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Artificial Life Experiments Show How Complex Functions Can Evolve
NSF ^ | May 8, 2003 | Staff

Posted on 05/08/2003 10:11:06 AM PDT by Nebullis

Artificial Life Experiments Show How Complex Functions Can Evolve

Arlington, Va.—If the evolution of complex organisms were a road trip, then the simple country drives are what get you there. And sometimes even potholes along the way are important.

An interdisciplinary team of scientists at Michigan State University and the California Institute of Technology, with the help of powerful computers, has used a kind of artificial life, or ALife, to create a road map detailing the evolution of complex organisms, an old problem in biology.

In an article in the May 8 issue of the international journal Nature, Richard Lenski, Charles Ofria, Robert Pennock, and Christoph Adami report that the path to complex organisms is paved with a long series of simple functions, each unremarkable if viewed in isolation. "This project addresses a fundamental criticism of the theory of evolution, how complex functions arise from mutation and natural selection," said Sam Scheiner, program director in the division of environmental biology at the National Science Foundation (NSF), which funded the research through its Biocomplexity in the Environment initiative. "These simulations will help direct research on living systems and will provide understanding of the origins of biocomplexity."

Some mutations that cause damage in the short term ultimately become a positive force in the genetic pedigree of a complex organism. "The little things, they definitely count," said Lenski of Michigan State, the paper's lead author. "Our work allowed us to see how the most complex functions are built up from simpler and simpler functions. We also saw that some mutations looked like bad events when they happened, but turned out to be really important for the evolution of the population over a long period of time."

In the key phrase, "a long period of time," lies the magic of ALife. Lenski teamed up with Adami, a scientist at Caltech's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Ofria, a Michigan State computer scientist, to further explore ALife.

Pennock, a Michigan State philosopher, joined the team to study an artificial world inside a computer, a world in which computer programs take the place of living organisms. These computer programs go forth and multiply, they mutate and they adapt by natural selection.

The program, called Avida, is an artificial petri dish in which organisms not only reproduce, but also perform mathematical calculations to obtain rewards. Their reward is more computer time that they can use for making copies of themselves. Avida randomly adds mutations to the copies, thus spurring natural selection and evolution. The research team watched how these "bugs" adapted and evolved in different environments inside their artificial world.

Avida is the biologist's race car - a really souped up one. To watch the evolution of most living organisms would require thousands of years – without blinking. The digital bugs evolve at lightening speed, and they leave tracks for scientists to study.

"The cool thing is that we can trace the line of descent," Lenski said. "Out of a big population of organisms you can work back to see the pivotal mutations that really mattered during the evolutionary history of the population. The human mind can't sort through so much data, but we developed a tool to find these pivotal events."

There are no missing links with this technology.

Evolutionary theory sometimes struggles to explain the most complex features of organisms. Lenski uses the human eye as an example. It's obviously used for seeing, and it has all sorts of parts - like a lens that can be focused at different distances - that make it well suited for that use. But how did something so complicated as the eye come to be?

Since Charles Darwin, biologists have concluded that such features must have arisen through lots of intermediates and, moreover, that these intermediate structures may once have served different functions from what we see today. The crystalline proteins that make up the lens of the eye, for example, are related to those that serve enzymatic functions unrelated to vision. So, the theory goes, evolution borrowed an existing protein and used it for a new function.

"Over time," Lenski said, "an old structure could be tweaked here and there to improve it for its new function, and that's a lot easier than inventing something entirely new."

That's where ALife sheds light.

"Darwinian evolution is a process that doesn't specify exactly how the evolving information is coded," says Adami, who leads the Digital Life Laboratory at Caltech. "It affects DNA and computer code in much the same way, which allows us to study evolution in this electronic medium."

Many computer scientists and engineers are now using processes based on principles of genetics and evolution to solve complex problems, design working robots, and more. Ofria says that "we can then apply these concepts when trying to decide how best to solve computational problems."

"Evolutionary design," says Pennock, "can often solve problems better than we can using our own intelligence."


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: AI; CREVOLIST
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To: gore3000
Yup. Essentially, atheists know that God exists but hate to admit it.

prove it.

1,301 posted on 05/13/2003 10:16:10 AM PDT by donh
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To: gore3000
Each time I say abiogenesis is impossible you argue with me.

For me to argue with you, you'd have to actually pay attention. I have yet to see your proof, or even your hint, as to why I should suppose prokariotes, which is what you are describing, could only have sprung up out of organic junk instantaneously.

1,302 posted on 05/13/2003 10:18:59 AM PDT by donh
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To: gore3000
Well, since you claim to have read the book, kindly tell us exactly what particles of matter can generate turing machines. This I need to see, I can use a good laugh.

