Does God exist ?

[Tosh]

Can We Create Life?We still don't know how exactly life got its spark on our planet, or even if it sprung up elsewhere and was subsequently delivered here by comets. But at this point, it's fair to say we have a good handle on the recipe for life as we know it—the necessary components, the biomolecular structures they form and how the parts make up the whole. It's in the cooking instructions, if you will, that we remain a bit fuzzy.

As for creating life from scratch, a big step was taken last May when famed geneticist J. Craig Venter and his team unveiled the first synthetic organism. The scientists crafted an entire genome from chemicals in the lab. They then implanted this synthetic genome in an empty cell, after which the cell booted up and began cranking out copies of its modified self per the implanted genetic instructions.

This artificial life form, dubbed Synthia, required the leftover cellular machinery made by a natural, preexisting organism, so science hasn't reached back to square one yet. "Venter did not create life," says Arthur Caplan, a bioethicist at the University of Pennsylvania, who was involved in the research. "But he showed that an artificial genome can power a bacterium, thereby taking a crucial step toward the demonstration that synthesizing life is possible."

Venter and other geneticists are persevering in their efforts to boil life down to its very molecular essence—the minimal blueprint needed for an independent cell to persist and replicate. By studying the simple fatty and nucleic acids that make up the most basic forms of life, scientists hope to discover the boundary between mere chemical reactions and self-sustaining, evolving beings.

Along with these efforts to construct "wet," biochemical artificial life, computer scientists have already largely succeeded in creating life in digital form. The difference between the two is not as stark as you might think; after all, biological life's basic purpose is to make more copies of itself via instructions in DNA, and a computer program can be made to replicate itself in much the same way.

The digital organisms in the Avida project, based at the Digital Evolution Laboratory at Michigan State University, do just that—and like real critters, they compete, die and evolve. "The digital organisms in Avida are arguably as alive as natural viruses that trick a cell into doing most of the work for them," says Charles Ofria, the Digital Evolution lab's director. The first results from the Avida software program were published in 2003, three years after PM last checked in. The project has continued to produce ever-richer, lifelike entities that are helping tease apart the complexities of biological evolution. "The world of Avida may be a simulation," Ofria says, "but the evolution that occurs in that world is real."

We are slowly but surely getting there.

[Tosh]

I believe genetics will transform our lives and the planet this century, the implications of altering DNA sequences is mind blowing.

We will be able to identify the genetic causes of disease and modify them and we can engineer new life forms, to design, synthesize and assemble synthetic microorganisms that will produce alternative fuels, such as ethanol or hydrogen.

[Deleted]

Nov 3, 2011 23:31:00 GMT -5 krzydaze said:

ok,,I get ya,,again,,I could tell ya some of my experiences,,all I can say is yes some spirits do travel with other spirits,,but there are some loners out there

are you going to call the big men with the white jacket after me now? ;D

You know there is an irony here that makes me laugh.
People are afraid of being called crazy and afraid of the men with the white jackets for talking about experiences of the somewhat paranormal sort yet it is somehow considered okay to worship and dedicate your life to a magical man that walks on water and has numerous magical tricks up his holy sleeve.

Anybody else see that as ironic?

[Deleted]

Bingo?, cool what do I win?

Good morning lonewolf.

[Deleted]

You get your choice of one of the fabulous prizes off bottom two shelves!

[Deleted]

Nov 4, 2011 9:31:21 GMT -5 @beerwench said:

You get your choice of one of the fabulous prizes off bottom two shelves!

YAY!
I'll take the super duper almost computer talking sponge bob plush toy with the exploding head please!! woo hoo

[Tosh]

You keep coming back to wanting documented proof. Yet, I could bring to you medical staff who have witnessed events of these energies leaving a body, or a child who has spoken in a language she has never heard, or tell you of experiences, I, a once pledged atheist, have had and you still wouldn't believe.

I have explained to you how unreliable our subjective experiences are, does everybody witness the spirits of every dead person leaving the body, the answer is no, what does this suggest ?

As for children speaking in foreign languages, how do we know they had not learned the language ? Give me a case and I will investigate it.

Do you require documented proof when someone professes to love you? You know the love exists but you have no documented proof.

Why do we feel that without documented proof something can not exist?

We can measure love, it physically exists just like our consciousness physically exists, our emotions are electrochemical signals involving billions of neurons and synapses. We also have physical reasons to believe some one loves you, if they are sawing off your head or have run away with the neighbor then the evidence suggests they do not love you.

You have only read my words, so how, without documented proof, do you know I even exist?

The words I am reading are evidence of a human typing the words, therefore a human exists, this is all it proves, it does not prove you are a female called lone wolf.

Tosh, I say this with love, if you don't open your mind and start thinking outside the box, you will be forever in the dark, and you will miss out on a greatness that many here know exists.

Lonewolf, there is no evidence you love me, I could be a child killer, as for thinking out of the box, this is called having a vivid imagination, I have a vivid imagination I just do not consider it reflects reality.

Peace...and thanks for the love.

[gavinsnana]

[femmefatale]

Hi Nanna and Lone!

[Deleted]

[weltschmerz]

or a child who has spoken in a language she has never heard
-------------------
How about a person waking up after a traumatic brain injury, without the capacity to speak at all? It's not magic or evidence of the paranormal.

But there's something uniquely and irresistibly fanciful about the story of CindyLou Romberg. It has almost a fairly tale quality to it. Go to sleep as a normal American, wake up as an exotic European.

