<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss version="2.0"
	xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/"
	xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"
	xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"
	xmlns:sy="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/"
		>
<channel>
	<title>Comments on: What the planet needs?</title>
	<atom:link href="http://blog.lowlightimages.com/blog/2008/08/what-the-planet-needs/feed/" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
	<link>http://blog.lowlightimages.com/blog/2008/08/what-the-planet-needs/</link>
	<description></description>
	<lastBuildDate>Mon, 08 Mar 2010 19:20:14 +0000</lastBuildDate>
	<generator>http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2</generator>
	<sy:updatePeriod>hourly</sy:updatePeriod>
	<sy:updateFrequency>1</sy:updateFrequency>
		<item>
		<title>By: Dave</title>
		<link>http://blog.lowlightimages.com/blog/2008/08/what-the-planet-needs/comment-page-1/#comment-4</link>
		<dc:creator>Dave</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Fri, 29 Aug 2008 08:20:01 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blog.lowlightimages.com/blog/?p=164#comment-4</guid>
		<description>Thanks for the comment Nicholas.

I have to disagree with you though - there is nothing missing from the equation. Where all the building blocks came from is well known. Evolution has not been proven to have a &quot;flawed precept&quot; - the argument that because we do not yet have the knowledge or technology to reproduce what happened that it did not happen is obviously nonsensical. Also, do not confuse &quot;evolution&quot; with &quot;the origin of life&quot;. They are quite separate subjects. Evolution is a proven theory - it is still happening all around us if you care to look. The origin of life is certainly not yet an open book and yet there is no concrete evidence that it was created by a Designer, intelligent or not. In fact, there is a good argument against the idea which goes something like this:
&lt;blockquote&gt;So the universe and its contents are so complex and wondrous that they couldn&#039;t possibly have arisen without some Intelligent Designer being involved. So this Intelligent Designer is all encompassing, capable of designing a universe and yet we can&#039;t actually find any trace of it. Wow! What a complex and wondrous creature! Who designed it?
&lt;/blockquote&gt;

And so ad infinitum (or ad nauseam, if you prefer :) ) Although some may dismiss this as sophistry there is a large helping of Reason in that argument.

If you understand fibre optics then you presumably understand quantum physics and therefore the rest of the physics that leads inexorably back to the big bang. If you don&#039;t then I suggest you read Steven Hawkings &quot;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/search?ie=UTF8&amp;keywords=brief%20history%20of%20time&amp;tag=ablogation-21&amp;index=books&amp;linkCode=ur2&amp;camp=1634&amp;creative=6738&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;A Brief History of Time&lt;/a&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://www.assoc-amazon.co.uk/e/ir?t=ablogation-21&amp;l=ur2&amp;o=2&quot; width=&quot;1&quot; height=&quot;1&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; style=&quot;border:none !important; margin:0px !important;&quot; /&gt;&quot;.

So I say that there is no underlying design of life - it really did just &lt;em&gt;happen&lt;/em&gt;.

Please don&#039;t confuse our little  human projects (which last maybe 10 or 20 years) with the evolution of the universe (13 billion years) or even of the Earth (6.5 billion years). Although it may be difficult to get one&#039;s head around, on such timescales the unlikely does happen because of the sheer number of opportunities. I have also worked on large projects - the International Space Station and the replacement for the UK&#039;s military paper tape communication system with computers for example - but these are tiny and insignificant on the cosmic scale. It is also true that they (and your aeroplane :) would spring into existence unbidden, given sufficient time: that&#039;s quantum physics for you! A lot of it is really counter-intuitive but the cellphone in your pocket is the proof that it works. By the way, did you know that amino acids have been found in interstellar clouds? See 
  http://www.space.com/searchforlife/seti_shostak_020404.html
and
  http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/18059
for starters.