Where did I claim that, exactly? Please show me before we go on--I'm pretty tired of you making stuff up that I've supposedly said and then putting on these supercelious tap-dancing shows when asked to produce the evidence from my own mouth.

In other words donh, I am asking you to back up your statement.

You have postulated that abiogenesis is categorically impossible. Yours the claim that needs backing up. My claim is quite a modest, but apposite one: that you haven't demonstrated compelling--even vaguely tempting, really--evidence, much less proof, of these ambitious universal claims.

1,303 posted on 05/13/2003 10:27:11 AM PDT by donh
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To: HalfFull
btt
1,304 posted on 05/13/2003 10:29:44 AM PDT by HalfFull
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To: gore3000
.In what manner is this a relevant response to the extract quoted?

Seems quite obvious to me that matter cannot reason

Which is, to repeat myself, since I was apparently ignored, relevant to what I said how?

1,305 posted on 05/13/2003 11:00:37 AM PDT by donh
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To: Dataman
No need to get angry. I'm only pointing out an inconsistency in your thinking. That doesn't translate to an attack or a threat or a put-down.

Let's get our emotional responses in order here. The problem is not anger, it is annoyance over what looks like obtuseness out of refusal to think about what is being read. As, for example, when you come right back with the same lazy, unresponsive misstatement of your deponents position, as you have just now done.

1,306 posted on 05/13/2003 11:04:28 AM PDT by donh
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To: Michael121
But the idea of evolution came after faith and religion. So the disproving is up to your side.

Apparently, you do not understand what the word "faith" means. "Faith" is the proud claim that you haven't proved diddly. Like science, I've no interest in the saturday night grudge match you've arranged between God and science. Science doesn't care about God, one way or another--God is not within science's domain of competence.

1,307 posted on 05/13/2003 11:08:59 AM PDT by donh
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To: gore3000
My argument against evolution is concicely stated in post#1265 just above.

So, apparently, you don't understand what "concise" means either. You have simply found an incredibly longwinded way to reject my suggestion that evolution did not always work the way it works in prokariotes. So it is just a restatement of your basic theme--that prokariotes had to leap into existence out of junk. This is the entire basis of your argument, absurd as it is, and you have simply window-dressed it to make it look more impressive than it is. It is likely that the rules governing meat machines are not going the be the rules for what went on before meat machines. My supposed contradiction is simply the fruit of me being willing to talk about pre- and post- meat machine paradigms--compounded by your inability to hone in on the precise details of any argument, busy as you are re-arranging your canned lecture yet again.

Pick and choose what you are arguing about and we can discuss that. Stop trying to purposely confuse the issues by saying that the argument against evolution does not apply to abiogenesis and that the argument against abiogenesis does not apply to evolution.

Take 5 seconds from your busy schedule to notice what I am actually arguing about regarding there being both a pre- and post- meat machine era, with distinct rules, and I'll consider discussing this further. Never mind agreeing or disagreeing with me--lets just see if you even understand.

1,308 posted on 05/13/2003 11:22:32 AM PDT by donh
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To: AndrewC
freeper4u: "Programming a robot (or simulation of a robot) to walk in a real physical environment is hard problem"

AndrewC: "Don't you see the contradiction in your statement and how it relates to the rest of your statement?"

No.
1,309 posted on 05/13/2003 12:08:18 PM PDT by freeper4u
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To: freeper4u
No.

A simulation does not walk in a real physical environment. Programs are concepts as demonstrated in all of the virtual creatures that were "created" in the link you cited. IOW nothing that you presented as evidence was a material object.


1,310 posted on 05/13/2003 12:20:22 PM PDT by AndrewC
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To: AndrewC
Andrew,

In this example, the point I set out to make, and I think it was proved in the paper is that many problems that would be hard to solve by direct computation can be easily solved indirectly by genetic algorithms.

No simulation will ever be as good as the real world. But you can still learn a lot about the real world from a simulation.

Of course there are a zillion other hard problems that real creatures need to solve in the real world, but the Sims simulation effectively singled out a few of them and successfully showed they can be addressed quite effectively by genetic algorithms instead of a solution arrived at by direct design.
1,311 posted on 05/13/2003 12:40:52 PM PDT by freeper4u
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To: freeper4u
No simulation will ever be as good as the real world. But you can still learn a lot about the real world from a simulation.

You mean like the global warming models??

1,312 posted on 05/13/2003 12:45:29 PM PDT by colorado tanker
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To: freeper4u
but the Sims simulation effectively singled out a few of them and successfully showed they can be addressed quite effectively by genetic algorithms instead of a solution arrived at by direct design.

What was demonstrated was virtual. Real joints, with real motive elements requiring real energy sources and real raw materials occuring in a hostile environment was not demonstrated.

