Human Nature and The Big Bang

In "Discerning the Will of Jesus" you wrote:

Now, it's unrealistic to assume people can abandon their thrones for long ... people won't follow nothing, they'll find something to follow

Why is that? Is there evidence for that? Do you mean being a football or baseball supporter if not a Christian? Or becoming a Muslim if not a Christian? I'm a little confused!

And you said:

Do I pitch a hissy-fit because someone stepped in front of me in a queue? No

Even if you don't show it, or have *almost* socialized it out, inside you do get upset. I see people treating others in a way that they themselves would not wish to be treated (eg. your pushing-in a queue example) and have seen it cause all the unrest in the world.

The reason they (we?) do this pushing in, is that it is in our natures, the nature of the human being. When my daughter asks me why the boy pushed in front of her I tell her because it is in the nature of human beings. I have looked and searched and can find no other answer as to why people do certain things.

It is connected to why people want to succeed. Why does a parent want to protect it's offspring, and have it's offspring succeed? Why do people work to get rich? Is it to gain breeding rights and gain a competitive advantage over other people? To have their genes succeed?

Consider people who decide not to have children (for no medical reason), and a subset of those couples who choose to strive to be financially successful. If my suspicion is "true" then these folks become financially "rich" without really understanding their drivers for doing so - which is kind of funny :-) And I can't see how that could lead to happiness, would they not get to the end of their lives and at some point have their eyes opened and realise they have missed the boat. I worry about my dear older sister!

Still, do I really understand what motivates me? I'm trying to understand my motivators, my fears, my dependencies, inadequecies and ... blessings.

===============

In Sidetrack: God vs Naturalism you wrote:

So my question: is it possible for a Christian to completely dismiss Intelligent Design?

Only if they say God has no intelligence. I don't believe they believe that God has no intelligence so the answer if "no". QED. No further discussion required :-)

===============

In Chimpanzee DNA you wrote:

Good luck. Comparing molecules of a complex DNA chain won't tell you that. Will there be a gene that can explain our self-awareness?

No, there will be a set of genes that explain how the brain in formed then there will be an explanation of how the synaptic structure of the brain leads to the phenomenon that we call self-awareness.

Will there be a gene that explains why we value something at biologically useless as the beauty of a sunset?

Same answer. Extreme sports, eg. surfing big waves off of Honolulu is a "survival negative" activity. It's not necessary for life, and indeed you may die from partaking in such an activity. People do it. Some "smart" folks do it. The brain is so complex that smart people do dumb things. Perhaps emotions are the appendixes of our intellect?

where did the atoms come from to create the DNA?

Current theory and models show that when the Universe came into existence (from whence no-one really knows) in a type of explosion there was only hydrogen and helium in the Universe. Ignorning anti-matter, hydrogen and helium are just made up of protons, neutrons and electrons. So how did more complex elements form? They formed in either of two processes - 1) fusion (if lighter or equal to the atomic weight of iron) and 2) nucleosynthesis (if heavier than iron) inside of the first stars. The primordial Universe was not quite smooth (due to quantum fluctations). So the available hydrogen and helium started to clump together, and they eventually formed stars, the pressure (and therefore temperature) got so high in their cores that nuclear fusion started. When these stars blew up, the material formed other stars and solar systems with these elements in them. Now these new elements (such as oxygen, nitrogen and phosphorous) could combine with the original hydrogen and helium to form complex molecules such as water, adenine, thymine, gianine, cytosene - commonly found in the nucleic acid called DNA. They've all got funny names but they are just combinations of protons, neutrons and electrons.

The assignment: create life in the lab using only elemental compounds. (No gene splicing, no starting with already-formed amino acids ... start with the basic elements ... simple carbon strings, oxygen, etc

You'd need a lot of time. The nice thing is when we look at the Universe we see that many stars have planets around them. I believe that most stars have solar systems. There are trillions of planets in this Universe. That's a very large chemistry experiment. As a result, it's not as unlikey as you may think that this Universe-experiment would come up with DNA. I don't think it's a good argument for God.

If, IF, there was only one planet in the Universe, or one plus a few wanderers then I would agree that this would be an excellent argument for God. Hey I just realised, that's what people thought when the Bible was written - there was only really one world that was known of - ours - called Earth :-)

To me, the best scientific reason for needing a God is not to do with the chemistry of the Universe, but when one asks "Why does this Universe exist?" Ok then one could ask me "Why does God exist?" - but I say "One question at a time please".

Measurable and repeatable science will tell you "How?", but never "Why?". And if measurable and repeatable science cannot tell you "Why?" then you're into Faith. And then you're into people's opinions.

I believe that God created the Universe for beings to enjoy life. What's so bad about that?