Comments on: The Origin of Life and Life on Other Planets https://gregladen.com/blog/2018/07/23/the-origin-of-life-and-life-on-other-planets/ Sat, 06 Oct 2018 04:33:27 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.6 By: Anonymous https://gregladen.com/blog/2018/07/23/the-origin-of-life-and-life-on-other-planets/#comment-644915 Sat, 06 Oct 2018 04:33:27 +0000 https://gregladen.com/blog/?p=29928#comment-644915 all there?

]]> By: Daddy https://gregladen.com/blog/2018/07/23/the-origin-of-life-and-life-on-other-planets/#comment-644898 Sat, 06 Oct 2018 04:18:46 +0000 https://gregladen.com/blog/?p=29928#comment-644898 ..

]]> By: Jim Sweeney https://gregladen.com/blog/2018/07/23/the-origin-of-life-and-life-on-other-planets/#comment-600908 Sun, 29 Jul 2018 06:01:39 +0000 https://gregladen.com/blog/?p=29928#comment-600908 Ah, of course – I forgot to check with Ethan! Mea maxima culpa 🙂

]]> By: dean https://gregladen.com/blog/2018/07/23/the-origin-of-life-and-life-on-other-planets/#comment-600892 Sun, 29 Jul 2018 02:15:48 +0000 https://gregladen.com/blog/?p=29928#comment-600892 In reply to Jim Sweeney.

“Not as far as I can see.”

You haven’t been looking. For a general reference.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/startswithabang/2018/07/27/there-was-no-big-bang-singularity/#40a0f7677d81

]]> By: Jim Sweeney https://gregladen.com/blog/2018/07/23/the-origin-of-life-and-life-on-other-planets/#comment-600838 Sat, 28 Jul 2018 13:15:07 +0000 https://gregladen.com/blog/?p=29928#comment-600838 Ah, you misunderstand. I don’t have to have a particular reason to dismiss theories I don’t like. But I do know that if I dismiss a theory I may easily be wrong, and when it comes to the origin of the Universe my opinion is worth diddley-squat anyway.
And just because I believe something to be absurd, that doesn’t mean it isn’t real / didn’t happen. Absurd things happen all the time, and if enough evidence is gathered that some idea can be accepted as factual, that doesn’t mean it’s not absurd – in the sense of being “inconsistent with reason or common sense”…
Also, has the idea of a singularity been dropped? Not as far as I can see.

]]> By: dean https://gregladen.com/blog/2018/07/23/the-origin-of-life-and-life-on-other-planets/#comment-600831 Sat, 28 Jul 2018 11:16:39 +0000 https://gregladen.com/blog/?p=29928#comment-600831 In reply to Jim Sweeney.

The idea of a singularity involved in the big bang was dropped long ago. You’re going to have to develop a new reason to dismiss theories you don’t like.

]]> By: Jim Sweeney https://gregladen.com/blog/2018/07/23/the-origin-of-life-and-life-on-other-planets/#comment-600759 Fri, 27 Jul 2018 14:30:28 +0000 https://gregladen.com/blog/?p=29928#comment-600759 As I understand it, the Singularity implies that everything was once in a tiny area of “infinite density and temperature”.
This primordial lump didn’t exist anywhere, because there was no “anywhere” for it to exist, and it had no past existence because time didn’t exist. At some point in this spaceless space and timeless time it went kablooie, and the next thing you know it’s mobile phones and pizzas.
When you think about it, the whole idea is so absurd that the possibility of a deity inventing the whole shebang just for the hell of it sounds relatively sane by comparison.
But that’s pushing things way back before the origins of life and our search to find them.

]]> By: RickA https://gregladen.com/blog/2018/07/23/the-origin-of-life-and-life-on-other-planets/#comment-600752 Fri, 27 Jul 2018 12:58:43 +0000 https://gregladen.com/blog/?p=29928#comment-600752 Scientifically, if a deity set initial conditions and the physical laws, and then initiated the big bang, would we ever be able to determine this?

If everything from the big bang on was purely natural (versus supernatural), how would we be able to tell what caused the big bang?

So we could postulate that a deity didn’t exist or postulate that a deity did exist, and it doesn’t really matter, because there may not ever be a way to look at the physical universe and determine what caused the big bang, or the physical constants to be the way they are or why the laws of the universe are what they are.

Fun to think about – but impossible to answer.

]]> By: Jim Sweeney https://gregladen.com/blog/2018/07/23/the-origin-of-life-and-life-on-other-planets/#comment-600750 Fri, 27 Jul 2018 12:48:03 +0000 https://gregladen.com/blog/?p=29928#comment-600750 The question of the existence (or not) of a deity should not influence a search for the truth. If we postulate the existence of some entity which is omniscient, omnipotent and immortal, but whose existence cannot yet be proven, there are only a couple of ways the discussion can go.
One – the deity created us, the world, the universe – whatever – and left no trace (possibly out of embarrassment); or
Two – the deity did all or some of the above and left a trace.
In either case the search for the truth, of origins and everything else, should obviously continue until we understand how things came to be. Even if that leads to the proverbial thumbprint in the clay that says “someone made this”.
As far as I know, all the testable evidence so far says “nobody made this”, and that’s ok by me.

]]> By: Gregory Laden https://gregladen.com/blog/2018/07/23/the-origin-of-life-and-life-on-other-planets/#comment-600745 Fri, 27 Jul 2018 11:21:00 +0000 https://gregladen.com/blog/?p=29928#comment-600745 Reminder: That which is asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence. When an extraordinary and unique event is claimed without evidence, it must be dismissed vigorously.

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