"just like intelligent peasants know all"Originally Posted by theresa baker
Tolstoy's Platonov no doubt.
I've hedged my bets. Sister Dolores Hart is praying for me in Bethlehem......................................... .................................................. ....................Connecticut ;-)
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For my interests and many hobbies.
I know Professor Dawkins is a scientist and therefore only examines evolution in the sense of what has happened and can be measured or appraised using the many means and instruments that science provides, but it would be fascinating to hear if any scientists as gifted - or even nearly as gifted - as he has speculated about and tried to extrapolate the course that evolution might take in the coming thousands and millions of years.
It is generally accepted by scientists that life began on our planet over three billion years ago (unless, as some who tend towards the theory of panspermia believe, it originated elsewhere much earlier and was brought here in comets). Experts also believe that the Earth is likely to remain capable of supporting biological life for at least another billion years.
Evolution was very slow at first, but it brought great changes with it, completely transforming the atmosphere by pumping vast quantities of free oxygen into it and making it uninhabitable in all but a few protected pockets for the anaerobic life forms that had once dominated.
Their day passed, and the era of new forms of life dawned.
Is it conceivable that evolution will continue, perhaps accelerate or be artificially accelerated in the future? Look at the development that we have seen in electronics and quantum mechanics in the past 50 years and imagine what the development could be in the next 50, 500, 5,000 or 5 million?
It may be that just as the function of anaerobic life was to create the conditions for the life forms that succeeded it, our function may just be a transient one as well: to begin a process of development of non-biological life, that will eventually become self-sustaining and self-developing in ways that we could not even begin to understand.
Perhaps one day in the far future there will be sentient beings whose scientists research the faint traces of biological life that still exist and try, perhaps with little success, to enlighten those members of its civilisation who deny that they evolved from anything and insist that they were created as the are by a great universal spirit.
This planet is obviously doomed thanks to our pursuit of material stuff and instant gratification.I know Professor Dawkins is a scientist and therefore only examines evolution in the sense of what has happened and can be measured or appraised using the many means and instruments that science provides, but it would be fascinating to hear if any scientists as gifted - or even nearly as gifted - as he has speculated about and tried to extrapolate the course that evolution might take in the coming thousands and millions of years.
It is generally accepted by scientists that life began on our planet over three billion years ago (unless, as some who tend towards the theory of panspermia believe, it originated elsewhere much earlier and was brought here in comets). Experts also believe that the Earth is likely to remain capable of supporting biological life for at least another billion years.
Evolution was very slow at first, but it brought great changes with it, completely transforming the atmosphere by pumping vast quantities of free oxygen into it and making it uninhabitable in all but a few protected pockets for the anaerobic life forms that had once dominated.
Their day passed, and the era of new forms of life dawned.
Is it conceivable that evolution will continue, perhaps accelerate or be artificially accelerated in the future? Look at the development that we have seen in electronics and quantum mechanics in the past 50 years and imagine what the development could be in the next 50, 500, 5,000 or 5 million?
It may be that just as the function of anaerobic life was to create the conditions for the life forms that succeeded it, our function may just be a transient one as well: to begin a process of development of non-biological life, that will eventually become self-sustaining and self-developing in ways that we could not even begin to understand.
Perhaps one day in the far future there will be sentient beings whose scientists research the faint traces of biological life that still exist and try, perhaps with little success, to enlighten those members of its civilisation who deny that they evolved from anything and insist that they were created as the are by a great universal spirit.
Shaw's, Back to Methuselah, might fill in a few questions for you?
Science fiction is great "Fahrenheit 451" is almost upon us. The writer knew nothing of PCs at the time.
Entertainng stuff though, reknaw. ;-)
I'm usually optimistic but America, our future, is so depressing!
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For my interests and many hobbies.
I've been trying to think of a way to ease an admission that there is some room for alternative ("spiritual"??) reflection on the human condition beyond "Hard Science" out of you athiest with a capital A types.
I know some of you get a kick out of analytic stuff so I thought you might find this interesting...
PHILOSOPHY AND THE SCIENTIFIC IMAGE OF MAN
Sellars is the most underrated philosopher of the twentieth century as far as I'm concerned.
"Well, while I'm here, I'll do the work - and what's the work? To ease the pain of living. Everything else, drunken dumbshow." - Allen Ginsberg Memory Gardens
Why?
La ilaha illa Enda.
Maurice ,
This sound like e red herring .but years ago I was very ill and the doctors gave me every test possible.They stuck needles in me ,they gave me drugs ,they tested everything they could test ,for months.It was horrible because some of the tests were painful,
and all the while I was getting sicker and sicker ,and I had to give up teaching eventually. I felt that I was going to die ,and yet finally they said since their tests showed up nothing ,there was nothing wrong with me.
Well it took a while, but am now in good health,and have never been near one of them since, and will stay well clear .Why do you think that is ,any guesses ?
Maura Harrington??
"We are such stuff
As dreams are made on; and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep." - The Tempest, Act 4, Scene 1
Ease an admission? No easing required. There is certainly room for a reflection on the human condition beyond science. I don't think anyone said there isn't.
The problem arises when people start to make silly religious assertions. Was Jesus the Son of God? Clearly not, and it's an absurd notion, just as absurd as previously-held pagan notions that God or gods control the weather. It's hard to have a sensible discussion when this risible stuff keeps poking it's head in and demanding respect.
Science can tell us how some things happen. We could analyse why humans like the music they do, and what happens in the brain when someone listens to music etc. etc. but the discussion of how the music makes us feel is still worthwhile. What isn't helpful or worthwhile is when someone says "that music came from God".
For the sake of argument. Why are you on here?
"Well, while I'm here, I'll do the work - and what's the work? To ease the pain of living. Everything else, drunken dumbshow." - Allen Ginsberg Memory Gardens
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