other words,
“Not only is the Universe stranger than we think, it is stranger than we can think,” Werner Heisenberg.
Case in point. Heisenberg did not believe an atomic bomb was practical, and two graduate students under Einstein’s friend Leo Szilard proved Heisenberg wrong.
Devolution. Pelvic girdles, made for walking, scapula made for swinging through trees. Evolved 4 legged critters should have two pelvises, devolved however…
Humans have about four critical mutations that make them different from other mammals. One very important mutation produces an extra cell division step during the development of the brain, effectively doubling our brain size. Which leads to language, tool making, culture, science, etc.
Not to exclude evolution and mutation which are certainly part of his plan, but God made humans different from the other mammals by Design, and gave us dominion over them…
Sometimes you just wonder if G-d simply turned the evolution machine on and said “let’s see what happens”, and is now sitting back shaking His head and saying “well…maybe it sorts itself out after a longer runtime”.
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ChatGPT says: God and aliens = different interpretations of the same underlying phenomenon.
I think it was Arthur C. Clarke said “Science sufficiently advanced, is indistinguishable from Magic” a very similar opinion.
And right until the end, Arthur would gladly accept and believe magic and/or aliens before he would accept the existence and truth of a Supernatural God.
But as I wrote at the Old Dead Blog on his passing in ’08 (sorry for the lower case, it was a thing for me back then for some reason)…
“2008; a new odyssey beyond even his amazing imagination:
more than a prolific author of futuristic novels, arthur c. clarke was in truth a visionary, or a seer of things to come, and in fact was the inspiration for things that might never have been, were it not for his insight and imagination.
but even he was unable to imagine or comprehend the ultimate journey beyond the stars when his life on earth was done…may God accept him into Heaven and keep his soul and brilliant mind for the rest of us to meet and greet when our own time comes.”
He knows the Truth now; that Magic and Aliens and God are not mutually exclusive concepts, quite the opposite as they are One and the Same…
We should govern ourselves accordingly.
I would expect no less from a PEDO!
fuck a bunch of circuits!
In the original “Cosmos” TV series. Carl Sagan used the Heike crab as an example of evolution. The more the crab’s carapace looked like the face of a samurai, the more likely it would be thrown back by a fisherman. So in the end, all Heike crabs had carapaces that looked like the faces of samurai.
Sagan sort of overlooked the fact that there was a conscious entity selecting those crabs for survival; the fishermen who didn’t eat them.
He pretty much shot down his own argument in favor of “spontaneous evolution” without even realizing it.
clear ether
eon
I’m not so sure about that.
Evolution is he process of selecting for favorable mutations and deleting unfavorable ones. Humans who traded fur for sweat glands could persistence hunt better and survived in higher rates than those who didn’t gain that mutation.
Whether the selection is intellectual or physical doesn’t matter, it’s still selection. The difference is that conscious selection can make bigger mistakes, for instance selecting for seedless fruits and vegetables.
While true in this case, the “conscious entity” need not even be sentient for this mechanism to work. The same mechanism is available for any prey / predator pair. Predatory birds aren’t so intelligent that we should credit them with the intelligent design of bugs.
In the desert where I live, almost all the native plants are either painfully spiny as all get out or taste atrocious (the aptly named creosote bush, which dominates out here). This is how they survive in spite of the javelinas, coyotes, mustangs, deer, burros, and big cats. The selection factor isn’t intelligence, it’s selective predation.
“Everything you see I owe to spaghetti.” – Sophia Loren
“No chocolate, pretty soon die.”
Oh, it shows, it so shows, in all the right ways. 🙂
Fuel required to keep it all in shape.
The problem with “survival of the fittest” is the people who believe they are the absolute peak of it and trying to stop it right here and now.
Natural selection selects those who make the best tradeoffs between accurate and effective hypotheses,
Everything has a cost as well as a benefit.
Seems to me that the Evolutionists focus on the creation of details rather than the details of Creation.
Maybe it’s just me, but no matter how many nuclear bombs get set off, I just can’t see the Empire State Building sprouting up at ground zero. 😉
Creationists have the problem of explaining why they insist on cramming God into a Human mold.
An all powerful all knowing God certainly will not fit into that tiny space. There is no reason our existence can’t be explained by pre-existing conditions dictated by such a God, so Evolutionary Theory is just as, if not more, valid as an explanation.
If there is anything I’ve learned over the years it is that our limited intellect limits our understanding.
In other words,
“Not only is the Universe stranger than we think, it is stranger than we can think,” Werner Heisenberg.
Case in point. Heisenberg did not believe an atomic bomb was practical, and two graduate students under Einstein’s friend Leo Szilard proved Heisenberg wrong.
If life “evolves” in higher, better, more advanced forms, where does the higher, better, more advanced genetic material come from?
Devolution. Pelvic girdles, made for walking, scapula made for swinging through trees. Evolved 4 legged critters should have two pelvises, devolved however…
Humans have about four critical mutations that make them different from other mammals. One very important mutation produces an extra cell division step during the development of the brain, effectively doubling our brain size. Which leads to language, tool making, culture, science, etc.
Not everyone takes advantage of that, though.
Not to exclude evolution and mutation which are certainly part of his plan, but God made humans different from the other mammals by Design, and gave us dominion over them…
For better or worse.
The things I learn here…Points on her own, sitting way up high.
Sometimes you just wonder if G-d simply turned the evolution machine on and said “let’s see what happens”, and is now sitting back shaking His head and saying “well…maybe it sorts itself out after a longer runtime”.