Mageth

We don't know that it is, so why is your guess that it is haoppening any more legitimate than one which says it is not?

I believe life is an emergent property of the universe with entirely naturalistic explanations.

There are hundreds of billions of galaxies each with hundreds of billions of stars. Many if not most of those stars probably have planets. If even a small fraction of star systems include planets that are capable of supporting life, there would be tens if not hundreds of billions of such star systems. If life emerged here on earth through naturalistic processes, I have no reason to believe abiogenisis has, is, and will occur elsewhere in the universe.

Others argue that life may not be so common. Such arguments are legitimate, but based on my reading I happen to favor the argument that life is common in the universe.

Note that both of these are testable, falsifiable (though not easily and perhaps not practically given the vastness of the universe; we'd have to visit a huge number of planets to disprove either) scientific ideas. I don't think they are theories; perhaps hypotheses. If we find evidence of abiogenisis on even one planet or moon in our solar system, my preferred belief will certainly be accepted as "fact."

And you say that it is probable that abiogenesis is the start of all life, yet we cannot demonstrate that it is happening today, & then you say it will happen again in the future?

I didn't say it will happen again in the future. I said I think it's highly probable that abiogenisis will occur somewhere in the universe "in the future."

So you are saying you expect something which happened in the past to occur in the future? Do you not see the logical inconsistencies therein?

No. I think that abiogenisis is an emergent phenomenon of the universe. Matter+time+self-organizing principles = life. I probably should include energy in that equation. Matter, energy, time and self-organizing principles. If abiogenisis happened here, given the vastness of the universe I have no reason not to believe that in all probability it happens elsewhere.

[ September 14, 2002: Message edited by: Mageth ]</p>

jdawg2

I love how theists just assign random properties to a god when faced with any type of contradiction, without having any evidence that some god actually has this characteristic...

...actually, it annoys the hell out of me. Anyone can make up random definitions of super-powered beings on the fly. Marvel and DC Comics have done it for years!

And it's funny how we supposedly can't comprehend the oh-so-infinite nature of God because he's outside of space and time (is this even a coherent concept??), yet the same people seem to know god's characteristics and motivations for everything.

phlebas

Brama's atheist: I'm sorry your thread got sidetracked. Please feel free to start a new one.

This one has earned a spot in Rants, Raves, & Preaching.