1,313 posted on 05/13/2003 12:47:24 PM PDT by AndrewC
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To: AndrewC
Andrew,

All that was shown in the Sims simulation was the question of whether or not it is possible for any kind of sensors, motors, and joints to be represented in a binary string, whether a sequence of binary operations on that string can improve the operations of those sensors, motors, and joints in a given environment for a given goal, and whether that binary string is sufficiently small enough that it does not rule out the possibility for a real DNA to represent the same information encoded by the simulation.

Even though that question is far different from the one of: "did real creatures evolve" and even "can real creatures evolve", it is still a very important question, and the result was positive, meaning that the next set of questions can be asked in the context of the hypothesis proved by this first experiment.

That is how science marches forward. It will never prove real creatures did evolve, but successive successful experiments show that it is more likely that evolution alone cannot be precluded as a possible explanation for the genesis of life on earth.
1,314 posted on 05/13/2003 1:25:01 PM PDT by freeper4u
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To: freeper4u
All that was shown in the Sims simulation was the question of whether or not it is possible for any kind of sensors, motors, and joints to be represented in a binary string, whether a sequence of binary operations on that string can improve the operations of those sensors, motors, and joints in a given environment for a given goal, and whether that binary string is sufficiently small enough that it does not rule out the possibility for a real DNA to represent the same information encoded by the simulation.

That is all well and good, but we represent things all of the time when we draw it, write about it, speak about it or think about it. We can even imagine improving it. The fact is everything that man has built started out as a concept. Even a rock used as a weapon had to be conceived even if it was initially picked up to be used as food.

As for DNA coding, anything can be used to represent something else because representation is a concept(written while moving salt shaker to the left and stating this is New York). Eyeblinks were used to send a message by a POW. You want to code the human genome by drumbeats, it can be done, but you better have a lot of time to waste.

You want to use DNA to code a program? That is easy. With 4 bases ,

  1. Adenilne (A)
  2. Cytosine (C)
  3. Guanine (G)
  4. Thymine (T) or Uracil (U)
you have a four level code. You can match the bases to 2 bits in this manner for an example.

Pentium instruction INT 7 has a hex value of CD07 or in binary

1100110100000111

In DNA code mapped as above this would be

TATCAACT

As you can see each byte takes up 4 bases, so that a DNA the size of the Human genome could code a program of about 750 megabytes. In this day and age it may seem like a trivial amount of data since it will easily fit on a DVD. However, going through all of the progrms that could be written in that amount of memory would take a very long time. Here is a previous calculation giving an indication of the information that can be coded by the DNA.

The number of different items represented by that 6 billion bit sequence as I stated before is 26000000000. In base 10 that would be 101806179974. Now there are 60 seconds/minute * 60 minutes/hour * 24 hours/day * 366 days/year * 15,000,000,000 years = 4.74336E+17 (or 1017.67608609) seconds since the purported start of the universe. We will assume this full time is available to generate the sequences represented by the 6 billion bit sequence. The huge number represented by 101806179974 breaks all my calculators so I must use logs. If we divide the number of items (101806179974) by the time available (1017.67608609) we end up with 101806179956 combinations/second. Clearly that is a huge amount of "information".

1,315 posted on 05/13/2003 2:41:52 PM PDT by AndrewC
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To: AndrewC
Proofread better

Adenilne = Adenoid Adenine

1,316 posted on 05/13/2003 2:45:52 PM PDT by AndrewC
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To: donh
Well let me set you straight. I made a comment. Someone did not like it. I like an argument so I kept it going.

The thing is this is non winnable to either side. Not that one side will not be proven correct. But that neither side will convince the other in my lifetime. Once my life is over, I guess I shall then see if faith was warrented.

If not then I have lost nothing. Science is cool. But what I see is that politics get involved way too much and in a lot of cases it appears, whether or not it does in actuality, to influence results. I like pure science that catters not to political pressures and PCism. If the science is real then it as also true.

Whether the science is geo-, bio-, or not there is a truth. The problem is we have to wait for one conclusion with political overtones. Before someone without politics gives the real answers.

There was a reporter after Columbine, who wanted to see how easy it was to get a gun at shows or on the WEB. He went into this with certain expectations. That is he thought it would be so easy to obtain a gun. He was proved wrong. The only person who would actually sell him a gun wanted him to drive 100+ miles to meet and make the sale in person, at a gun shop which could do a background check.

One example but there are hundreds like this based on science. Arts. Politics. Archeology. etc...

Politics is needed, and funny. It does however get in the way too often.
1,317 posted on 05/13/2003 4:45:45 PM PDT by Michael121
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To: PatrickHenry
multi-spectral moron alert placemarker
1,318 posted on 05/13/2003 4:47:29 PM PDT by longshadow
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To: AndrewC
Andrew,

The beauty of genetic algorithms is that the encoding format of a DNA string is independent from the process of evolution because the agent making changes to the string has no idea what it is doing.