And for the record, no I don&#039;t necessarily agree with &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/search?ie=UTF8&amp;keywords=dawkins&amp;tag=ablogation-21&amp;index=books&amp;linkCode=ur2&amp;camp=1634&amp;creative=6738&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Dawkin&#039;s&lt;/a&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://www.assoc-amazon.co.uk/e/ir?t=ablogation-21&amp;l=ur2&amp;o=2&quot; width=&quot;1&quot; height=&quot;1&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; style=&quot;border:none !important; margin:0px !important;&quot; /&gt;: absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. Just because I can&#039;t see any evidence of an &quot;intelligent designer&quot; doesn&#039;t mean to say there isn&#039;t one. But let&#039;s not confuse faith with evidence.</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Thanks for the comment Nicholas.</p>
<p>I have to disagree with you though &#8211; there is nothing missing from the equation. Where all the building blocks came from is well known. Evolution has not been proven to have a &#8220;flawed precept&#8221; &#8211; the argument that because we do not yet have the knowledge or technology to reproduce what happened that it did not happen is obviously nonsensical. Also, do not confuse &#8220;evolution&#8221; with &#8220;the origin of life&#8221;. They are quite separate subjects. Evolution is a proven theory &#8211; it is still happening all around us if you care to look. The origin of life is certainly not yet an open book and yet there is no concrete evidence that it was created by a Designer, intelligent or not. In fact, there is a good argument against the idea which goes something like this:</p>
<blockquote><p>So the universe and its contents are so complex and wondrous that they couldn&#8217;t possibly have arisen without some Intelligent Designer being involved. So this Intelligent Designer is all encompassing, capable of designing a universe and yet we can&#8217;t actually find any trace of it. Wow! What a complex and wondrous creature! Who designed it?
</p></blockquote>
<p>And so ad infinitum (or ad nauseam, if you prefer <img src='http://blog.lowlightimages.com/blog/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' />  ) Although some may dismiss this as sophistry there is a large helping of Reason in that argument.</p>
<p>If you understand fibre optics then you presumably understand quantum physics and therefore the rest of the physics that leads inexorably back to the big bang. If you don&#8217;t then I suggest you read Steven Hawkings &#8220;<a target="_blank" href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/search?ie=UTF8&#038;keywords=brief%20history%20of%20time&#038;tag=ablogation-21&#038;index=books&#038;linkCode=ur2&#038;camp=1634&#038;creative=6738"  rel="nofollow">A Brief History of Time</a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.co.uk/e/ir?t=ablogation-21&amp;l=ur2&amp;o=2" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" />&#8220;.</p>
<p>So I say that there is no underlying design of life &#8211; it really did just <em>happen</em>.</p>
<p>Please don&#8217;t confuse our little  human projects (which last maybe 10 or 20 years) with the evolution of the universe (13 billion years) or even of the Earth (6.5 billion years). Although it may be difficult to get one&#8217;s head around, on such timescales the unlikely does happen because of the sheer number of opportunities. I have also worked on large projects &#8211; the International Space Station and the replacement for the UK&#8217;s military paper tape communication system with computers for example &#8211; but these are tiny and insignificant on the cosmic scale. It is also true that they (and your aeroplane <img src='http://blog.lowlightimages.com/blog/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' />  would spring into existence unbidden, given sufficient time: that&#8217;s quantum physics for you! A lot of it is really counter-intuitive but the cellphone in your pocket is the proof that it works. By the way, did you know that amino acids have been found in interstellar clouds? See<br />
  <a target="_blank" href="http://www.space.com/searchforlife/seti_shostak_020404.html"  rel="nofollow">http://www.space.com/searchforlife/seti_shostak_020404.html</a><br />
and<br />
  <a target="_blank" href="http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/18059"  rel="nofollow">http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/18059</a><br />
for starters.</p>
<p>And for the record, no I don&#8217;t necessarily agree with <a target="_blank" href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/search?ie=UTF8&#038;keywords=dawkins&#038;tag=ablogation-21&#038;index=books&#038;linkCode=ur2&#038;camp=1634&#038;creative=6738"  rel="nofollow">Dawkin&#8217;s</a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.co.uk/e/ir?t=ablogation-21&amp;l=ur2&amp;o=2" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" />: absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. Just because I can&#8217;t see any evidence of an &#8220;intelligent designer&#8221; doesn&#8217;t mean to say there isn&#8217;t one. But let&#8217;s not confuse faith with evidence.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
	</item>
	<item>
		<title>By: Nicholas</title>
		<link>http://blog.lowlightimages.com/blog/2008/08/what-the-planet-needs/comment-page-1/#comment-3</link>
		<dc:creator>Nicholas</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Thu, 28 Aug 2008 21:36:57 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blog.lowlightimages.com/blog/?p=164#comment-3</guid>
		<description>I finally found a spare moment to read your excellent article above. One thing missing from the equation. Where did all of the building blocks of the earth come from? Evolution has been proven to have a flawed precept, that given a pot of mush, the pot of mush will evolve. Without the underlying design, there will be no life. If the complexity in the design of an an airplane can just &#039;happen&#039; out of raw materials, then how does it manage to build-itself and then learn how to fly. There first had to be a designer, and then with knowledge of the specific requirements of the task, a design. I have been a Senior Systems Design Engineer for Sony and Verizon, and believe me. The seven-hundred channel fiber-to-the-premises project nationwide was just about the most challenging thing you could take on, short of a NASA project to the moon..

In the final analysis, no matter what man does, the powerful and mysterious engines that run our planet will most certainly continue to operate without our &#039;input&#039;. Respectfully nachase - HubPages.com</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I finally found a spare moment to read your excellent article above. One thing missing from the equation. Where did all of the building blocks of the earth come from? Evolution has been proven to have a flawed precept, that given a pot of mush, the pot of mush will evolve. Without the underlying design, there will be no life. If the complexity in the design of an an airplane can just &#8216;happen&#8217; out of raw materials, then how does it manage to build-itself and then learn how to fly. There first had to be a designer, and then with knowledge of the specific requirements of the task, a design. I have been a Senior Systems Design Engineer for Sony and Verizon, and believe me. The seven-hundred channel fiber-to-the-premises project nationwide was just about the most challenging thing you could take on, short of a NASA project to the moon..</p>
<p>In the final analysis, no matter what man does, the powerful and mysterious engines that run our planet will most certainly continue to operate without our &#8216;input&#8217;. Respectfully nachase &#8211; HubPages.com</p>
]]></content:encoded>
	</item>
</channel>
</rss>
