[aldo_14]

Originally posted by an0n
The reason the volume is thought to be sufficient is because people don't count things like insects.

And , if you go by the exact wording of the Bible, it should be two of every animal. Which means two blue whales, two killer whales, two whale sharks..........

I think the Ark size calculations someone did only involved a specific holy subset of animals (holy to Judaism in some way, think it was about 17 species or something)

I think flood/deluge myths are very common (i.e. not just in Christianity / Judaism, but also Hinduism, etc).  Some would say that means there must have been a great flood for all these myths to exist, but flooding on a large scale is scarcely a rarity...and all these myths do is promote a belief based upon the assumption that it helped survive said disaster.  Perpetuated by mouth over time, a major flood becomes one covering the globe.

[Setekh]

Originally posted by PhReAk
i doubt thats what an0n thinks, but some people do over in the US.

pretty scary if you run into those sorry ****s.

Yeah, I recognise that some people do. But as you point out, it would be pretty ridiculous if you went for that alternative, and not logically sustainable. I know I certainly don't prescribe to that. But again, we'll discuss it later.

[an0n]

The Mayans believed the Earth had been destroyed several times before.

Incidentally:

The Mayan long count calendar is a list of days in the Fourth Sun, the current cycle of the world. The calendar simply ends on Dec. 21, 2012 (the winter solstice), and the Mayans did not offer a calendar addendum to specify anything much happening after that.

A variety of modern intepreters have taken this to mean that this is pretty much the end point of time, but since the Mayan language is still largely incomprehensible to scholars, the details of the whole thing are kind of obscure. One could argue that the Mayans just figured they had enough time to get around to doing the next 5,000 year cycle, but then bear in mind you're dealing with a mentality that felt it was reasonably urgent to chart out the first 5,000 years in hourly increments. Procrastination doesn't seem to be one of their big problems.

[Blitzerland]

I agree with you, an0n, but how do you explain the creation of the Earth?

Pure coincidence? There were so many billions of factors that had to be set just right for the Earth to support our life.

Earth wasn't created by accident. But I don't believe in creationism.

Kind of an enigma, isn't it? Neither theory is correct. They can't be.


EDIT: Heeeey! My title reads Bakha now! Ooo-oo!

[an0n]

Originally posted by Blitzerland
I agree with you, an0n, but how do you explain the creation of the Earth?

Pure coincidence? There were so many billions of factors that had to be set just right for the Earth to support our life.

First of all, it wasn't setup so we could live. We adapted to suit existing conditions.

If we'd evolved on Mercury, you'd still be asking the same stupid question (with the planet names exchanged).

Secondly, it happened because it happened. If it hadn't happened, we wouldn't be here and we wouldn't be able to ask the question. So every lifeform throughout the universe can validly ask that very same question, regardless of their biology or chemical make-up.

[Blitzerland]

You're correct, an0n. We evolved to fit the Earth, the Earth doesn't cater to our needs.

But still, we cannot survive without oxygen. We couldn't adapt to fix that. What if our atmosphere didn't have the precise amount needed to keep us alive?

And yes, it happened because it happened, but why did it happen? That's the question...

This is getting confusing...

EDIT: Mercury never did have a proper atmosphere to support life. All life needs SOME kind of air (that won't melt em').

EDIT2: I don't believe in creatonism, but I don't believe in the Earth being randomly created. I confuse myself

[Stealth]

Originally posted by an0n
If it did rain enough to flood the Earth, then that rain had to come from somewhere.

The only place it coulda come from is if there was a massive evapouration prior to the flood. Which would mean massively increased salinity if the sea. Which would mean the death of every sea-bound creature.

since if you believe in the flood you obviously believe it's a divinely "inspired" flood, since no flood would just "happen" like that... therefore perhaps the rain didn't logically come from the sea...

i mean, if it did, then where did all that water go?  enough to cover every landmass?  that's a LOT of water, so don't go saying that it's all evaporated

[an0n]

Originally posted by Blitzerland
You're correct, an0n. We evolved to fit the Earth, the Earth doesn't cater to our needs.