As in real evolution, the Sims experiment used a random process to mate the genes of its virtual creatures, so it doesn't matter how the encoded creature are represented. That is, it is not necessary for anyone to "design" a particular representation that enables genetic algorithms to evolve a string that decodes to a creature that improves its results in the fitness test.
1,319 posted on 05/13/2003 5:02:21 PM PDT by freeper4u
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To: AndrewC
[Why don't you answer the question?]

You have not provided the evidence for the assertion that the evolved circuit performs better than the patented circuit even in its modified form. Not one measurement, not one graph, not one number.

Sigh -- just how many new pointless "objections" are you going to pull out of your hat in an endless parade of lame excuses to avoid having to actually deal with the questions that have been put to you, and the issues raised?

You're not fooling anyone with this game-playing. Except for perhaps yourself.

But just to give you one less cheap excuse to avoid the issue, here's more information on the evolved circuit: "Evolving Inventions", John R. Koza, Martin A. Keane and Matthew J. Streeter, "Scientific American", Feb. 2003. For a more technical treatment, see: Matthew J. Streeter, Martin A. Keane, John R. Koza: Routine Duplication of Post-2000 Patented Inventions by Means of Genetic Programming. EuroGP 2002: 26-36.

So what's your excuse going to be *now*, Mr. Evasive?

While you're at it, you might want to take a gander at the following and explain why evolution doesn't actually work in *these* research projects either, even though it certainly seems to perform just fine:

The above can be found in the publication: William B. Langdon, Erick Cantú-Paz, Keith E. Mathias, Rajkumar Roy, David Davis, Riccardo Poli, Karthik Balakrishnan, Vasant Honavar, Günter Rudolph, Joachim Wegener, Larry Bull, Mitchell A. Potter, Alan C. Schultz, J. F. Miller, E. Burke, Natasa Jonoska (Eds.): GECCO 2002: Proceedings of the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference, New York, USA, 9-13 July 2002. Morgan Kaufmann 2002, ISBN 1-55860-878-8

Give it up, Andrew, you're just looking silly. There's a whole world of significant evolutionary research results out there that you can't just make go away by wishing hard enough, or being evasive enough.
1,320 posted on 05/13/2003 5:46:03 PM PDT by Ichneumon
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To: donh
Where did I claim that, exactly? Please show me before we go on--I'm pretty tired of you making stuff up that I've supposedly said and then putting on these supercelious tap-dancing shows when asked to produce the evidence from my own mouth.

Get used to it, that's Gore3000's favorite tactic, and he never tires of it.

1,321 posted on 05/13/2003 5:47:36 PM PDT by Ichneumon
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To: gore3000
In other words donh, I am asking you to back up your statement. Can you do that, or are you going to resort to more insults?

That's pretty funny coming from the guy who has himself made such a career out of making outrageous statements and then dodging all attempts to get him to back them up.

Or have you so soon forgotten:


[Used with permission of the original author]

Gore3000's FABNAQ's
(Frequently Asked But Never Answered Questions)
These questions have been dodged [6] times so far

Science is very much aware that evolution is total nonsense, that is why it keeps refuting it.

Amazing claim, let's see if you can substantiate it:

In fact it is totally unbelievable that anyone would call evolution science in this day and age.

You mean, other than those countless thousands of scientists who work with it and research it all the time?

You make a lot of unsupported claims, son, let's see if you know how to support them:

1. The disproof of Darwin's racist claim that the brachyocephalic index showed what races were superior and which were inferior.

Troll Challenge #1: I've already challenged you to document this ad hominem claim. I already pointed out it was contrary to all I've read that Darwin has written about race (i.e., he considered them intellectual and moral equals; an amazingly fair-minded belief for his era.) You failed to even attempt document it. Do so now -- QUOTE Darwin and cite the source.

Troll Challenge #2: Document that whatever Darwin may have actually said on the matter has been "disproven".

NOTE:

For this and subsequent challenges, "document" does not just mean "declare it over and over again" as is your usual mode of "proof". It does not mean "quote other creationists". It does not mean "cut-and-paste semi-relevant website pages that happen to talk about the subject at hand and then declare that this proves your point through sheer volume". In short, none of your usual game-playing of "the conclusion is left as an exercise for the reader, and if you don't reach my conclusion you're an idiot." None of those are sufficient for your *specific* claims that "SCIENCE...KEEPS REFUTING" evolution and "SCIENCE is very much aware that evolution is total nonsense". So to document your amazing claims, you must quote, or provide specific citations for, MAINSTREAM SCIENCE publications which *specifically* declare to have contradicted, refuted, contradicted, or proven wrong the point you claim has "refuted" evolution via "science". For surely, if "science keeps refuting" evolution, someone in science would have mentioned it somewhere. Lord knows scientists aren't shy about pointing out when they've debunked something.

