[Potemkin]

Matter "carrys on." Meaning what, exactly? Utter nonsense.

Humans alone in all the universe ask questions and seek answers to a limitless number of questions. Only humans. Without us, all else is inconsequential. It was created solely for us.

http://NASAGoldRecord.blogspot.com

Considering the fact that humans occupy only a vanishingly small corner of a vast, vast, vast universe, this seems unlikely to me.

[ingliz]

[In] a vast, vast, vast universe, this seems unlikely to me.

And me.

Life as we know it.

Lammer Class I Habitable Planets/Class III Planetary Bodies

In the observable Universe, there are roughly 20,000,000,000,000,000,000 and 700,000,000,000,000,000,000 terrestrial planets around FGK and M stars, respectively; NASA estimates that 10 billion Earth-like planets orbit in the habitable zone of stars in our galaxy alone.

And it's not just planets; moons might contain life if their planets are uninhabitable. There are 219 moons in the solar system alone.

[MrWonderful]

Oxford University's Future of Humanity Institute concludes that humans are alone!

https://arxiv.org/pdf/1806.02404.pdf

Opinions of extremely biased atheists are utterly inconsequential. They are not based on facts, on science or on any statistical analysis based on the unusual characteristics of earth, DNA, polypeptide synthesis by any materialist mechanism, or the best efforts by SETI over decades.

They repeat their mantra, "Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence" while their atheist sheep scream at the top of their hoarse lungs, "NO evidence of God means no God!"

---------------------------------


“A scientific discovery is also a religious discovery. There is no conflict between science and religion. Our knowledge of God is made larger with every discovery we make about the world.” – Joseph H. Taylor, Jr., who received the 1993 Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery of the first known binary pulsar, and for his work which supported the Big Bang theory of the creation of the universe. Taylor is a devout Christian.

.

“The more I study science, the more I believe in God.” – Albert Einstein

(The Wall Street Journal, Dec 24, 1997, article by Jim Holt, “Science Resurrects God.”)

.

“Atoms are weird stuff, behaving like active agents rather than inert substances. They make unpredictable choices between alternative possibilities according to the laws of quantum mechanics. It appears that mind, as manifested by the capacity to make choices, is to some extent inherent in every atom. The universe is also weird, with its laws of nature that make it hospitable to the growth of mind. I do not make any clear distinction between mind and God. God is what mind becomes when it passes beyond the scale of our comprehension.”

“Technology is a gift of God. After the gift of life it is perhaps the greatest of God’s gifts. It is the mother of civilizations, of arts and of sciences.”

“You ask: what is the meaning or purpose of life? I can only answer with another question: do you think we are wise enough to read God’s mind?” – Physicist Freeman Dyson. When Einstein died, there was an opening for the title of “most brilliant physicist on the planet.” Dyson filled the opening by assuming Einstein’s professorship in physics at Princeton University. He is the winner of the 1981 Wolf Prize in Physics, the 1993 Enrico Fermi Award, the 1969 Max Planck Medal, amongst many other awards.

[XogGyux]

They repeat their mantra, "Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence" while their atheist sheep scream at the top of their hoarse lungs, "NO evidence of God means no God!"

You are mixing your cables buddy.

Most atheists are also agnostics.
That being said, as a matter of practicality I'd assume most atheists live their life as if there is no gods.
It is the same way with unicorns, "Absence of evidence of unicorn existence is not evidence of absence of unicorns"... Guess what, most people don't believe in unicorns in the same way.

[ingliz]

Oxford University's Future of Humanity Institute concludes that humans are alone!

No, they do not.

They conclude there is the possibility that we are alone, and even if we are not, that intelligent life is rare.

[We] find a substantial probability that we are alone in our galaxy, and perhaps even in our observable universe (53%–99.6% and 39%–85% respectively).

Using their numbers

Alone in the galaxy? A toss-up.

Alone in the universe? The odds are we are not.

They go on to say, ’Where are they?’ — probably extremely far away, and quite possibly beyond the cosmological horizon and forever unreachable.

[XogGyux]

No, they do not.

They conclude there is the possibility that we are alone, and even if we are not, that intelligent life is rare.

[We] find a substantial probability that we are alone in our galaxy, and perhaps even in our observable universe (53%–99.6% and 39%–85% respectively).

Alone in the galaxy? A toss-up.

Alone in the universe? The odds are we are not.

They go on to say, ’Where are they?’ — probably extremely far away, and quite possibly beyond the cosmological horizon and forever unreachable.

Not to mention that all of this is mental masturbation. Perhaps life is inevitable to sprout even in inhospitable areas. After all, the earth has been around for 4.6 and 70%+ of that time it has had life so It didn't take much, and the time that it took was when the planet was mostly lava and volcanoes non-stop.
On the other hand, it took 3.5bil years after that for "technological life" to evolve.
We simply don't know the variables for the equation, we can barely estimate those planets in what we call "habitable zone" but we only have 1 example of life, and that is this planet, there might be life in far weirder places, there might be life that does not resemble what we know, there might be no more life at all, we don't know and we will only know once we start checking mars, venus, europa and beyond, and/or if ET gives us a call.

[ingliz]

We simply don't know the variables for the equation

The Institute is institutionally wedded to 'The Great Filter."

Hanson's argument that the easier it is for life to evolve to our stage, the bleaker our future chances probably are.

