Tycho Magnetic Anomaly 1

I'm under time pressure here as I need to get the lunch on, however I can't resist the debate!

Keith Moon's "continuous drum solo" style - excellent description!

The Earth should be the centre of the Universe in a Biblical world. Why would it exist out on the dull arm of some non-descript spiral galaxy structure? I don't think the Bible claims the Earth is at the centre of the Universe. Reading the text though, it would appear to me that the assumption is that the Earth is at the centre and that the Earth is a flat circular object (reference in Isaiah).

250,000 years since the first human may not be a problem, if one added up the ages of the generations in The Bible, do we get approximately 250,000 years since Adam? I know Adam lived a long time (933 years).

Downtown Seattle would probably be very different if Christ had not appeared in the first place. My point is, that if the Earth is so old, it's unlikely that it's going anywhere in the near (billions of years future). In which case when exactly will Christ come back to fix the creation? 2005 years is so near to the birth of "the Saviour of the Universe" compared to the age of the Earth -- don't you think? But, 2005 years is not so near to the birth of "Saviour of the Universe" if the Earth is only say 10,000 years old. This smells suspiciously like a selection effect.

If there are not other life forms in the Universe then it is an amazing waste of space. We're arrogant enough to think we're the only ones?

The Bible was more believable back then, not because they were a superstitious lot but they had no inkling of an explanation for the miracles shown. They could not even guess at:

• Feeding the 5000 (E = mc squared)
• Resurrection (Clone + brain transfer/transplant)
• Disappearing from tomb (matter transportation, ala Star Trek and what scientists are doing right now in a Vienna lab, albeit for individual atoms)
• Walking on water (anti-gravity device, gravity is a space time curvature, flatten it out)

Now, I'm not saying these were the mechanisms used, we cannot do these things but they no longer seem like total divine magic, this is due to scientific advancements.

Yes I think people need punished for their bad deeds. But not forever. And your example does not cover the pacifist buddhist who does much good in his life but still goes to hell for not believing on the Christ.

On human DNA, yes there is something missing in Darwin's Theory of Evolution. I suspect that mutations + survival of the fittest go a long way to explaining the life we see today but there also seems to be an architect (this could be a failure of nerve or imagination on my part I agree).

There does not appear to be any intent on the part of genes, they seem to be slaves to the dance. Just like the incredibly simple numbers of the Mandelbrot set creating such beautiful and complex patterns -- genes play their role in defining what we look like.

Do genes define who we are? Are there behavioural genes. There does appear to be.

Your thought on a perfect DNA that went wrong and became "sinful" is interesting. How did that happen? We know that changing the phenotype does not change the genotype -- so if you cut off a finger this doesn't mean your children will be born without that finger.

This leaves us with a problem with the Christian view of man "falling" does it not? How did the pre-fall perfect DNA get into the "sinful" state without genetic engineering? I've not even considered this before.

Lunch !!