In short, you must quote/cite an actual science source which AGREES WITH YOUR CONCLUSION in each case and FLAT OUT SAYS SO. Not just "could be used to argue that conclusion" if you squint at it just right, you must actually find where science SAYS WHAT YOU SAY IT DOES, with no need for "interpretation" or "line of reasoning" on your part.

You say that "Science is very much aware that evolution is total nonsense", so all you have to do is *quote* science actually SAYING the things you say it does. Should be easy -- if you're not a lying swine.

While some may dismiss this as a minutae, it is a strong refutation of evolution because it shows that there has been no 'evolution' in the human species and according to evolutionists evolution is always going on.

Troll Challenge #3: Over what timespan has your alleged "no change" occurred?

Troll Challenge #4: Document (*see above*) that it hasn't.

Troll Challenge #5: Document (*ditto*) that "according to evolutionists" there would *have* be a change of the specified type over the specified time period if evolution were true.

2. Mendelian genetics showed that the transfer of new traits was very difficult if not impossible.

Troll Challenge #6: Document this insane claim. And since you have a short memory, I will again point out that you must DOCUMENT this by citing an actual scientific source which declares it to be "very difficult if not impossible" -- your own babbling, hand-waving arguments don't count. You're not allowed to try to prove your amazing assertion, you must *document* that *SCIENCE* flat-out says so, since you claimed that it did.

Indeed because a new trait or mutation is not in the gene pool of other individuals, it has an almost impossible chance of survival.

Troll Challenge #7: Document, please. And since I remember your failures in our earlier discussion of genetic drift, I must remind you that 1-in-a-thousand, or even 1-in-a-million, is *NOT* "almost impossible". Nor do your misconceptions bother to address the selection of favorable new traits, which have a far higher success rate.

2a. Mendelian genetics also showed the concept of alleles - duplicate genes in every organism which performed the same function but a bit differently. This allows the adaptation of a species to the environment without the need to wait for a chance mutation to occur. It shows that transformation of organisms is not necessary for survival.

Troll Challenge #8: Explain how the (obvious) fact that organisms can "survive" without evolution in any way supports your thesis that "science keeps refuting evolution". Oh, don't bother -- you can't. You're just being foolishly irrelevant here and even you must realize that.

3. DNA - a Nobel Prize winning discovery - showed the utter complexity of the cells in every organism. It laid to rest forever the concept that just a little mutation could transform an organism or a species.

Troll Challenge #9: Document (again, via quoting an actual scientific source which SPECIFICALLY AGREES with your CONCLUSION here) that you're not just making a wild leap from "it's complicated" to "it's impossible".

Troll Challenge #10: Document where evolutionists have ever said that "*A* little mutation" (i.e., singular) could "transform" an organism or species.

Troll Challenge #11: While you're at it, define "transform" in a way that doesn't make your statement trivially false or tautologically true.

4. Genome Project - showed the utter interrelatedness of every single gene, cell, part of the body.

Troll Challenge #12: Document that twaddle. Make sure your source speaks of the "utter interrelatedness" of "every single gene".

It has shown that it is impossible for any new trait to evolve by chance occurrence (or at random, or without design or whatever you wish to call how evolutionary changes to the genome are supposed to occur according to evolution).

Troll Challenge #13: Document where "it has shown" this. Again, you must find a scientific source which specifically agrees with your *conclusion*, not merely one that you can wave around and say, "this is supporting evidence, my conclusion is therefore inescapable, can't you see that?"

For any change, for any transformation to occur, there would need to be the coevolution of the new trait together with a complete support system to make it work.

Troll Challenge #14: And "science" agrees with you on this point where, exactly? Document it. Make sure it's talking specifically about "ANY change, ANY transformation".

This of course is totally ludicrous, especially in view of 2 and 3 above.

I agree your descriptions are ludicrous.

5. discovery of gene control - showed forever that the arrogant (and moronic) evolutionist theory that 95% of DNA was just there doing nothing except to give proof of evolution was utter bunk.

Troll Challenge #15: Documentation, please.

Science showed that it is that very DNA which evolutionists called 'junk" which is what controls the actions of genes and many other processes in the organism.

Troll Challenge #16: All of it? Document where science "shows" this.

[Update: This is the one challenge that Gore3000 actually attempted a response to. Amusingly enough, his linked source material actually VERIFIED THE SCIENTIFIC VIEW THAT HE WAS TRYING TO DISCREDIT. Hmm, speaking of people posting "things they have not themselves read"...]

