hit the nail on the head

No, I made no mention of her ex-husband, she talked about him plenty. But she was, shall we say, a bit of a "sauce monster." Not necessarily a problem but the sauce was screwing her life up. She was unfocused and pretty much acted like a sixteen year old most of the time. That said, I talk to her now and she sounds like an adult. Like I said, really happy for her.

It's what you make of it I think. I have had a few women come on to me like drunken prom dates on here and the rest ignor me. So sometimes its fast and other times its slow, but always an odd pace for sure.

So, I just got off the phone with my most recent ex-girlfriend. We talked for about an hour about life, how things are going and such, and it occurred to me. If she would have had some of the realizations about life that she's having right now, things may have worked out between us. As it stands, her ex-husband and her are getting back together, which is great. Her kids are exited, and she sounds like she's finally pulling her life back together. I am truly happy for her.

But another weird thing occured to me while we were talking. This always happens to me. I spend months in a dead-end relationship with no future trying to help out here and there, just throw in my two cents when the moment is right, and give some guidance. Then a month after the breakup they end up doing all the things I was trying to encourage while we were dating and their life seems to right itself. Seems a very peculiar phenomenon. She even told me about some habits of mine that she now understands from her new perspective and how much better off she is now.

Even though I'll probably be lonely for the rest of my life I guess I can take some comfort in the fact that people's lives seem to change for the better after knowing me. Thoughts? Anyone else seem to be stuck in this scenario?

They all influence everyone, whether you're agreeing with them, arguing against them, or trying to ignor them, they still have influence.

Windows most of the time.

A/C if it's over about 98 deg or the car is rolling slower than 30, but I do need to cut the windows open periodically even in that case so I can smoke.

On the racetrack, windows up and no AC. Get's hot in there but if you wanna race....

Very nice post abracadabra, well written and a good overall breakdown of how evolution is currently believed to operate.

As far as the dice rolls go, it's funny that you should mention it. When I get time I work on a philosophical book (that I have been working on for quite a while) where I show that randomness, in its definition meaning that something can happen without cause (like rolling a die or an event occuring without any cause, such as spontanious radioactive decay, or other strange quantum happenings which are supposed to be entirely random and without cause), is impossible, and the argument is very well founded. Articulating it becomes a problem in some cases, which is one of the reasons I invest so much time to write very little comparatively. It's nice to see by your response of "yes and no" that someone else out there has contemplated the problem.

A generalized response, of saying that atoms can group together to form complicated structures naturally (crystalline structures, complex products produced by living organisms like tannin and photosynthetic "juices" like chlorophyll) is a good generalization of the possibility for atoms to group up and form more complicated structures, like a cell wall, but I don't think that it really digs at the heart of my question. A cell wall or even a container for a virus is the most basic structure neccessary for every life form that we know about, and would have had to come about by chance. If we could find the conditions that make this structure possible to occur, then we would know a great deal more about evolution, conditions on earth at the time of evolution, and the conditions neccessary to bring it about. We would also have a better idea of how fast it can take place. IMHO, evolution will remain no more than a strong theory that I happen to agree with until something like this can be demonstrated in a laboratory. Most of what we think we know about natural history is speculation, though, and very little actually has documentation of experiments that could make it possible. Exactly the same kind of reasoning justifies aliens, "there's just too many stars and planets for their not to be aliens." Maybe so, but it's still just speculation.

Watching some of those videos from the first post while packing to go offshore. This guy actually makes some valid points which is not normal for evangelists, but (as scientists do as well) carries his conclusions outside of the scope of the argument. The problem as I see it is that on both sides of the argument are skewed this way. The problem is that people want to take emotional reactions rather than just concentrating on the evidence.

Creationists believe in the bible.
Evolutionists believe in the speculation of scientists, not the data.

Both want to push their beliefs rather than trying to figure out what is really going on. Evolution is far too simple an explanation to be completely true, and Creation doesn't have a stem in any kind of scientific thought and is based on a book that has been ripped up and revised so many times that it hardly exists anymore.

Instead of claiming the the person on the other side is stupid, try looking at their evidence (if they are scientists) or where their faith (and I really hesistate to say this because most kinds of faith really are a little silly) might fill in some gaps, do some experiments, and investigate everything, rather than rushing to conclusions or throwing out evidence of any kind. There actually is some nice evidence around that the general scope of science doesn't even talk about, because it's weird (Like a persons DNA chains throughout their entire body changing suddenly or sealed glasses of water from the same bottle registering different contaminants when studied later) and doesn't fit into the typical scientific paradigm.

I agree that the evidence points to evolution, but if the evidence is so striking, then lets have a thread about the specifics of it and an adult discussion instead of bickering about it. There is no need to DEFEND evolution, it is a pretty well formulated theory.

