What if god...

[swansont]

1 hour ago, zapatos said:

That is not a different possibility. That is abiogenesis.

And this supports the notion that Luc is not understanding/misrepresenting the situation; evidence as @Gees requested

[Luc Turpin]

7 minutes ago, swansont said:

You say evidence (which is what science relies on, and not proof) but if there’s no abiogenesis, then life must have always existed. So tell me, what kind of evidence supports that notion - that life existed before the universe was cool enough to even form neutral atoms, and only hydrogen, helium and lithium were around?

Because that’s a binary situation. Either life always existed, or it started at some point. (the latter is the occurrence of abiogenesis)

You seem to be saying there’s a third option. What is it?

Your statement overlooks the possibility that life could have originated without matter, with a non-physical state—such as information—playing a key role instead.

[zapatos]

14 minutes ago, Luc Turpin said:

life could have originated without matter

You've lost me. Can you describe what life without matter would 'look' like? Or information without matter?

[Phi for All]

38 minutes ago, Luc Turpin said:

1. As for 'inane,' it doesn’t add anything meaningful to the discussion.

It seems like the perfect word for what you're doing here. You're denying that abiogenesis is a fact, with some of the worst arguments I've ever seen. Get off the fence and try to learn some science rather than trying to find bits of it that seem to support this inanity.

[TheVat]

19 minutes ago, zapatos said:

You've lost me. Can you describe what life without matter would 'look' like? Or information without matter?

18 minutes ago, Phi for All said:

It seems like the perfect word for what you're doing here. You're denying that abiogenesis is a fact, with some of the worst arguments I've ever seen. Get off the fence and try to learn some science rather than trying to find bits of it that seem to support this inanity.

 

Funny how this thread OP is asking if God is a jerk, which strikes me as an entirely theological topic, and it's stuck looping endlessly on abiogenesis and the creationist totally not creationist totally metaphysically neutral conjecture that it couldn't arise from natural chemical processes and spontaneous local decreases in entropy via self-organizing structures. 

 

[swansont]

1 hour ago, Luc Turpin said:

Your statement overlooks the possibility that life could have originated without matter, with a non-physical state—such as information—playing a key role instead.

So I have to provide evidence, but you don’t?

I don’t even know what a “non-physical state” is supposed to mean

And this doesn’t actually address the issue that you require that life existed at the moment of the big bang (of which, again, no evidence has been provided)

[m_m]

2 hours ago, Luc Turpin said:

such as information

What is information? Is there any definition? 

It is just a word, "information", mans concept. 

[iNow]

7 hours ago, Luc Turpin said:

life could have originated without matter, with a non-physical state

[Luc Turpin]

The basic information needed to form atoms, galaxies, and life was already encoded at the time of the Big Bang. This "information" refers to the fundamental patterns and laws that govern matter and energy, shaping the universe’s development. These non-physical patterns guided everything, including the evolution of life. As an implication, the precursor to life may have been non-physical, with information being carried by energy without matter.

When specifically applied to the origins of life, this idea offers a new perspective: rather than life emerging solely from chemical reactions, it might have arisen from an informational structure that controlled how atoms and molecules interacted. In this view, life’s key components are the informational patterns that organize molecules, rather than the molecules themselves.

While speculative, this challenges the traditional materialistic view, suggesting that life and the universe are shaped by non-physical informational patterns that direct the evolution of matter and life. 

Edited 5 hours ago by Luc Turpin

[dimreepr]

20 hours ago, swansont said:

Put another way - we’ve seen this behavior long before ChatGPT came along. 

Blaming stuff on bots is kinda lazy. 

To be fair, the last time I explicitly called someone a troll I nearly got arrested, it's hard work to figure out a more subtle implication...

[iNow]

1 hour ago, Luc Turpin said:

The basic information needed to form atoms, galaxies, and life was already encoded at the time of the Big Bang.

By what? By whom? Via what medium if even the universe itself didn't exist yet?

You're making an argument for determinism and you're doing it poorly with obvious false premises and logical inconsistencies. 