So as you can see, we are very lucky that scientists ignore evolution.

Troll Challenge #17: Document that this is the case. I'll accept a quote from any peer-reviewed publication in an accepted science journal.

Otherwise, biology would still be stuck in the dark Darwinian ages.

Someone's sure in the dark here, but it's not us.

Time for you to document your assertions, or withdraw them. Time for you to demonstrate that you have any idea what in the hell you're talking about when you make claims about what "science" shows.

[End of FABNAQ]


1,322 posted on 05/13/2003 6:02:12 PM PDT by Ichneumon
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To: <1/1,000,000th%
No, I am not.-me-

Yes. You are wrong. I am a Christian first.

First of all, your example (if true) does not refute my statement that "Almost all the evolutionists here are atheists".

Second of all, there are several kinds of 'evolutionists'. One kind is the kind that does not care to much about the matter and will say they believe in it because others do. These can be Christians, since to them it is not relevant to their lives or thoughts. Another kind is the kind which thinks they can serve both God and the devil. They may be Christian but they put themselves in dire spiritual trouble by their attempted fence sitting. The last kind is the virulent evolutionists (which include most of the evos on these threads). They will lie profusely and claim to be Christians but they are just doing what atheists have done for centuries (including Darwin) - profess to be Christians to attempt to lead people into the balancing act that leads to perdition.

However, evolution is still the only viable scientific explanation for the existing evidence.

Since you have put yourself as an example of a Christian evolutionist, then it is fair to examine the evidence you have offered. Let's try to see on which of the above categories you fit by seeing how you answer the following question:

How can a good Christian who believes in an Allmighty God, say that evolution is the only viable explanation for man, species, and living things?????????????

1,323 posted on 05/13/2003 6:20:54 PM PDT by gore3000
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To: Ichneumon
Should be easy -- if you're not a lying swine. Hee hee.
1,324 posted on 05/13/2003 6:25:34 PM PDT by PatrickHenry (Felix, qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas.)
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To: Ichneumon
There's a whole world of significant evolutionary research results out there that you can't just make go away by wishing hard enough, or being evasive enough

I told you, a red herring does not work no matter how frantically you wave it. The evidence is for a specific assertion concerning specific circuits. You have yet to back up your assertion. To wit---

Deal with it. In this case, it made a cubic function generator circuit which outperforms the best that all electronic engineers were capable of producing in all the history of electronics.

The circuit at the top was patented in 2000, and is the current state of the art. The circuit at the bottom was produced by pure unaided evolution, and outperforms the human version. It's also complex enough that no one's figured out how it works yet...

From post 633

1,325 posted on 05/13/2003 6:28:29 PM PDT by AndrewC
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To: Ten Megaton Solution
Yes, this statement is clearly true. Everybody has brown skin and blue eyes, red hair and is six feet eight inches tall.

No, that does not apply in this case. Animal instincts, unlike human action, are innate in the species. This is not the case with human behavior. Humans are different from animals in numerous ways. They are not driven by their material nature, but by their will, their mind, their thoughts, their reason, their logic. All of which things are totally lacking in the beasts.

the well proven point that the will to live leads to longer life.-me-

Yes, suicide tends to shorten the life span, agreed.

No I am not talking about suicide, and you know it. I am speaking of the willingness to live. The desire to live is one of the strongest forces in the recovery of an individual that is ill as any doctor will tell you. In other words, the will to survive affects very deeply the material portion of an individual and thus proves that matter is not all that atheists claim it to be - the be all and end all of existence.

1,326 posted on 05/13/2003 6:28:41 PM PDT by gore3000
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To: PatrickHenry
Such non-posting is called stalking!

Yes, when shortly after someone makes a post you make a post in which you blatantly insult the poster and do this every time that person posts, that is stalking. Everyone knows very well who you are insulting and just because you are too much of a coward to address your posts to the person you are viciously attacking, does not mean that you are not a stalker.

But of course, we know why you do it. You know that your side cannot refute the arguments being made against your atheistic theory you so deeply love so you try to disrupt the thread and perhaps have it pulled by turning it into a slime-a-thon.

1,327 posted on 05/13/2003 6:33:39 PM PDT by gore3000
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To: All
Innocent victim of the blue stalker placemarker.
1,328 posted on 05/13/2003 6:38:27 PM PDT by PatrickHenry (Felix, qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas.)
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To: donh
I have yet to see your proof,

You have - in the very post you are responding to. Science has determined that all the below are essential for a living organism. I asked you to show me a theory that surmounts all these problems of life arising from non-life. You cannot even give me a theory of how such a thing could be possible, so yes, I have proven my point. Here it is again in case you wish to address the challenge instead of avoiding it:

1. the problem of arranging some 500,000 pairs of DNA in exactly the correct way to make life possible.
2. the chicken - egg problem - you need DNA for life to exist, however, you need the products of DNA - the proteins, etc, in order to have an organism and for DNA to be able to work.
3. the DNA/RNA symbolism problem. You cannot have life without DNA coding for the amino acids which RNA translates into the amino acids which make the proteins of life. There is no chemical or other reason for the translation of these codes into specific amino acids. It is purely conventional as our letters represent sounds. So your theory also has to answer to how RNA was taught to interpret the DNA code.