But still, we cannot survive without oxygen. We couldn't adapt to fix that. What if our atmosphere didn't have the precise amount needed to keep us alive?

Then we would've died and this would be a moot point. there's probably a few hundred billion forms of primeval lifeforms that weren't so lucky.

And yes, it happened because it happened, but why did it happen? That's the question...

The laws of probability.

[Blitzerland]

Um...that doesn't make sense to me. But it makes more sense than creationism. So i'll go with luck and probability.

[Bobboau]

the atmosphere of eaarly earth was beleived to be quite nasty, there was no oxygen, it wasn't untill plant like things came about and started churning the stuff out did was any life even able to tolorate O2, you see oxygen is in the same family as a bunch of other rather nasty gasses, it's caustic and corosive, it's just that we have spent the last 4 billion years liveing in this stuff that we have evolved to survive in and take advantage of the energy in it

[aldo_14]

Originally posted by Blitzerland
I agree with you, an0n, but how do you explain the creation of the Earth?

Pure coincidence? There were so many billions of factors that had to be set just right for the Earth to support our life.

Earth wasn't created by accident. But I don't believe in creationism.

Kind of an enigma, isn't it? Neither theory is correct. They can't be.


EDIT: Heeeey! My title reads Bakha now! Ooo-oo!

Not if you presuppose the possibility of an infinite number of parallel (or even consecutive, if you go for the big-collapse/reboot theory, albeit that's restarting time so it's sort of parallel, anyways) universes.... i.e. if something is happening trillions of times, then even the longest odds will come true in one 'iteration'.

(ref. to other 2 posts)

Also, the oxygen level of Earth is something which we have adapted to, again.  Life evolved to use oxygen as it became dominant in the atmosphere, and those that couldn't tolerate these levels, died off - simple as that.

finally, we don't know that life requires air.  Earth life requires air, for all we know there could be organisms that thrive in complete vacuum living off solar energy, for example.   That's the beauty of the universe IMO... anything is possible, regardless of how alien it appears to us

[karajorma]

The earliest lifeforms didn't need oxygen. The current thinking is that life probably started off in the black smokers - volcanoes deep in the ocean. Life here was most likely sulphur based and didn't need oxygen at all.

Eventually something evolved that could photosynthesise (or a process similar to it for which oxygen is a waste product) and so the oxygen levels in the atmosphere began to rise. Eventually this hit the level were something else figured out how to use this oxygen. Since then the amount of oxygen has stayed balanced because the oxygen given out by planets is balanced to that taken in by animals.

Since humans evolved in this finely balanced system it's easy to think that it is necessary for life to evolve. It isn't. It just happened to be the conditions that existed on Earth when we did happen to evolve.

[aldo_14]

Oxygen's a metabolic poison anyways, isn't it?

Um, and is this a contender for the most OT topic ever?

[Ford Prefect]

I have this powerful suspicion that if we can ascertain the link between Napoleon Dynamite and the origin of life, we will have discovered the ultimate truth that presides over the harmonic symphony of the universe.

[Grey Wolf]

Have a potential explanation for the prevalence of the Flood mythos in the Mediterranean region courtesy of National Geographic:
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/blacksea/ax/frame.html

[aldo_14]

Originally posted by Ford Prefect
I have this powerful suspicion that if we can ascertain the link between Napoleon Dynamite and the origin of life, we will have discovered the ultimate truth that presides over the harmonic symphony of the universe.

42!?

[Blitzerland]

Originally posted by Ford Prefect
I have this powerful suspicion that if we can ascertain the link between Napoleon Dynamite and the origin of life, we will have discovered the ultimate truth that presides over the harmonic symphony of the universe.

Harmonic symphony does not best describe this movie...if it can even be called that.

[Ford Prefect]

I know, I saw it. It made me want to laugh and cut myself at the same time.

But maybe there is some link that we've all overlooked in the daze of our tumultuous daily lives....