StoveBolts said:
Hello InquisitiveSkeptic,
My oh my do you know how to pile on the questions on pile them on you do! If I were to have the time, I would certainly answer most of them to the best of my ability, but alas I simply don't have that much time currently at my disposal to take on such a task as you've presented.
But if I could, I would certainly like to ask you a few questions and if you have the time, I would probably enjoy reading your thoughts.
Do you think that there is an rythmic order to the things around you, or is it all simply chaos? Is it likely, as in planet of the apes where dogs will outsmart humans, as attested by my dog who's figured out how to grab the door handle and turn it with his teeth?
But more importantly, do you believe in a soul, and if so, how would you define it?
I would be very interested in your reply, and thank you for considering to answer these most elementary of questions.
Thanks!
I hope your planning on a long read my friend,
Do i believe in chaos? I assume chaos to be chaos. wich is govorned entirely by chance as no order can become of it. A chaotic universe is where the laws of physics are nill. where energy runs rampant and because of this matter cannot be stable. however, we have stable matter. the matter doesnt behave as according to chance. We dont see water as H20 and H7O50 or something random, rather we see water as uniform molecules.
Now i should dive into statistical thermodynamics very loosely. A DNA strand is calculated to have an exceptionally low probability of occuring by chance. A gene is typically 1000 or more base pairs long, and there is some space in between, so 256 genes would amount to about 300,000 bases of DNA. The deoxyribose in the DNA' determines the direction in which it will spiral. Since organic molecules can be generated in both forms, the chance of obtaining all one form or another in 300,000 bases is one in two to the 300,000 power. This is about one in 10 to the 90,000 power. 1/1*10^90,000
that makes life very much impossible, doesnt it?... or does it.
well, this is a basic introduction to statistical thermodynamics.
lets look at probability for a second.
If i have a 10*10 grid, what is the probability that I take a symbol and place it in a correct square at random?
the probability is 1/100
if i leave it there and place a second object at random, the probability of putting it in the right place would be 1/99
if i take both of the symbols and place them at random, the probability becomes 1/100 * 1/99 wich is 1/9900. similarly if i take 3 symbols and do the same the probability of placing them all correctly is 1/1.03*10^6. or 1 in a million.
100 symbols?
to place them all correctly at random would be a probability of 1/1*10^157. thats like me giving you one attempt a day. It would take you nierly 150 years to do, placing it at random.
why am i mentioning this?
well.. if i took a rock as an example that rock is made of trillions of atoms. what are the chances that that atom got there? then what are the chances that all the atoms in that rock ended up in that specific configuration?
well, we ssume the rock is made of 4 trillion atoms. merely placing 1 atom would land you with such a low probability that it would take you longer than the age of the universe to get it right by random attempts.
so does this prove that rocks are so improbable god must have done it?
well, no.
Almost all mollecules are nierly impossible. but the system must exist in a state somewhere. Now, in a universe govorned by chance, not only would there not really be life... even water would be a rare occurence. and the molecules not uniform. as it is, chemicals are govorned by chemistry. more specifically the electromagnetic force in electrons between atoms.
what has all this got to do with anything?
well, chaos is chance gone rampant to my belief, because chaos doesnt do what you expect it to do. same as chance. chaos would dictate that if i drop a ball it could go flying off anywhere, in any direction at any speed. in order, it falls to the ground due to gravity.
instead of molecules being rare occurences and near impossible, in order molecules are all over the place
instead of rampant energy, in order we have matter. because arent atoms improbable? of course. quantum physics studys the very small and therefore it doesnt calculate with certian values. quantum physics is an area of science that dabbles in improbability. look up quantum tunneling and probability clouds.
does it mean there are laws? no. there are only laws we impose. in an ordered universe there is only consiquence to an action. like infa red hitting a surface.. its not a law the surface gets heated up, but its a consiquence of the infa red giving the surface energy. and the loss of energy for the infa red beam is a consiquence of giving that energy away.
can dogs outsmart humans?
no. dogs brains distinguish sense. im not saying they dont learn to use a door handle. We plan and probolem solve as humans and dont need much brainpower to figure out a door. but how much brainpower did the dog use in relitive comparison? alot more because that dog did something its brain hasnt evolved to do. now, the only way we can reach the situation similar to planet of the apes is to give the dogs a sense of intellect equivelent to ours. Wether we exploit evolution to accomplish it or do a wierd surgery i dont know. but that would make a kind of super dog.
can dogs outsmart humans, no
can super dogs outsmart humans? If the are smart enough then yes.
do i believe in souls?
nope. because as i have found them inconsistent with the bible and themselves i am forced to not believe in them. I have therefore decided to humble myself before nature. I do not believe I am a superior being to any other. I have intelligence, the cheetah has speed and the elephant has strength. We are not superior. just different and suited to an alltogether different task to another animal. i define a soul as what? as my previous statement said,
they are either completely inexplicable, completely cruel or completely arbitrary. You have never seen it, you dont know where you got it. dont know what it does or what its for. its entire existance and eternal fate rests on your descisions. but all modern neuro science shows that descisions emminate from your brain, your neuro network. not from a mysterious force that resides nebulessly within our bodies.
the question what do i define a soul as? I define it as a conceptual entity. a metaphar. I have begun to regard all religeous entities as metaphars.
Do i define a soul? and my answer is simply.
no.