Let's see you (or anyone else here) take up the challenge.

1,329 posted on 05/13/2003 6:39:48 PM PDT by gore3000
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To: donh
Well, since you claim to have read the book, kindly tell us exactly what particles of matter can generate turing machines. This I need to see, I can use a good laugh. -me-

Where did I claim that, exactly?

Let's see, in Post# 1255 you said:

Wolfram has demonstrated that about one in 256 ramdomly chosen, rudimentary discrete fields of discourse that can generate repeating patterns through simple cell relationships, generate turing machines.

Seems I have to keep reminding you of what each one of us posted just a post or two back. Losing your memory or trying to dance your way out of bluffs you have been called on?

1,330 posted on 05/13/2003 6:46:19 PM PDT by gore3000
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To: PatrickHenry
Innocent victim

You are not an innocent victim.

1,331 posted on 05/13/2003 6:52:02 PM PDT by AndrewC
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To: donh
"Faith" is the proud claim that you haven't proved diddly.

You certainly have not. All you do is ask others to prove their point, you never prove yours. You have not given any proof of either evolution or of abiogenesis. All you do is dance around the questions asked of you. For abiogenesis I have already given proof of why it is impossible. For evolution, it certainly cannot be science since science depends on the predictability of results and evolution denies predictability and postulates that it occurs due to random events. Now this 'randomness' (a central part of all atheistic theories since the Greeks) is totally inimical to science which seeks patterns and rules in nature in order to tame it and produce useful results.

1,332 posted on 05/13/2003 6:52:41 PM PDT by gore3000
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To: All
Now the other one is stalking me!
1,333 posted on 05/13/2003 6:54:49 PM PDT by PatrickHenry (Felix, qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas.)
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To: Ichneumon
While you're at it, you might want to take a gander at the following and explain why evolution doesn't actually work in *these* research projects either

Aaah, the evolutionist snow job. When shown that what you are discussing has been proven false you just pull out a bunch of links which you have not read and cannot discuss and ask your opponent to disprove it all. Pick ONE of those articles, post it here all to see and I guarantee you that we will show why it is absolute garbage.

BTW - I also can guarantee that you will not take up the challenge.

1,334 posted on 05/13/2003 6:56:28 PM PDT by gore3000
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To: PatrickHenry
Who are you talking about? You keep sending these messages that include me. I respond to All, crevo_list, and anybody among others. If you don't like my comments then urinate up a rope.
1,335 posted on 05/13/2003 6:58:04 PM PDT by AndrewC
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To: All
Why are they stalking me? Why are they insulting me?
1,336 posted on 05/13/2003 7:02:05 PM PDT by PatrickHenry (Felix, qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas.)
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To: gore3000
How can a good Christian who believes in an Allmighty God, say that evolution is the only viable explanation for man, species, and living things?????????????

Easy. By passively submitting to government school indoctrination. I know how it is, having been there before.

1,337 posted on 05/13/2003 7:05:06 PM PDT by Lady Eileen
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To: donh
You have simply found an incredibly longwinded way to reject my suggestion that evolution did not always work the way it works in prokariotes.

Evolution is not just about prokaryotes and you know it. My statements apply to all evolution and you know that also. The problem is the requirement of 'fitness' which supposedly drives ALL evolution. My concise argument, which you continue to fail to address is:

1. the experiment is false because it does not punish as yet useless novelties.
2. that evolution is impossible because the gradualness of it cannot be achieved due to the necessity of each miniscule change making the organism more fit at each and every point.

Now stop trying to confuse the issue and address the points I have made above about evolution and in post# 1329 about abiogenesis. They are completely different questions which you continue to try to confuse with each other for some 100 posts already.

1,338 posted on 05/13/2003 7:06:02 PM PDT by gore3000
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To: All
Non-stalking placemarker.
1,339 posted on 05/13/2003 7:13:58 PM PDT by PatrickHenry (Felix, qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas.)
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To: PatrickHenry
Why are they stalking me? Why are they insulting me?

Behold! A new species has spontaneously generated. In the spirit of the first man, I name thee: Sympathy Troll.

1,340 posted on 05/13/2003 7:16:15 PM PDT by Law
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To: Ichneumon
Science is very much aware that evolution is total nonsense, that is why it keeps refuting it.