I on the other hand like to investigate all of the smaller pieces as well, and there is something fishy happening with evolution that needs to be fixed. Survival of the fittest doesn't explain much, and something that can't be replicated in a laboratory is not proven, even by the scientific model (not perfect, but pretty rigid compared to any other means availible).

It's not my intention to "bash" science or anything else, but I like digging for the answers that are harder to get to. So if y'all don't mind, let's look at fishy detail number one. If this is beyond the scope of this thread let me know and I'll start another for this topic.

Fishy Detail #1
Protein synthesis can be repeated in a laboratory, it is a valid theory and the conditions of the earth prior to the first life forms support the theory. We can demonstrate in a lab how to make protein soup from primordial goo. But what is the mechanism that makes this goo form up together to make complicated structures like whole cells? I seem to remember something about RNA being produced in a lab but did a quick search and didn't turn up anything. RNA -> DNA, This one I can accept without needing an experiment to show it to me, but take something slightly more complex like forming bacteria, and we seem to be at a loss. Has anyone heard any GOOD theories about how bacteria form from protein soup? I would be happy to know this thing and expand my knowledge of the subject area.

You should know by now that such is impossible on this site, people get on the forums to ***** and complain about what other people have to say.

I'm only going to say this once. NEITHER theory is completely proven and I'm not taking one side or the other. Post a video showing me how an eye could evolve or give a good, detailed argument on 'speciation' and I'll gladly watch/read them.

Secondly I am NOT a creationist.

Thirdly, the fact that you so blindly criticize arguments against your own theories show a lack of commitment to said theory. I investigate all of my theories and try to prove them wrong so that I can come up with better theory. Yell and scream all you want, but evolution is a good theory, not a proven fact. That's why it's called a theory.

I've viewed some of the videos that you've posted only months ago, Bush, and they still demonstrate a survival of the fittest philosophy, so who's running on outdated material? I would be more than happy for you to show me something new, but I don't waste time trying to defend one argument or the other now days, I only look for ways to strengthen them, and last I checked, there weren't too many many novel ideas on this argument on either side of the equation, but evolution was "on top."

If she gives you any crap about it tell her not to "cry wolf." Simple as that. If one of my friends pulled that **** I'd call 911, go over to their house with a bag of popcorn and watch, follow them to the emergency room, and the second I got one foul word about what I did I'd tell them to call me when they grow up and walk away.

But I've been told that mine is a subjective opinion.

Did you see that. a typing MONKEY!!! Call the press, it's a typing MONKEY on the internet!!!!!


Sorry mate, couldn't resist, friends?

Well, I think nearly everyone in this post has seen me before and most have mixed opinions of me at best, but I can't resist this post.

I'm not watching your videos, sorry. I've heard the arguments.

Anyone who actually pays attention to my threads knows that I'm both a scientist and deeply commited to my faith, two things that are not easy to reconcile.

To answer you're post though, evolution does have a few "holes" but the people who hate evolution usually don't have the mental prowess to consider such topics.

One is how you go from a creature with no eyes to a creature that has eyes. Eyes by their own wright are complicated organs and current theories on evolution are incapable of demonstrating how they could spontaniously come into existence, even as "light feelers" which respond to light and dark. Which leads to my next point.

The mechanism for evolution is not completely understood. Darwin's survival of the fittest theories are outdated at best and some of these little key points still need to be decoded, like how single celled organisms can possibly evolve to multicellular organisms in what seems like an instant in history.

Third, evolution, like most scientific theories is not proven. Proof is irrefutable evidence and that doesn't exist for evolution. We have observed creatures being born with slightly different attributes, but the attributes are never enough to constitute a different species. Look at all the dog and cat breeders out there who have tried everything and never come up with anything but a dog or a cat. Geckos are subjected to a LOT of experimentations in this field but still, only geckos come from the breeding.

That said, I am actually a proponent of evolution as it fits better with my spiritual theories than some massive creation buisness, but comparing evolution to creation is like comparing apples to airplanes. Evolution may have a few "holes" that need to be sorted out but the biblical view of creation is just moronic. Does that mean that it isn't true though? Of course not. None of us were here 6000 years ago to see it. For all we know there could be a devil that invented all this "scientific evidence" to fool us, or we could be trapped in the matrix, so you can't rule out creation completely, but you can say that based on evidence gathered that it seems like a silly thing to believe in.

WHO TOLD YOU ABOUT THAT PICTURE?????

don't tell anyone that I'm sweet. I got a reputation to protect.

have a nice trip.

sorry never got to use that emoticon before.

I thought it was a sound profile, well put together, concise and to the point. If anything I would say clarify exactly what you mean with that last sentence, sounds like you just cut off at the end instead of closing, but that's just my high school english teacher babbling in my ear. Feel free to swat her.

Like I said, well put together. Few extra photos never hurt anyone, but your photo pretty much does the trick.

Welcome to the site.

My mind was in the gutter at the first post, now I'm just rolling in gutter goo.