Re: History Channel special on astrobiology

verulam wrote:
On Jan 31, 9:12 am, j.wilki...@xxxxxxxxx (John Wilkins) wrote:
J. J. Lodder <nos...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Elmer <nylic...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Overis wrote:
They claim abiogenesis is link to evolution.
Life had to start before evolution could occur.
Now if that isn't a trueism,
So why do creationists seem to have such a problem understanding it? We
seem to have to say that evolution doesn't include the origin of life or
the universe on a daily basis.

--
John S. Wilkins, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Philosophy
University of Queensland - Blog: scienceblogs.com/evolvingthoughts

This is an oft-repeated claim that seems to me a piece of dogmatism.
Unless you claim to know the mechanism for the emergence of life, I
fail to see how you can claim that life did not emerge as a result of
an evolutionary process. In my opinion, it almost certainly did.

It's not dogmatism, it's logic.

If it evolves, it replicates with variation.
If it replicates with variation, it is alive.
If it is alive, abiogenesis already happened.

It is possible life can be incredibly more simple than we imagine now, but that just pushes the boundary back for what could be defined as abiogenesis. Maybe some day the term will be so narrowly applicable that it is trivial and abandoned all together.

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Why Evolution is a metaphysical hypothesis
    ... Your first mistake is confusing evolution with abiogenesis. ... known life and would never arise identically more than once. ... What you need for evolution to occur, is reproduction and errors during ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Christof Koch
    ... Simpler Origin for Life" from earlier this year by Prof. Robert Shapiro, ... Life began with the appearance of the first RNA molecule. ... before proteins and DNA in the evolution of life. ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Re: Christof Koch
    ... Simpler Origin for Life" from earlier this year by Prof. Robert Shapiro, ... Life began with the appearance of the first RNA molecule. ... before proteins and DNA in the evolution of life. ...
    (sci.physics)
  • Re: Christof Koch
    ... Simpler Origin for Life" from earlier this year by Prof. Robert Shapiro, ... Life began with the appearance of the first RNA molecule. ... before proteins and DNA in the evolution of life. ...
    (sci.physics.relativity)
  • Re: Christof Koch
    ... Simpler Origin for Life" from earlier this year by Prof. Robert Shapiro, ... Life began with the appearance of the first RNA molecule. ... before proteins and DNA in the evolution of life. ...
    (talk.atheism)