What really happened to her? According to a recent article in the Journal of Neurolinguistics, "foreign accent syndrome" is something of a misnomer. Following a stroke or severe brain injury, these patients don't actually manifest a speech pattern that corresponds to any particular language. What's going on is that they are displaying changes in the rhythms, stresses and intonations of their speech that listeners mistakenly ascribe to a new and different accent. Most cases of "foreign accent syndrome" are associated with injuries to the left hemisphere of the brain, which is associated with language.
bodyodd.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2008/11/05/4380046-brain-injury-gives-woman-a-foreign-accent

[Deleted]

Nov 4, 2011 11:18:03 GMT -5 weltschmerz said:

or a child who has spoken in a language she has never heard
-------------------
How about a person waking up after a traumatic brain injury, without the capacity to speak at all? It's not magic or evidence of the paranormal.

But there's something uniquely and irresistibly fanciful about the story of CindyLou Romberg. It has almost a fairly tale quality to it. Go to sleep as a normal American, wake up as an exotic European.

What really happened to her? According to a recent article in the Journal of Neurolinguistics, "foreign accent syndrome" is something of a misnomer. Following a stroke or severe brain injury, these patients don't actually manifest a speech pattern that corresponds to any particular language. What's going on is that they are displaying changes in the rhythms, stresses and intonations of their speech that listeners mistakenly ascribe to a new and different accent. Most cases of "foreign accent syndrome" are associated with injuries to the left hemisphere of the brain, which is associated with language.
bodyodd.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2008/11/05/4380046-brain-injury-gives-woman-a-foreign-accent

It could just be a "walk-in".

[Tosh]

Tosh, I don't know what to tell you. We could debate this until the cows come home and until something happens in your life to cause you to believe, you won't.

I would not accept subjective experiences as evidence of existence, people see Jesus all the time.

BTW...even though there is no documented proof that I love you, you know it because you felt it when you read my words.

I know, everybody loves Toshy baby.

[Deleted]

Nov 4, 2011 11:26:08 GMT -5 Tosh said:

Tosh, I don't know what to tell you. We could debate this until the cows come home and until something happens in your life to cause you to believe, you won't.

I would not accept subjective experiences as evidence of existence, people see Jesus all the time.

BTW...even though there is no documented proof that I love you, you know it because you felt it when you read my words.

I know, everybody loves Toshy baby.

awww, an internet love story. I feel like writing a love song now.

[femmefatale]

Nov 4, 2011 11:35:01 GMT -5 @lonewolf said:

Nov 4, 2011 10:42:33 GMT -5 @femmefatale said:

Hi Nanna and Lone!

Hi Femm!!

Long time, no see.

[weltschmerz]

people see Jesus all the time.
---------------------------
I saw Jesus in my grilled cheese sandwich this morning.

[Tosh]

Evening FF,

You are always welcome on this thread despite your irrational beliefs.

Only kidding.

[femmefatale]

Nov 4, 2011 11:44:09 GMT -5 Tosh said:

Evening FF,

You are always welcome on this thread despite your irrational beliefs.

Only kidding.

Thanks Tosh.

[femmefatale]

I got a little carried away yesterday, no hurt intended. Sorry if I stepped on any toes.

[Deleted]

Nov 4, 2011 11:42:59 GMT -5 weltschmerz said:

people see Jesus all the time.
---------------------------
I saw Jesus in my grilled cheese sandwich this morning.

Grilled Jesus....lol

[femmefatale]

Nov 4, 2011 11:47:52 GMT -5 @joey said:

Nov 4, 2011 11:42:59 GMT -5 weltschmerz said:

people see Jesus all the time.
---------------------------
I saw Jesus in my grilled cheese sandwich this morning.

Grilled Jesus....lol

Wow...Now that's kewl

[Deleted]

I don't usually eat breakfast but that grilled Jesus has me craving it just a bit, thats odd.

[weltschmerz]

It was clearly a message from the Great Beyond, but oddly enough, it failed to convince me.

[Deleted]

But breakfast is the most important meal of the day, welts!

[Forever Sunshine]

I don't usually eat breakfast but that grilled Jesus has me craving it just a bit, thats odd.

The Lord works in mysterious ways!

[femmefatale]

Nov 4, 2011 12:00:00 GMT -5 Forever Sunshine said:

I don't usually eat breakfast but that grilled Jesus has me craving it just a bit, thats odd.

The Lord works in mysterious ways!

He sure does, FS!

[diamonds]

Nov 4, 2011 11:42:59 GMT -5 weltschmerz said:

people see Jesus all the time.
---------------------------
I saw Jesus in my grilled cheese sandwich this morning.

Naw, it's just the weed you've been on for 32 years.

[weltschmerz]

32? Where did you get 32?

[weltschmerz]

Naw, it's just the weed you've been on for 32 years.
-----------------
.......and I'm the rude one. Uh huh.

[gavinsnana]

Nov 4, 2011 12:31:32 GMT -5 @femmefatale said:

Nov 4, 2011 12:00:00 GMT -5 Forever Sunshine said:

The Lord works in mysterious ways!

He sure does, FS!

LOL.. Now that is funny. I don't chase after "images" in sandwiches, on walls, in the sky (clouds) on tree trunks, mirrors..

The Bible does speak about it in Revelation. Its a distraction, IMO..

I had my living room re-modeled and the wood around the window looks like a person.. its not, of course.. just a coincidence.. but its fun to look at!