That one is real easy. The Cambrian explosion drove Gould and Eldredge out of Darwinian evolution, science showed that the fossil record disproves evolution. In addition, Mendelian genetics disproved Darwin's moronic 'melding' of parental traits. Science has also disproven Darwin's racist brachocephallic index and his racist claims about inferior races. Most recently science has disproved the totally arrogant and moronic claim that 95% of human DNA was junk. Science has shown that it is the DNA which is not in the genes which is the real engine that makes organisms work.

Now after you refute the above, and the other posts I have made which all the evolutionists here have carefully avoided addressing (except donh who keeps skirting the points made), then we can go on to the other points you think are outrageous. However, in the meantime, you and others can look at Evidence Disproving Evolution where you will find ample proof of many of what you call 'outrageous' statements.

1,341 posted on 05/13/2003 7:20:16 PM PDT by gore3000
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To: PatrickHenry
Now the other one is stalking me!

How about that! You insult people and they dare to call you on it. Let's see, of the last dozen or so posts not a single one is regarding any of the discussion. They have been all insults or personal attacks on someone or other. So again I must ask - what is it like to spend your life insulting people? Is your life that empty?

1,342 posted on 05/13/2003 7:23:43 PM PDT by gore3000
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To: Lady Eileen
How can a good Christian who believes in an Allmighty God, say that evolution is the only viable explanation for man, species, and living things?????????????-me-

Easy. By passively submitting to government school indoctrination. I know how it is, having been there before.

Yes, it is shameful how atheists have gained control of our schools and seek to separate us from our religious beliefs.

1,343 posted on 05/13/2003 7:27:38 PM PDT by gore3000
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To: gore3000
"For evolution, it certainly cannot be science since science depends on the predictability of results and evolution denies predictability and postulates that it occurs due to random events."

First, evolution is not purely random changes, as has been stated in a previous post. It is random changes plus two other ingrediants: a fitness test (the environment) and a memory to store a history of previous results that have passed the fitness test (DNA)

Second, the process of evolution does not "guarantee" any single result, therefore it does not violate the rule of science that an evolutionary process must be reproducable.

1,344 posted on 05/13/2003 7:27:40 PM PDT by freeper4u
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To: gore3000
"Yes, it is shameful how atheists have gained control of our schools and seek to separate us from our religious beliefs."

You don't preach in my school and I won't think in your church. Deal?
1,345 posted on 05/13/2003 7:28:46 PM PDT by freeper4u
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To: gore3000
Bait and switch again. You are wrong. This is your exact statement from your post 1002,

Your semantic games do not change the fact that the evolutionists here are thoroughly opposed to Christianity and to any explanation of anything that involves God the Creator.

You are no Christian.

1,346 posted on 05/13/2003 7:36:42 PM PDT by <1/1,000,000th%
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To: All
I'm still being stalked. This is an outrage!
1,347 posted on 05/13/2003 7:39:20 PM PDT by PatrickHenry (Felix, qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas.)
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To: freeper4u; All; gore3000
You don't preach in my school and I won't think in your church. Deal?

The left talks of doing everything "for the people" but they don't believe it. Instead they believe "public school" is their private laboratory in which they have a sacred right to indoctrinate the children of others using funds coerced from their parents. That's why they fight so hard to prevent the taxpayers from leaving government school with their tax dollars.

Indeed, for the left ,government schools are churches. They're temples to the sovereign state, before which all subversives (e.g. homeschoolers) must be brought to heel and bow down in the sight of their more malleable peers, who will thereby learn never to stray from secular orthodoxy.

1,348 posted on 05/13/2003 7:44:06 PM PDT by Law
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To: Nebullis
An interdisciplinary team of scientists at Michigan State University and the California Institute of Technology, with the help of powerful computers,...

This is intelligent design.

1,349 posted on 05/13/2003 7:48:50 PM PDT by slimer
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To: <1/1,000,000th%
You are no Christian.

Okay, now I know what you are. You are an evolutionist atheist and you have proven my point.

Like all the others you are sliming instead of discussing. In post# 1271 I asked you to refute my statement about most evolutionists here being atheists and challenged you to do the following:

This thread is over 1200 posts long. How about pointing out one (1) post in which evolutionists say something good about Christianity and Christian beliefs. Just one.

In 1323 I asked you:

How can a good Christian who believes in an Allmighty God, say that evolution is the only viable explanation for man, species, and living things?????????????

Of course you do not respond to the above and indulge in personal insults. You cannot argue with the truth, so you follow in the steps of your fellow evolutionists and refuse to meet the challenges put to you to back up your statements with facts and to respond to questions.

1,350 posted on 05/13/2003 7:54:09 PM PDT by gore3000
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