Moontanman

We are very close on that one, Farscape runs a close third for me but Star Trek is where I want to live but being a space cowboy is very appealing too. Star Gate is pretty cool but the parasitic Goa'uld kind of ruin the idea of wanting to live there...

Many science fiction based television shows have been on over the years, some better than others but most are set in their own universe. Which ones are your favorites and if you can explain why. If you want rate them in order of most favorite to least.

What you are suggesting is or at least sounds akin to vitalism which was discredited more than a century ago. But if taken literally then the smallest particle both biology and physics has in common would be the proton... hydrogen ions are an important part of life, well life as we know it anyway...

In Star Trek Enterprise they even had a captains dog...

I believe I did give a logical disproof of the code argument in post #9. i live at the coast, I beach comb quite a bit and the waves do indeed sort out shells and bits of rock and other objects by size and shape. These sorted objects appear in distinct patterns as you walk along these patterns become evident. A case in point, at some point many years ago a huge wall was made at the ocean by dumping marl boulders on the only natural out cropping of rock on the NC coast. This created an environment where small objects were ground up by wave action and distributed along the beach. At some point a few truck loads of bricks was dumped at that same place and the ocean proceeded to grind up these bricks and distribute them along the beach as to shape and size. The distribution of these brick pieces can be charted, larger pieces appear first from the larger marl boulder wall and with smaller pieces being distributed further and further away but it is much more complex than just size distribution. They are sorted by shape as well, as you walk along various shapes of brick fragments are distributed in groups as well as by size. This occurs with fragments of everything from shells to sand grains but the bricks were especially interesting due to the shape distribution, there were areas of brick fragments shaped like spindles, spheres, various odd shapes but each shape was found with other similarly sized and shaped fragments. At on point along the beach the fragments started to tend toward a valentines day shaped heart and there in on small section was dozens of perfectly heart shaped fragments all in the same small place and then the shapes began to trend toward another random shape and so on down the beach. Now the heart shaped fragments were the result of wave action of several different types and to us seemed to be designed but in reality it was just a record of the wave action acting of brick fragments. The mind that decided the shapes were heart shaped was human, the evident sorting by shape and size was real but the idea that it had some reason was human. The patterns of fragments was regular and could be said to be a representation of the wave action, in other words a code but the idea of a code is a human idea we use to describes certain representations of things. The concept of a code is not independent of humans, no one but a human walking down that beach would have identified that small area of brick fragments as heart shaped, to say they were shaped by a higher power because we identified the shape as significant is simply not logical. To say the wave sorting of objects is a code because it represents the actions of waves is a human concept, it has no independent reality...

Eewww....

Telepathy, all aliens can do that... Induced hallucination That might do it... Of course it makes sense Mr Anderson... Actually you have a healthy skepticism, I bet most people would settle for the beings in post #9

Dr. Ziplock: Do something, you're the pilot! Blaznee: How about if I eject?

I heard that examine was a bit less than descriptive of what actually happens.... BTW, Spaced invaders is very funny.... "3d and driving don't mix kids"....

Watch "Spaced Invaders" to find out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaced_Invaders "Who died and left you in charge?... Captain Bipto"... Careful, I hear it involves being polled....

That's why the Trinitrotoluene award is so much fun!

I think chilled_fluorine should win the poll and get the coveted Trinitrotoluene award... "here let me light that up so you can get the full effect" Quote from "spaced invaders"

They always say to relax, tell you that it's only natural, that everyone does it, but being polled always hurts...

Very good comparison...

I have read many books about gods and what they are or like or might be but this book and one trilogy are the best IMHO... http://kencyr.wikia.com/wiki/God_Stalk http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaea_trilogy

I'm not convinced we would notice... if the true percentage was taken up....

Yeah, that would be pretty convincing but this idea does kind of beg the question of how would you judge a being or group of beings that claimed to be gods...

The code is created by a mind... ours, DNA is only a code because we call it a code, it is really chemicals that direct the actions of other chemicals, if you wanted you could call the way various shapes of shells are sorted out by ocean waves a code that represents the waves themselves but I wouldn't say the waves were created by a mind but the idea it could code for the shapes of the waves is created by a mind... ours...

How many times did he punch you? I've heard this argument for years, some of them actually asserted that when Jesus comes back he will bring back any animals that are nesesarry.... I honestly don't understand that point of view at all. I once actually came to blows with a guy who was fishing on the pier one night and was killing all the baby sharks he was catching, some nights they are caught by the hundreds, he was convinced that sharks were dangerous creatures that lusted for human blood and that he was saving peoples lives...

I have a dream, that one day Americans will vote with their intellect and not their emotions, one day politicians will be judged not by which religious agenda they support but by reality... I have a dream... but lately it's been a nightmare....

I'm not sure what you mean by this...

No that's not what I am saying at all, my fault for the less than accurate title but what I am suggesting is not comparing God to Star Trek, that would be silly. but indeed if it turns out that all planets with life are identical or at least so similar to earth they have the same species of plants and animals to the extent that humans and humanoids from those planets can mate due to their DNA being so similar it would indicate some guiding influence. I just used star trek as an example of what I would show as an example of a intelligently designed universe, or created by a god or gods. I am not trying to replace religion with star trek....

I was thinking more along the lines of the life on other planets being exactly the same even to the species level, in Star Trek Humans can mate with and have children with many of the other humanoids the DNA is so similar. Plants are so similar that even on a planet never explored medicinal plants can be identified due to being the same species as plants on Earth. If life on other planets was the same as life on earth down to the species level, sycamore trees were sycamore trees and oak trees and pine trees, a very boring prospect IMHO, wouldn't it indicate a common creator for them all? Just a random idea from a late night Star Trek marathon...

The water in the new house was full of hydrogen sulfide and devoid of oxygen not to mention containing sulfur dioxide, I was in a hurry to move and simply didn't test the water parameters. They are great fish, but the need a tank with 3' wide by 8' to 12' long foot print, height should be around 2' or more. Shovelnose sturgeon are next on my agenda. If I can find a few fingerlings... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shovelnose_sturgeon

I have often been asked what would it take to make me believe in a God, Gods, or Goddesses and i usually use the flippant answer of make the sun stand still in the sky or move planets around but if you really think about it advanced technology could conceivably do that. Another idea is that if the universe really turns out to be not only life friendly but actually allows for FTL space travel but being life friendly and allowing for FTL space travel is also not proof of the divine. But what if we find out that space travel is easy, FTL is easy, say some unknown zero point type energy allows for it and we find that not only are Earth like planets common but that they are truly Earth like down to the species of plants and animals we see on the Earth or have fossils of on the Earth and humanoid beings most of which are as human as we are dominate all those planets, much like the Star Trek Universe! Now that to me would be, if not proof, then suggestive enough for me to believe there is a divine hand guiding the universe. The Star Trek Universe is a creationist universe!!! What say you?