So how did life begin in the first place?

I don't think anyone knows for sure. There are some interesting theories but I'm not a scientist so I can't explain them with any expertise.

Life likely formed when the first macromolecules formed billions of years ago.

And the Theory of Evolution has precisely nothing to do with explaining how life started in the first place.

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"Moreover, I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states...Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial "outside agitator" idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds."



~Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Then what does explain how it formed?

I seem to recall Charlton Heston was allowed to speak his mind at length until he abruptly walked out of the interview once he realized his foot was in his mouth.

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Censorship reflects society's lack of confidence in itself. It is a hallmark of an authoritarian regime. ~Potter Stewart

You seem to be confusing social Darwinism with the biological version. Why am I not surprised?!?!

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Censorship reflects society's lack of confidence in itself. It is a hallmark of an authoritarian regime. ~Potter Stewart

I like fictional stories too: Colorado Confidential:: Science Sunday: Intelligent Design Goes to the Movies


The best part of the review: "For instance, the assumption by IDers is that if neo-Darwinian evolution can be shown to be largely incorrect, ID and creationism triumph. But this isn't so. There are other hypotheses besides design or God or Darwin that could replace it, if they were supported by the evidence. The trouble is that only evolution is so supported. "Expelled" doesn't try to build up a coherent alternative theory. It simply bashes evolution."

Another hilarious observation: "The confusion about the definition of ID is apparent throughout the movie. "Expelled" ridicules a hypothesis proposed some years ago called "panspermia." This conjecture - for which, I hasten to add, there is zero direct evidence (just like ID) -- is that life on earth was originated elsewhere in the galaxy and was planted here, either delivered by alien visitors or remotely somehow. "Expelled," and the audience I saw it with, found this idea laugh-out-loud funny. But think about it. This is exactly ID's hypothesis: Some superintelligence planted life on earth. IDers prefer that the "intelligence" be the God of Abraham, but there's nothing in the hypothesis to rule out visitors from another galaxy."

And then there's this little problem with the "perfection" IDers think they see everywhere: "The ID take on [DNA replication] is: It's so beautiful and complex, a designer must have been behind it. My take on it is: It's so beautiful and complex, why would any designer bother with it? Something like 80 percent of the genetic material in a strand of DNA is not used for anything. It's junk DNA. Surely an intelligent designer could have come up with something simpler."

The most important part of the review: "most evolutionary biologists do not deal with the origins of life. Evolution acts on organisms that already exist. The question of how life came about is not something that Darwinian evolution deals with. "Expelled" acknowledges this, then proceeds to ignore this acknowledgement and fault evolutionary theory for misinterpreting the origins of life. Sigh." And this is the exact seem mistaken conflation the OP makes above. Sigh indeed.

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Censorship reflects society's lack of confidence in itself. It is a hallmark of an authoritarian regime. ~Potter Stewart

As I just said, the origins of life have absolutely nothing to do with evolution. Ben Stein just made a waste of film comparing two things that have nothing to do with one another in an attempt to discredit them. For such a smart guy, he sure is a moron.

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Censorship reflects society's lack of confidence in itself. It is a hallmark of an authoritarian regime. ~Potter Stewart

So, he's no moron then. So what is he? A blatant propagandist for some fundie institution?

As a side note I'll keep an eye out for it here, it may not make it to our shores as the ID thing is pretty much treated as a joke, except by our fundies of course, fortunately they're few on the ground.

STein made a movie that will appeal to Christians at first glance because it's satisfying to have explanstions offered which are easier to fall back on than what they have. It's painful for Christians to not have answers to the questions which are posed on their beliefs. For them this is just in time because it tries to go head to head with science on science's ground.

But the wiser Christians will read up on ID and do some research and if they are astute in the least they will realize that they want to distance themselves quickly and as far away as possible from ID. This ID idea and all that it tries to push across are the worst thing that can happen to Christianity at this crossroad where intelligent people are making a choice on religion, to accept it or not.

On the positive side and from an atheist POV, it's a huge asset to atheists who are intent on working on destroying superstitious religious beliefs in the interest of elevating civilization to higher levels. For this reason we need to encourage the Christians to debate the ID issue because the big let down they receive when they realize they have been duped may just snap some of them to their senses eventually.

HOw dare these Christians numbskulls think that they can go toe to toe with science on science's ground. They will quickly learn that religion needs to be kept isolated from science and the real world. THey can do what they like and believe what they like in their own churches but they better keep it in their churches and in the privacy of their own homes if they don't want to be pounced upon and embarrassed.