krabapple wrote:…did you actually *look at* those talk.origins sites I posted? You'll see the term 'spontaneous generation' right up top.
Yes, I did look at the one that had a historical overview of “spontaneous generation.” I had a quick look at some of the “hard-core chemistry” stuff, and you weren’t exaggerating:
”If biosynthesis recapitulates biopoesis, then the synthesis of amino acids preceded the synthesis of the purine and pyrimidine bases. Furthermore the polymerization of the amino acid thioesters into polypeptides preceded the directed polymerization of amino acid esters by polynucleotides.”
I have no idea what that means, but I couldn’t help thinking of that quote I saw from Darwin -- "a mass of mud with matter decaying and undergoing complex chemical changes is a fine hiding-place for obscurity of ideas.”
That's simply the old 'argument from incredulity'.
Hold on. I did NOT say, “This is amazing; therefore, God did it.” I said that the design is intelligent, same as I would if I saw a well designed car, for example.
A theory involving intelligent design begs the question of where the 'intelligent designer' came from, and thus is no more parsimonious than one that doesn't.
I don’t understand what you mean by “thus is no more parsimonious than one that doesn't.”
If you find the naturalistic generation of complex patterns absurd , then i guess snowflakes must give you quite a giggle.
If you’re asking, “did God create this snowflake?” my answer is “of course, he created the whole universe.” But my meaning is that God designed the laws and processes that ended up making this particular snowflake, not that God’s snow-making elves just finished creating this one in their heavenly workshop!
And nature exhibits many examples of design that… (aren’t) even particularly competent. This is more charitably explained by current models of evolution, than by positing an absent-minded designer.
So, in effect, your argument is “come on, the design of life on earth isn’t that impressive.” Perhaps if I was more knowledgeable, I wouldn’t be as impressed? The funny thing is, the more I study, the more impressed I get.
…might I suggest again that you spend some time reading the materials at talk.origins?
I will do that.