Thread:Nixeu/@comment-226878-20141116063152/@comment-226878-20141215231827

There's no need to feel sorry for me, Nix. Believers and cynics exist on two sides of the same coin: both seeking validation for their beliefs albeit in different ways. I used to be a believer (though as a Christian, not a scientist), but became cynical about 8 years ago. I am an apopheniac and as such, my primarily belief is in grand conspiracy. Every story ever told has a touch of bias, but some more than others have been manipulated in order to deceive the masses. Was Jesus the son of God? Or did he simply get hold of that drug from Zambia that makes people look like they're dead? Is there a hole in the ozone layer or is that just a trick of the government to promote less use of energy? Don't get me wrong, I don't think conspiracies are inherently bad. It's just difficult to entertain the theory without harboring a soul-sucking thirst for proof.

I believe man is descended from the Neanderthal. That's a reasonable assumption to me. I do not believe that apes are our "cousins" or at least no more than any other animal would be. I believe that our universe was created in the blink of an eye and is expanding. I don't believe it's something that just happened. I don't know that there is a singular existence that created us, but something did. I don't believe in life on other worlds. I do believe in a higher plane of existence without time or physical limitation.

You wonder why scientists are viewed the way they are. Here it is: "Get rid of that and so much work goes out the window it's scary. And if our dating techniques are THAT off, it actually throws a huge amount of doubt on how we think the universe works, too. Radiation, decay rates, chemical reactions... not to mention having to explain why what we observed was so different from what was really there." The whole of scientific theory is more or less believed to be posturing to uphold the theories that have been laid down. You say Higgs Boson dealt a blow to the physics community. But how did it affect the scientific community as a whole? No matter how one field may change, generally, the whole is preserved. If there is a god, generally, scientists (except for Christian scientists) will not admit to it until such time as the powers that god possesses can be duplicated by men. It's an amazing contradiction that the beauty in a mystery is that it inspires people to exert effort to solve it.

My only issue with evolution which I believe I've stated multiple times, is that it applies only to inoculation and the odd physical change which is in no way an adaptation to environment. In other words, a species that does not fly will never fly. A species without gills will never have them. At least not without some meddling. Species have the ability to become stronger, but they will never change. Spiders will always have eight legs. Horses will always have hooves. Dolphins will always have blow holes, etc.