Moontanman

Sounds like a self fulfilling prophecy to me, but I have to ask if you have any evidence for the assertion I have highlighted in bold.

Recent genetic studies indicate ancient humans interbred with at least three known and possibly one unknown hominid species. This interbreeding went on for thousands of years in a possibly back and forth gene exchange between the species.. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/12/131218133658.htm

You are correct, evolution does not say how life started, only how it diversified after it developed... but we do have a pretty good handle on the evidence of how it formed as well but not as much as evolution There is no doubt that evolution happened, We have not only fossils that shows that complex life diversified over several hundred million years and the genes show the same hierarchy as well, God did not just poof everything we see now out of nothing 6000 years ago...

It is difficult to understand but bear in mind that both Time and Space came into existence at the moment of the big bang, I suspect that one day we will have a better understanding, the singularity is just a point where the math breaks down and may not be real, and there are other theories... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ekpyrotic_universe http://www.nature.com/news/did-a-hyper-black-hole-spawn-the-universe-1.13743

Real evidence is available, the fossil record backed up with genetics is evidence of the highest order. All it would take is for someone to find a modern animal in the Cambrian but the fossils don't lie.. no bunny rabbits in the Cambrian...

I have practically memorized the script to The Good The Bad and The Ugly...

Well the first thing to remember is that "Ancient Aliens" is a TV show and it relies on ratings, none of those things are unexplained..

On the large salamander issue, when Europeans first came to the Ohio river valley a bad forest fire burned off evidently many square miles some place in what is now southern Ohio and the watershed of a medium sized stream was burned and after many dozens of huge "antlered lizards" were found dead in the stream bed, reports say they were more than 12 feet long. While not falsifiable by any means the description sounded more like huge mudpuppies with the antlers being the external gills which is by the way a neotenous trait... Completely apocryphal by the way as no specimens were kept... I would like to say that mudpuppies are a case of neoteny, tiger salamander larvae are almost indistinguishable from mudpuppies and rather large but the giant salamanders breath mostly through their skin, I know it sounds funny but some turtles breath through their anus so it's not as odd as it sounds...

The weather here is pretty much normal if there is such a thing for this area, one of the old sayings about "don't like the weather, wait ten minutes" pretty much applies, at least in the summer but winters swing back and forth between warm and sunny and cool and sunny most of the time. Some years we barely get frost other years we get several hard freezes and very occasionally we get snow. Over the 40 years I've lived here I've seen blizzards accompanied by thunder and lighting and 80 degrees at christmas. Living so near the gulf stream just makes it crazy but the summers are very hot, muggy, with intense tropical rains and the cacti love that if they get direct sun all day and grow in well drained soil and clay pots...

I have several, from 125 down to 2.5, right now all my fish are outside in vats, both because I moved recently and I haven't been able to set up anything in the house and so the cold weather will bring them into breeding condition. I get the winter blues pretty bad, usually starts about a month or so before the winter solstice and for about two months after. I like to watch star trek and listen to heavy metal music to chase away that sad feeling...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_salamander Neither whales or humans evolved directly from fish, and a skipping stone stops skipping if it goes under water..

Who would you rather have? A priest or jujuman? I genuine do not believe in anything after death but worm food and your refusal to accept that is meaningless. So my near death experience in a boat wreck at night in 30 feet of water with lights and voices and a presence urging me to awake and get up is meaningless? I say your is, in fact I doubt you even had one... Oops, sorry HI crossposted...

Yes Alan, when I die I will be dead, it splits the universe into three parts, before I existed while i exist and after I exist, not wanting to die does not make what you want to happen any more likely because it's what you want. And yes i have had a near death experience, it was disturbing but it just shows how the brain reacts to death by fantasizing a comforting feeling. It is not indicative of anything but what you want not what is... If you can't show it then you don't know it.. I would feel honored to have Dawkins at my death bed, what use would anyone be be at that moment?

So I win by default?

You know, I think is the most insulting dishonest answer that can be used in a discussion, instead of providing evidence you insult me by asserting that I would not believe you if you provided the evidence and shirk your own burden of proof and at the same time insinuate that I am dishonest...

Seriously Alan? Special pleading?

No not really, I suggest you look up the laws you seem to be so fond of quoting, as long as the universe expands work can be done.. Again, not true on a universal scale... For someone who has no evidence you certainly spend a lot of time making claims you do about something seem to need called god... The very idea of something primordial needing to exist is a straw in it's self.. I don't know if a god exists, you're the one claims it does, in fact not only that but you keep making the assertion there has to be a god thing out there some place. Sadly you give nothing but arguments from incredulity for it..

That is the point...

Music, crushing creationists, writing, but mostly my aquariums...

That is quite an assertion, your rejection of an idea doesn't mean it has no merit and just because we cannot describe mathematically at this time anything before what we would see as a beginning does not mean there wasn't something before the universe and there is no reason to posit that something was a mind primordial or not.. He does nothing but erect various strawmen and arguments from ignorance, could be a reason why it was rejected by TED... I want my 18 minutes back... Still PRATT Alan... Still no reason to assume a mind primordial or other wise... Alan you do understand why your idea of mind being necessary for the universe is PRATT? Order can indeed arise from Chaos with no mind to influence it. We have been through this conversation so many times just on this forum it's ridiculous. There is no reason to assume a prime mover no matter how you try to twist the definition around to suit your Dogma, yes I said Dogma, what you are pushing is nothing but an alternate Dogma... A completely unjustified Dogma as well...

He is positing a primordial mind and then saying it is everything we don't know, to me that infers it will be smaller as we learn more. Since there is no need for a cause much less for it to be intelligent or a mind it's nothing but PRATT...

Are you saying as we learn new knowledge god becomes smaller and smaller?

Science is getting closer and closer to synthetic life. Creating a cell from parts of living cells is one direction but building a living cell from scratch is gaining ground. http://www.the-scientist.com//?articles.view/articleNo/38393/title/Proto-Organelles-for-Synthetic-Cells/

I think free will is an illusion, we react to outside stimuli only in ways our prior experiences allow us to react. When the first Europeans came to the new world many natives could not see the sailing ships, they had no way to make sense of what their eyes were telling them so it was ignored...