[Unthinking Majority]

The Dalai Lama is a Buddhist and doesn't believe in a God or divine creator. Is he evil? Obviously not, but he still believes in a set of moral codes that allow him to lead a moral life and treat others well.

You can be spiritual without worshiping a God.

[Saeko]

@MrWonderful

I love my Father, The Devil, and you Yahwists can get bent!

[late]

@MrWonderful

I love my Father, The Devil, and you Yahwists can get bent!

[Potemkin]

The Institute is institutionally wedded to 'The Great Filter."

Hanson's argument that the easier it is for life to evolve to our stage, the bleaker our future chances probably are.

I suspect that the biggest Great Filter is probably the jump to a technological civilisation. It seems incredibly unlikely - flight, for example, has evolved multiple times; yet the level of cognitive development required for a technological civilisation has evolved only once, after almost four billion years of evolution under almost ideal conditions. And even having that level of cognitive development doesn't seem to be enough on its own - humans, in our present form, have existed for almost 300,000 years, yet have had a technological civilisation for only 10,000 of those years at best. And our long-term future looks pretty bleak due to climate change, resource depletion, pandemics, nuclear war, and the like.

[ingliz]

the jump to a technological civilisation

But that is not what @MrWonderful is banging on about. He believes we are the only example of sentience in the universe. All alone. God's plaything marooned on an insignificant speck of rock in the vastness of space.

He said, "Humans alone in all the universe ask questions."

Daftness when you think about it[, given the number of habitable worlds, and] you don't need technology to do that.




Edits: [*] Playing with brackets for the most part

[Potemkin]

But that is not what @MrWonderful is banging on about. He believes we are the only example of sentience in the universe. All alone. God's plaything marooned on an insignificant speck of rock in the vastness of space.

He said, "Humans alone in all the universe ask questions."

Daftness when you think about it as you don't need technology to do that.

Seems a bit wasteful of God to create all those other planets, stars and galaxies then... or maybe they were just trial runs before he finally succeeded? Seems like a lot of botched efforts for someone who is supposed to be omniscient though....

[Politics_Observer]

@Potemkin

I don't agree with all aspects of the Bible and what it states. However, I enjoy some of the more deeper meaning and some actual genuine pieces of wisdom that can be found in some parts of the book. That being said, I am agnostic, not really knowing for sure if there is any sort of higher being or not. Maybe, who knows? So much we simply don't know. I am certainly a believer in science though, that's for sure.

[Wellsy]

Seems a bit wasteful of God to create all those other planets, stars and galaxies then... or maybe they were just trial runs before he finally succeeded? Seems like a lot of botched efforts for someone who is supposed to be omniscient though....

God the video game developer who makes a big deal out of open world and player freedom but has no meaningful content to explore. Pfft, at least Assassins creed does overkill with collectibles.

[Potemkin]

God the video game developer who makes a big deal out of open world and player freedom but has no meaningful content to explore. Pfft, at least Assassins creed does overkill with collectibles.

Yeah, that whole 'speed of light' restriction thing really nerfed the game. An 'open world' most of which you can't access? I mean, what was he thinking?

[Unthinking Majority]

@MrWonderful

I love my Father, The Devil, and you Yahwists can get bent!

All hail our one true king, sweet Satan 666.

[Dimetrodon]

This is just a Christian who doesn't like atheists going on a bigoted rant. Just because some laws happen to match parts of the 10 commandments doesn't mean anything, and pre-Christian states have punished offenses like murder, theft, false witness, etc for obvious reasons unrelated to religion. It's to keep order and to legislate a standard of conduct amonst the populace. It should be noted that plenty of states do not enforce religion. In fact, the "no other gods" commandment is directly contradicted by the first amendment, so it's kind of obvious that the American state certainly doesn't exist to enforce Christianity.

[late]

This is just a Christian who doesn't like atheists going on a bigoted rant.

This thread was started by a Christian going on a highly bigoted rant.

I am 70, and I have been atheist for over a half century. The reason you have angry atheists is because of the prejudice they face. Imagine that, they want to be treated like regular people...

[MrWonderful]

So your basis for declaring your god as The One True God is that Christians are now the largest religious grouping on Earth, and they buy lots of copies of their sacred book.

YOU put YOUR words in other people's mouths and proceed with your misquotes and misattributions. How dishonest of you.
The basis of most all Christians and Jews to worship Nature's God, as He is called in America's Declaration of Independence is deep and wide. It can be found in scores of books on science, history, philosophy and apologetics.
You simply deny them all. Christianity has the world's largest following BECAUSE it is rational and healthy and beneficial. If you can ever stop twisting cause and effect, reality and logic, you may abandon your fantasy of Mister Nothing Who Made Everything.

...../// Very appropriate for the 20th and 21st centuries, but a depressing state of affairs. Have you considered examining the credibility of the Bible instead? You'll find it's laughably unbelievable, unless you think God has severe personality disorders.

On the subject of "depressing state of affairs," you atheists are at the bottom. Atheists commit suicide in higher percentages than people of faith. Take Ernest Hemingway, please. "Every thinking man is an atheist." Then he shot himself.

I refer you to books you fear:

The New Evidence That Demands a Verdict by Josh McDowell
The Irrational Atheist by Vox Day, former militant atheist and Illogical Atheism by Bo Jinn, also former militant atheist, like you.

I took notes on all these books and can provide them upon request.