

  (Source: Matt Groening/Fox)
Crucial gene controls higher brain growth


I. It's All in the Genes





Rhesus macaque
[Image Source: Mark Snelson]







Human brain activity




Source: Nature Communications

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By FastEddieLB on 11/23/2012 10:15:53 PM , Rating: 2
I'm not even going to bother reading your post because the headline tells me everything I need to know about you:

You are narrow-minded.

Not because you are religious, but because you refuse to believe the possibility that evolution is the answer to how, but not the answer to why. The two ideas of God and Evolution are not mutually exclusive and do fit together, provided you have the open mind to accept it.

People who dismiss God and similar theistic concepts due to absence of evidence are just as narrow-minded as those who dismiss science because of imagined conflicts with their religious beliefs. After all, nobody believed the world was round for a long time because there was no evidence of it.

By xthetenth on 11/24/2012 1:25:32 PM , Rating: 2
Why shouldn't someone dismiss god due to lack of evidence? There's a huge difference between believing something doesn't exist due to lack of evidence (which is effectively trying to prove a negative) and believing that since something has no observable effect on any of the universe that it is of inconsequential importance and there's no reason to include it in your view of the cosmos. Occam's Razor is a pretty good guiding principle here. It doesn't matter what's lurking out there in the unexplained gaps until it does something, and in doing something it gives us measurements to discern its nature from. Until then there isn't much point guessing. Sure, denying the possibility is narrow-minded, but believing in one specific theistic explanation as a major component of your worldview and denying the infinite other possibilities is even more narrow-minded because it's adding terms to the equation where the net effect of those terms has to be zero and it's insisting that one specific answer is the right one. What if there's something extra and it just so happens to be the one that I am invested in rings pretty hollow as a line of reasoning.

Just so you know, the Greeks had pretty good estimates for the circumference of the Earth. Look up Eratosthenes. He calculated a remarkably accurate value for the circumference of the earth and for the axial tilt of the Earth. Equally important to what you're saying, he tried to calculate the circumference of .the Earth.

Once people had the basic geometric tools to reason about such things, they discovered them rapidly. Such is the progression of all science and technology. Discover something about the workings of the universe, and derived knowledge follows quickly

By drycrust3 on 11/24/2012 7:31:35 PM , Rating: 2

You are right, the work of Eratosthenes is amazing. According to Wikipedia he calculated the earth as about 25000 miles in circumference, while modern measurements say it is 24909. To get that close with the numbering system he was using and that all the maths was done the long way is an amazing feat, but did you know the Bible contains a feat of mathematical precision is actually even more incredible? In fact this feat would have left Eratosthenes astounded. True!
Did you know that someone calculated the number of days from the issuing of the decree to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem by Artaxerxes Longimanus to the day when Jesus rode the donkey into Jerusalem was exactly 173880 days?. "So what" you say. "That isn't anywhere near as good as what Eratosthenes did". The big difference is this person did it IN ADVANCE, i.e. they calculated the number of days BEFORE even the decree was issued! No, I'm not kidding, this person calculated that 173880 days after the issuing of the decree to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem which the Babylonians had destroyed Jesus would ride the donkey into Jerusalem. The decree was issued about 169 years before the birth of Eratosthenes. After doing the calculations, the person sent his most important messenger to the prophet Daniel with the results in his writings that have come to us from antiquity.
Here is the link for you to look at:
p.s. the person I elude to as "the person" is God.

By retrospooty on 11/25/2012 1:32:50 PM , Rating: 2
At least, that is how it was written after the fact. Then milled over and changed by teams of control freaks at the Vatican before finally "canonized" into what we know as the bible today.

I find the bible nothing but a joke. If you aren't in agreement, I beg you to go read the old testament again. The god described there isn't some all powerful all knowing being that created us all. The god described in the bibles old testament is childish, petty, jealous and vengeful. A true picture into the mind of the primitive uneducated men that wrote the book.