1 hour ago, Luc Turpin said:

the precursor to life may have been non-physical, with information being carried by energy without matter.

Yeah, or maybe it came from a leprechaun fart which is basically equivalent to the claim you're making. 

1 hour ago, Luc Turpin said:

While speculative, this challenges the traditional materialistic view

What it "challenges" is credulity. 

[exchemist]

13 minutes ago, iNow said:

By what? By whom? Via what medium if even the universe itself didn't exist yet?

You're making an argument for determinism and you're doing it poorly with obvious false premises and logical inconsistencies. 

Yeah, or maybe it came from a leprechaun fart which is basically equivalent to the claim you're making. 

What it "challenges" is credulity. 

Ah, but don’t forget, this is not creationism, no indeedy. 🤔

[Luc Turpin]

50 minutes ago, iNow said:

By what? By whom? Via what medium if even the universe itself didn't exist yet?

You're making an argument for determinism and you're doing it poorly with obvious false premises and logical inconsistencies. 

Yeah, or maybe it came from a leprechaun fart which is basically equivalent to the claim you're making. 

What it "challenges" is credulity. 

Some physicists, including Penrose, Smolin, and Hawking, have explored the idea that the initial conditions of the universe were set from the very beginning. The more speculative point I’m raising is that, in addition to these conditions, the potential for information and the prerequisites for life might have also been embedded in the universe’s origins. With this, I’m using an example to suggest that a narrow focus on abiogenesis might limit our exploration of life. To be clear, I’m not claiming that this hypothesis is correct, but rather highlighting how it might shape our approach to understanding life.

[iNow]

You seem to be using words in ways they're not normally defined. I really wish you would CHAIR doing that. It makes your POTATO fail. 

[Luc Turpin]

1 minute ago, iNow said:

You seem to be using words in ways they're not normally defined. I really wish you would CHAIR doing that. It makes your POTATO fail. 

You have an unconventional way of getting your point across, so in a way, that makes us even.

[iNow]

3 minutes ago, Luc Turpin said:

even

I do not think that word means what you think it means

[Phi for All]

1 hour ago, Luc Turpin said:

To be clear, I’m not claiming that this hypothesis is correct, but rather highlighting how it might shape our approach to understanding life.

Sitting on the fence, shouting that something's wrong, not sure what. Not a skeptic's stance. How long are you going to stick with "might shape our approach"? It's pretty weak but you seem to think it's important.

[zapatos]

1 hour ago, Luc Turpin said:

The more speculative point I’m raising is that, in addition to these conditions, the potential for information and the prerequisites for life might have also been embedded in the universe’s origins

Seems this discussion needs be moved to speculations where you are free to provide evidence that this is possible, and not just something you've pulled from the dark recesses behind you.

[swansont]

3 hours ago, dimreepr said:

To be fair, the last time I explicitly called someone a troll I nearly got arrested, it's hard work to figure out a more subtle implication...

Or you could, you know, NOT DO IT AT ALL, since it’s off-topic.

3 hours ago, Luc Turpin said:

The basic information needed to form atoms, galaxies, and life was already encoded at the time of the Big Bang.

I refer you to the cartoon iNow recently posted. You’re using “information” as a hand-wave, and it doesn’t actually change anything.

But here you admit that life didn’t exist at the time of the big bang, so it arose later. Thus, abiogenesis happened.

 

3 hours ago, Luc Turpin said:

This "information" refers to the fundamental patterns and laws that govern matter and energy, shaping the universe’s development. These non-physical patterns guided everything, including the evolution of life.

How can you demonstrate that? What is your evidence that anything was guided? 

3 hours ago, Luc Turpin said:

As an implication, the precursor to life may have been non-physical, with information being carried by energy without matter.

Energy is a property, not a substance. Energy can’t carry information. It’s whatever has that energy.

 

3 hours ago, Luc Turpin said:

When specifically applied to the origins of life, this idea offers a new perspective: rather than life emerging solely from chemical reactions, it might have arisen from an informational structure that controlled how atoms and molecules interacted. In this view, life’s key components are the informational patterns that organize molecules, rather than the molecules themselves.

