Bible ≠ Science

I does seem so blindingly obvious when you look at it that way.

Life

One of the major lines of demarcation and a constant source of disagreement between theists and atheists is that of Life. Primarily human life, but in general, all life. How did living things get their beginnings, how did we come about as a result of creation? It’s one of the great mysteries of…ummm…life. How life began.

And of course, most theists believe that life began when their particular god created them. Christians believe the story in the Bible about Adam and Eve, either literally or figuratively. In either case, it’s a supernatural being that consciously and affirmatively decided to create that which we call life. Other religions have their own creation myths, but they all share a beginning story that attempts to explain how we got here.

Happy New Year!

Welcome back, it’s a brand new year, but as usual when it comes to religion, everything old becomes new again. Religion is a meme, and as such without any conscious thought or intention, it continues to work feverishly to maintain its existence.

Science Is Better Than Your God

Nyah, nyah. Do I sound like a petulant school boy? The reason I might is because the sentiment is so painfully obvious, even a child could figure it out and agree. It takes little in the way of critical thinking to do so.

In the Can-Your-God-Do-This? Department, science has done what, as usual, god cannot do. Or, to believe most believers, he could do it, so he apparently doesn’t want to.

In 1974, 13 year old Ima Jean Sanders disappeared. She was never heard from again, and for 37 years her mother has never had a day go by where she didn’t think about her, or wonder whatever happened to her. The remains of a young female were discovered in 1976, but never linked to Ima.

More Science News

Men, remember this name. Boule. That is the name of the single gene that is responsible for sperm production. Apparently, it is the same gene that all animals carry, all the way back to the most simple of organisms such as sea anemones, snails, flies and fish. This means that going back about 600 million years, sperm production has been the necessary means of species continuation for all life, and remember, life only originated on this planet about 1 billion years ago. So the process of gamete-seeks-immobile-egg had stabilized as the primary means of sexual reproduction after about 400 million years of life.

5 Questions? How About 10? Or 100?

A recent commenter here, Justin, got me to finally register with YouTube, though he won’t know it until he reads this. I clicked back on his name in my comments last week, and found he was in the process of an anticipated series of posts at his blog 100 Treatises,  responding to a Christian YouTube video entitled, 5 Questions every intelligent atheist MUST answer. He’s completed them, addressing each question seriatum in five posts, in the process smashing the premise of the video to little tiny bits. Take a look at them here, here, here, here and here. As a read these, I thought “It would be so simple to create a video in response that asked 5 questions Christians MUST answer.” If only I had the technical capability. Then I looked in the list of suggested similar videos in the right column on YouTube, and saw that someone beat me to it. Not only that, but the response was 10 questions every intelligent Christian MUST answer.

God’s Been Replaced!

With this news, it appears that now we can do all the creating we want – no god needed.

After almost 15 years of work and $40 million, a team of scientists at the J. Craig Venter Institute says they have succeeded in creating the first living organism with a completely synthetic genome. This advance could be proof that genomes designed in a computer and assembled in a lab can function in a donor cell, eventually reproducing fully functional living creatures, that is, artificial life.

Well, That Explains Rush

We all have Neanderthal genes in us, apparently some more than others.

The Decline Of Religion

I’m not sure what this poll really amounts to, but I sense that it’s another indication that religion is on the way out. When I say “on the way out” I don’t predict a total rejection of religion in America in my lifetime (which I figure to be roughly another 30 years if I make it as far as my father). No. Religion, like race, is something that’s with us for the long haul. But like race, it’s almost inevitable that it will disappear.

Still The Same Score

Science is still winning. God is losing. The score differential just keeps getting bigger.