F#@$ God! And religion (EDITED)

... and I've taken someone whose views I probably agree with to task for making unwarranted statements, I might as well respond to something I fully disagree with.

Speaking of the sky; in less than a week it will be the 1 year anniversary of Hurricane Ike.

It was the third most destructive storm in US history. I went through it. The sky wasn't so beautiful that day. It left me without a place to work for 4 months. It put a big strain on my family's life one we are still recovering from. But ... there was a bunch of beautiful interactions that went into causing it.

The Gulf waters were warm. What makes warm things warm is not that their molecules are hot. It is that their molecules are moving very fast. The faster the molecules in water move the more likely they are to escape the surface. That is evaporation. The escaped molecules are called water vapor.

Water is made up of two atoms of hydrogen and one atom of oxygen. The molecular weight of water is 18. 80% of air is nitrogen molecules which are two nitrogen atoms bound together. The molecular weight of a nitrogen molecule is 28. For every water molecule that enters the air it displaces a molecule of air, most likely a nitrogen molecule. Thus, when waters enter the air there is a gain in molecular weight of 18 but a loss in molecular weight of 28. Thus, air saturated with water will weigh less than will dry air. That is what causes the low pressure found in hurricanes.

The fast moving atoms tend to rise. As they rise the atoms coalesce. That is condensation. When they coalesce they move less so they are cooler. Since energy is conserved, when water vapor condenses and cools energy is release energy. This is called the latent heat of condensation. This energy causes winds.

The winds distribute the rising water vapor over an area (in the case of Ike) of a thousand miles in diameter. The cooling condensed water falls near the center ensuring that the most intense winds will occur in the eye wall. This forms a stable structure ... the hurricane.

Where the hurricane goes is determined by the upper-level winds associated with the surrounding areas of high pressure. As the storm moves the winds push up waters in front of the storm. These are the storm surges. In Ike the storm surge was 25 feet. That is the sea in front of the storm within the eye wall was 25 feet higher than normal.

As the storm approaches land the storm surge can be devastating. It was in Ike. Some Texas Gulf-coast communities will never recover.

The point of all of that is that for Ike to occur required a lot of interaction involving several parts of the earth's biosphere. Even though its effect can be devastating, an understanding of the interactions can be awe-inspiring. But the thing is ... NONE of it requires the interaction of a supernatural being. Nobody but a few ultra-religious wackaloons believes that hurricanes are a part of God's plans to punish people anymore. Their is a realization that because nature is the way it is, hurricanes are going to form ... no God needed.

The same goes for the beautiful days as well. Because nature is as it is, there are going to be good days ... no God needed. So looking at the sky doesn't give you any real evidence that God exists.

But suppose it did ... would that mean that humans didn't evolve from ape-like ancestors? The connection between the beauties of the sky and human evolution are quite tenuous. To find out it would be better to look at the evidence.

Here are some fossil skulls. The skull labelled A is a modern chimpanzee's. The skull labelled N is a modern human. The ones in-between are arranged in order of chronology. The oldest fossil is B and they get younger as they approach N.

In this sequence, where do ape fossils end and human fossils begin?
What criteria did you use to come up with your answer?
If you couldn't come up with an answer, then why doesn't this represent an excellent fossil transition between apes and humans?

But let's not stop there ... Humans have 23 pairs of chromosomes. Chimps, Gorillas and Orangutans have 24 pairs. If humans shared a common ancestor with the other apes then they must have had Robertsonian fusion in which two chromosomes fused together to form one. And evidence of that should be found when we look at homologous choromosomes.

Here is human chromosome #2. The G-banding pattern shows quite clearly that it is homologous to two chimp, two gorilla and two orangutan chromosomes.

But let's not even stop there ... Humans do not make their own Vitamin C. Neither do any of the apes. BUT we have the genetic machinery to do so. The problem is that the gene for the last enzyme in the pathway, gulono-lactose oxidase (GLO), has a mutation that deactivates the gene. It turns out that chimps, gorillas, and organutans have exactly the same mutation. The only reasonable explanation is that the mutation occurred in an ancestor prior to the split that led to the different species.

I could give more evidence, but for a reasonable person, it should be enough to convince that humans DID evolve from a common ancestor as the other apes.

Cheers,

DB

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If a million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing. - Anatole France

I do think that there is proof of an Almighty God, you just need to know where to look for it. From the way every little thing on this earth has a place and a purpose (whether we know it or not) to the people who ask God for a miraculous cure and receive it (I have witnessed this many times) . All it takes is the willingness to look for the proof and the faith to believe that you will someday find it. Try getting quiet and listening to that little voice inside, or just have a conversation with him and be open to any way he might try to respond to you: again that calm inner voice that most people don't realize can be God, visual images such as daydreams or pictures in your head (sounds kinda crazy but just be open and let go of previous thoughts about the matter) , or even just remembering something someone may have said to you long ago, something that you shouldn't remember or have no reason to be thinking about it.

I think a lot of people forget that God is not the only force working to effect our lives. Anyone who has read the bible knows that there is also an evil force trying to kill, steal, and destroy humankind's blessings and happiness, and quite honestly I think that the people who believe that bad things happen because God is punishing people are misguided. In response to someone else who also responded to your comment, I do not know the spiritual reasons for natural disasters, but I do know that God sees us as more than just the physical beings we are today. He looks at each one of us and sees our spiritual journey. For some people they may not choose God in their natural lifetime but He gives all of us multiple chances to accept Him as our God.

Sorry that was so long but I hope that helps. If you do one day choose to believe in God just know that there will always be things that will try to make you doubt, but even if you can't see the proof with your eyes, God is still there speaking to you and guiding you though your life.

or at least it did a few versions ago when I last used it.

"I had this whole reply typed out and sounding semi-intelligent, and then the page wouldn't load and I lost it."

In Firefox you can just hit 'back' when the page fails to load, and everything you typed will reappear.

"It is only by risking our persons from one hour to another that we live at all. And often enough our faith beforehand in an uncertified result is the only thing that makes the result come true."
- William James

(1) Atheism is no more of a religion than NOT collecting stamps is a hobby.

(2) Governments are based on enforceable laws that prescribe acceptable conduct of the governed. Atheism is the belief that no gods exist. Atheism doesn't say how one should act. Thus, you CAN'T possibly have a government based on atheism. It would be equivalent to having a government based on the belief that cherry pie tastes good.

Theocracies believe that their God prescribes proper conduct and base their laws on what they perceive that conduct to be. That is the problem. The governments that you are claiming are based on "the state sponsored religious belief ... [of] Atheism" derived their rules of conduct not from atheism (it has no prescribed code of conduct) but from communism. Communism has its unquestioned dogma, same as religion does, and it certainly can be a big problem. While it is true that communism includes atheism, it does not derive its code of conduct from atheism (again that would be impossible).This may surprise you ... but I know a lot of atheists. To my knowledge I do not personally know a single communist. Atheism can exist perfectly fine without being tied to communism.

The best governments are secular governments in which religious dogma (and religious-like dogma) are not part of government. In our country we call that separation of church and state. I think it is very important to keep it that way.

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If a million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing. - Anatole France

A definition could contain a logical inference or statement, but since this one does not your repetitive blather is once again an irrelevant null.

"It is only by risking our persons from one hour to another that we live at all. And often enough our faith beforehand in an uncertified result is the only thing that makes the result come true."
- William James