Yes, sundialsvcs, every day above ground is a good one. Just consider the alternatives. I don't fear nor obsess on death. I just wish it didn't last so damned long However if wishes were horses.... we'd all look like Monty Python Knights.

Enorbet, this is tirseome.
To which you replied in post #100Right then, post your references to the peer reviewed papers that prove Life originated spontaneously. As I'm a generous man, I'll even accept a detailed hypothesis that grasps all the nettles showing how life could have come into existence.

More than once I have asked for such,and you can never produce what doesn't exist, because the OOL by chemical means is an unfalsifiable falsehood. And large parts of science are built on that lie. So why put your hand out to be slapped? are you trolling again? As one of our comedians pointed out

Ah, some humility at last! I like that!.

Paul describes Christ, the new Adam, as having come "in the fullness of time", i.e. at what God considered the proper time and not before. Why should that not also have been true of the old Adam, our human race? Why must God be in a perpetual hurry just because you are?

Yes, business_kid, "closer", not wrapped up in a bow as you seem to prefer. Your view seems to be "We can't explain how life sprung up, therefore God did it" It's the ultimate Deus Ex Machina. This just in - We don't know everything..... but we're gaining on it. Corollary: Supernatural superstition is counter-productive. Speaking of "counter" please cite a solid verifiable reference for

"The origin of life on Earth by natural means (i.e. Without God) is a ridiculous and chemically impossible,"

Note: I'm not saying Creation is impossible, just unverifiable and unlikely, while you insist that everything and everyone else is dead wrong except YOUR cult's specific creation myth. How utterly humble of you

At last? I thought humility is infused in everything I write on philosophical subjects. and to some degree, even in the purely scientific. Hunmmans have come a very long way in a very short time and primarily due to Science and a tenacious nature to make up for our lack of tooth and nail... BUT, that's entirely on our own standards. There are quite a few species of animals, some still in existence today, that are essentially uncahnged for many millions of years. That's fact. What isn't yet a fact is how long humans will continue.

I don't see Science as being all-powerful or deserving of what some people in other threads refer to as "the religion of Science". The scientific method as practiced by actual humans if full of faults and only progresses in very small steps, with lots of abandoned paths, mistakes, and rabbit holes. It's just the time-tested best tool we have. At it's best, I see real Science and real scientists as inherently humble.

If I may kindly ask, "who is this 'Saul/Paul' fellow, anyway? How did this single person, who proclaimed himself to be "an apostle" based only on an on-the-road encounter that only he related, subsequently become entitled to write the entire so-called "New Testament?"

It sure sounds like "Roman State Politics" to me!

When Emperor Constantine had finally had his fill of the "Church equals State" status quo which had existed at the time, he replaced the previous pantheon of "Roman gods" with a new system that was based on a regional cult that had emerged in an out-of-the-way and difficult-to-control province of the Empire. This cult was based on a 33-year-old kid who had once again claimed to be "the King of the Jews."

The entire story was based on the premise that he had "risen from the dead," although he never thereafter manifested himself (unlike Lazarus ...) in a clearly-physical form.

As I see it: Roma state politics. Just sayin' ...

Ummm I never said that, sundialsvcs. That was hazel. I'm fully aware that the most likely reason the gospels describe Jesus differently is because those disciples spoke to different crowds.

It's worth pointing out that Paul's epistles came first. They are the earliest Christian documents that we have. The Jesus they testify to is the earliest Jesus that anyone knew about outside of Palestine. The gospels were written a few decades later, towards the end of the first century, when the original eyewitnesses were dying out and the world (contrary to expectation) still hadn't come to an end.

New York Times Opinion Guest Essay: The Story of Our Universe May Be Starting to Unravel

I'm not going to say it's impossible, but I remain very skeptical about these sorts of proposals.

While I realize that what passes for Journalism since the Age of the Internet many writers have learned that lurid headlines create views. It's an evolution of the Print and TV journalism credo , "If it bleeds, it leads" so it isn't new, it's just rampant. In this case where "Guest Opinion" is followed by "The Story of Our Universe May Be Starting to Unravel" and further with the introductory line of

misrepresents Science, our body of knowledge, and reveals the author's lack of understanding of The Scientific Method. Science, expects even depends on updates that refine views often and occasionally discards previous theories. This has changed a bit over time as the base understanding of the fundamental Physics, how things work, even if only for the past few million tears, grew and became interactively communicated where one branch quickly learns what another has done and learned.

It's very important to note that Einstein's theories on SpaceTime and the nature of Gravity did NOT toss out Newton's whole cloth. We still use Newton today far outside and beyond what Isaac could imagine. Even if we at some point in the future find evidence that what was accepted as Law is altered greatly especially in the form of dynamic, changing Physics as opposed to static, locked in Physics, that will not, can not, just toss out the basics as we understand them today any more that Einstein tossed out Newton.

That said, the way Science advances, refinement is absolutely guaranteed. The Sun isn't going to just one day start revolving around the Earth, things won't fall up down here planetside, and whatever we discover new, that there was an event in which our Universe went from a hot, dense maelstrom of energy and expanded and cooled to it's present state (still expanding today) that will remain true. After all, we literally have photographs of it. Any future discovery must contend with that reality.

Unfortunately the craft seems to be having trouble again:
"Recently, the TMU began transmitting a repeating pattern of ones and zeros as if it were “stuck.” After ruling out other possibilities, the Voyager team determined that the source of the issue is the FDS. This past weekend the team tried to restart the FDS and return it to the state it was in before the issue began, but the spacecraft still isn’t returning useable data." December 12, 2023 https://blogs.nasa.gov/sunspot/2023/...er-1-computer/

Death? "'Tis but a flesh wound!"

I have many interesting books on subjects such as "The Quest for the Historical Jesus." And, the origins of both canonical, non-canonical and "heretical" gospels. As well as this very strange person named Paul.

It is really quite remarkable how little we actually know about "Jesus," compared to other religious keystone figures. Of course, it is unremarkable to consider just how many "copyists" over these many centuries may have had a "hand" in it. These ancient documents "simply are what they are." And, I prefer to read them as such. Knowing, and accepting, that other people feel [very ...] differently.

NSFVoyager2
@NSFVoyager2
"Today I completed 17,000 days of operations, extending my streak as the longest operating spacecraft. I say that with a tinge of sadness, as sister Voyager 1 (launched 16 days _after_ me) still struggles with a malfunction that prevents any downlink of science or engineering data.
3:23 PM · Mar 7, 2024" https://twitter.com/NSFVoyager2/stat...50722057248895

Still some hope for Voyager 1: "NASA Voyager

@NASAVoyager
An update on my twin #Voyager1: The team recently sent a "poke" to prompt V1's flight data system (FDS) and received a signal that differed from past attempts. A DSN engineer helped decode this signal, which may contain clues to the source of the issue:" https://twitter.com/NASAVoyager/stat...44155853570559

"NASA Engineers Make Progress Toward Understanding Voyager 1 Issue"
https://blogs.nasa.gov/sunspot/