Re: Do dogs go to heaven?

"Phil Saunders" <philip.saunders@xxxxxxxxxxxx> a écrit dans le message de
news: PcrAj.357$334.235@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"PG" <pgk9@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
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"Michael J Davis" <?.?@trustsof.demon.co.uk> a écrit dans le message de
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<snip>

Out of interest Mike; please point me in the direction of a dictionary
that
considers the conditional "may well be" (words carefully chosen in my
original post) to carry the same meaning as "believe there are"?

;-)

"may well inhabit" was your statement, not "may well be". The
implication
being that they exist, but you were in some doubt concerning their
location. ;-)

Of course not Mike, "may" implies a conditional state, period, it's that
simple.

There "may well be" life on other planets, life "may well inhabit" other
planets, means precisely the same thing, and in no sense whatsoever, in
English, does it suggest doubt as to location rather than the existence
of
life in the first place.

OK. I accept that.

I would point out, too, that I have no quarrel with your statement -
there's nothing in Christian understanding that denies intelligent
life
elsewhere. (CS Lewis wrote an interesting Sci-Fi book - "Perelandra" -
on
the concept of an unfallen world.)

However, I don't think there is that much difference - but I'll grant
you
an amendment to my comment - to "believe there may be".
I think my point is valid, as it was the *type* of thinking on which I
was
commenting, rather than the firmness of your fai^H^H^Hbelief.

Sorry no. It means precisely as I described above, and the degree and
subject of that conditionality was made perfectly clear in the original
statement.

Ny point is still that you are prepared to accept a 'may well be' life
elsewhere but not that there might be a creator God.

You will not find a post from me, recently or in the archives, that
states that there is no god. In fact you'll be pushed to find a post from
any atheist that categorically denies the possibility (apart from {R}
;-). Rewording this, I accept the possibility that there is a god. So if
that was your point, it seems that we've just had a wasted debate!

However I would be somewhere around a 2- on the previous scale, ie

1 There is definitely no god
2 There is a slim chance of a god
3 There may be a god.
4 There is a distinct likelihood of a god
5 There is a god

pga

So you hold that it is more likely that there is life on all those other
planets.

Wasnt that what amused in the first place?

Only if you can't read or think straight, I imagine. Seeing as I wrote
nothing of the kind.

Replace your "so you hold that it is more likely that there is life on all
those other planets" (you putting nonsensical words in my mouth) by ...

"So you hold that the evolution of life of some description, **somewhere
else** in the universe other than on Earth, at some point in the ***history
of the universe***, is more likely than the existence of a personal creator
god along the lines of the Christian deity" ... and you would be quite
correct.

** Rough estimate of 50 million trillion (50 000 000 000 000 000 000)
planets in universe.

*** Estimated age of universe of 13.75 billion years. Cellular life forms on
earth are estimated to have first appeared around 4 billion years ago (our
solar system being approx 4.55 billion years old), with complex animals
first appearing a 'mere' 550 million years ago.

- on the basis that the first cellular lifeforms evolved on our cooling
planet within a 500 million year period following its creation,
- given that it took the best part of 450 million years for the Earth's
crust to solidify,
- for the sake of argument, say first life actually appeared within the
first 100 million years after the environment became slightly more
hospitable.

Then let's take a figure of half (probably more really, seeing as the Solar
System is relatively young) of the 50 million trillion planets in the
universe as being around for 140 X that length of time. That's an average of
70 X.

So in this (very) hypothetical situation, that gives 3.5 billion trillion (3
500 000 000 000 000 000 000) "opportunities" (100 million year periods) for
life to evolve elsewhere in the universe other than Earth. That's on the
basis that life might evolve in a form that does not depend on conditions
similar to those on Earth.

So whatever your approach there is a reasonable possibility of life
elsewhere, imo. Even a creationist might find it a little hard to accept
that his god would have created some 10 million trillion stars and 50
million trillion dead planets just to give us a good view.

Then again ... thinking about it ... maybe not. Sadly.

pga
.

Relevant Pages

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