You’ve just described chemical reactions, and the laws that govern them 

 

1 hour ago, Luc Turpin said:

Some physicists, including Penrose, Smolin, and Hawking, have explored the idea that the initial conditions of the universe were set from the very beginning. The more speculative point I’m raising is that, in addition to these conditions, the potential for information and the prerequisites for life might have also been embedded in the universe’s origins. With this, I’m using an example to suggest that a narrow focus on abiogenesis might limit our exploration of life. To be clear, I’m not claiming that this hypothesis is correct, but rather highlighting how it might shape our approach to understanding life.

As you’ve done before, you’re asserting something without a solid definition, in this case of information, and trying to construct a nebulous argument based on it. You might as well call it magic.
 

The notion that the laws of physics were put in place at the time of the big bang brings nothing new to the conversation, despite your attempts to sensationalize it.

[Luc Turpin]

The point I wanted to make is the fact that abiogenesis hasn't been fully demonstrated and is widely accepted as a demonstratable fact is limiting the scope of scientific research. That said, this conversation seems to be veering toward 'gotcha' moments, which isn't the type of discussion I had in mind. I also take some responsibility for not presenting my arguments more convincingly.

57 minutes ago, swansont said:

 Energy is a property, not a substance. Energy can’t carry information. It’s whatever has that energy.

I should have referred to force as electromagnetic force, which acts as an information carrier.

Edited 1 hour ago by Luc Turpin

[CharonY]

37 minutes ago, Luc Turpin said:

The point I wanted to make is the fact that abiogenesis hasn't been fully demonstrated and is widely accepted as a demonstratable fact is limiting the scope of scientific research.

Except again, you are wrong. It is not widely accepted as a demonstrably fact, but at this juncture it is considered to be the most likely explanation. So far, there have been no real alternatives with better evidence. This is a very important distinction and it is unfortunately the first time that you are just assuming things as basis for your arguments. This is commonly referred to as strawman argument.

[swansont]

1 hour ago, Luc Turpin said:

The point I wanted to make is the fact that abiogenesis hasn't been fully demonstrated and is widely accepted as a demonstratable fact is limiting the scope of scientific research.

You again fail to distinguish whether something happened with how it happened.

If you deny that it happened, that’s the act that limits research. If you acknowledge that it did happen, only then can you investigate how it happened.

1 hour ago, Luc Turpin said:

That said, this conversation seems to be veering toward 'gotcha' moments, which isn't the type of discussion I had in mind. I also take some responsibility for not presenting my arguments more convincingly.

There’s no gotcha if you know what you’re talking about.

1 hour ago, Luc Turpin said:

I should have referred to force as electromagnetic force, which acts as an information carrier.

Can you explain how, especially without defining what information is?

[Luc Turpin]

1 hour ago, CharonY said:

Except again, you are wrong. It is not widely accepted as a demonstrably fact, but at this juncture it is considered to be the most likely explanation. So far, there have been no real alternatives with better evidence. This is a very important distinction and it is unfortunately the first time that you are just assuming things as basis for your arguments. This is commonly referred to as strawman argument.

I have difficulty expressing myself clearly, and I believe this may be contributing to misunderstandings. Regarding abiogenesis, I disagree with the claim that it is not widely accepted as a demonstrated fact. For example, one forum member insisted that I acknowledge it as a fact before we could even begin discussing the topic, while another argument suggests that because life didn’t exist at the Big Bang, it must have emerged later in this very particular way and in only this particular way.

However, I do agree that abiogenesis is the most likely explanation we have at this time. My main point is this: treating it as a demonstrated fact, without inquiry into other possible areas of inquiry, could limit scientific progress. This is a concern I have, and it’s the only point I’m trying to make at this stage.

To me, it feels like the conclusion of abiogenesis is being accepted prematurely, without a clear mechanism in place, and then framed as the only viable explanation. While we can make similar leaps in other areas—like star formation, where we have a strong understanding of the process—this is not yet the case with abiogenesis.

Lastly, I do not believe my argument constitutes a strawman. I’m simply asking for a more open approach to exploring and questioning the evidence.