If we put the parts of a million watches in a big box and shake this box randomly for billions of years, isn't it possible that one watch would come together and work accurately? If there was a watchmaker who knows the design and has the ability to make the watch perfectly the first time, why would he take billions of years and leave so many traces of trial and error before making it?
For most people, the idea that natural selection and evolution are the real creators of our race is ludicrous even though there is so much evidence to support it. I think this is in part due to the fact that 3.5 billion years is a time so long that most people can't even begin to imagine it. When compared to our relatively short lives, a person tends to mistakenly underestimate such a long period and the amount of events that could take place during it. When this is added to humans' desperate need not to feel lonely, their inherent feeling of extreme superiority to other creatures, and the religious brainwashing almost every person has been undergoing since he/she was a child, I find the outcome quite expected.
Sometimes, I find myself wondering if our race (and especially our society) will ever be able to dig itself out of the comfortable hole of denial and ignorance it's so determined to stay in, consider the facts subjectively, and face reality.....
8 comments:
An interesting way you put it!! But the chance that life emerges is actually higher than a watching being fit perfectly. The difference is, the watch act is almost purely random. Evolution provides a systematic way for higher order beings to exist. This systematic process yields better results than a purely random process.
PS: random here is used in a lose sense
Anyways, no: humans will always live in denial. Even me and you are living in denial at some level. But also evolution means survival of the fittest. Since truth and reality provide a higher survival value, I think people will be more enlightened with time. But still there will always be parts of denial, it a human nature.
In fact, the simplest fact that we are deluded to believe that we can think is a state of denial. Our mind is simply an advanced for of artificial intelligence. But most people are in denial to that part as well!!
It's so convenient to have one point of view and consider all others just "Ignorant and in denial". In fact it's even more convenient to explain everything with natural selection evolution and the universe ultimate probably that this will happen.
What's which is all nice and dandy, but that's only one way of looking at it nonetheless. The fact that 95% of the citizens of planet earth who believe is super power doesn't matter. But isn't it also a 100% fact this this argument can never be proven either way!? Isn't it possible that there is conceivable super natural powers that we have just not witnessed in our dot in this universe?
Isn't it conceivable that we're WAAAAAY too young as a race to consider or understand how the universe works?
Our Greatest achievement so far has been landing a man on the moon which took 3 weeks, and this is really like just getting off the couch and to the kitchen. Imagine, going out of the house, and to another country, or a whole other continent! now imagine that... but consider going to the next solar system. That's how far the NEAREST galaxy is to our own!
Yet, some people are "ignorant" enough to consider everything science barfs at us ... as ... Fact!
By the way, welcome to Qwaider Planet
It's so convenient to have one point of view and consider all others just "Ignorant and in denial"....That's exactly what religion does. The good thing about science is that nobody ever tries to trick you into believing they have the whole truth. Every piece of information we get through science is well-documented, explained, and supported by evidence. If a scientist used a method that's uncertain he would state the observations he made and how he reached the conclusions he presented, then it is up to you to make your mind about them.
Think about the advances science made in how we see the world. People believed the world was flat and supported on the back of a giant tortoise. They thought the earth was the center of the universe. They thought diseases were caused by demons. It was science that proved these ideas wrong and chaged them (Naturally, after fighting religion that supported them). Think of the last 100 years and how much our view of the universe changed during them. Relativity, quantum mechanics, genetics are only some of the great outcomes.
Scientific skepticism is the core of science and the source of its strength. Scientists sometimes work on theories for 10 or 15 years only to find out they were wrong. And once they do, they immediately update their views and opinions. How many muslims, christians, jews, or any other religious people that you know are willing to do that?
I agree with you that we are still in our infancy as a race. However, I believe that religion is based on blind faith, hence, it's extremely inflexible and unable to cope with our ever-changing understanding of ourselves and our world. So to mature, we simply need to observe, test, and update our opinions daily rather than take for granted what someone wrote 1000 or 2000 years ago.
And by the way, thank you :)
Those who don't read history are cursed to repeat it
Many of the human heritage have been uncontested for thousands of years. No one takes anything for granted. And believe me, if there was a magic silver bullet to kill all religions with it would have been used already
The fact that religions still survive, and flourish with a huge influx is a a proof that these ideas have withstood the scrutiny and test of times
Even the greatest of scientists throw their hands in the air sometimes and concede that .. it's beyond them!
The father of relativity was a very religious man who believed in God ... I think for someone who is smarter than 99.999% of the population of earth to admit that is another interesting observation.
Anyway, this argument has been going on for thousands of years now, and I seriously doubt we're going to resolve it right now
And You're welcome :)
I agree that the argument isn't an easy one to resolve, however, I just have some remarks regarding your last comment. Firstly, Einstein wasn't a religious man. Devil's mind shared some interesting Einstein quotes in this post that I think shed a different light on the matter. I would also recommend that you read this list which contains some of the greatest minds humanity has known.
I think religion lasted so long due to obvious reasons. Amongst which is the fact that it addresses some of man's biggest fears and insecurities. And the fact that up until recently, scientists didn't have enough knowledge, or power to challenge it.
That being said, I think this issue would take a long time to be settled, if ever....
Great post! Seriously, really enjoyed reading it. Good to know we still have some (sane) people in the Arab world.
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