The Blind Atheist

[Lincoln]

So long buddy...

[orange]

Hi Lincoln,

I wrote you an E-mail, a rather long one at that, about your book. Did you recieve it?

[Big Dave]

Originally posted by Goingonit
1 billion.

Ok, postulated that 1 billion years is long enough for random chance to create evolution.

Now, how old is the earth again, and please give evidence.
Thanks,

David

[Jack the Bodiless]

Lincoln:

I agree that the origin of the DNA codon is unknown. However, you seem to trying to inflate this mystery into a greater one by implying that it's a problem for abiogenesis: it isn't, because it occurs at a later stage.

From what we already know about the properties of polynucleotides, we can sketch out a scenario in which a self-replicating polynucleotide structure evolves the ability to produce useful enzymes before the appearance of the codon. These enzymes are chemical catalysts which assist the assembly of new polynucleotides by providing sites where individual nucleotides can meet and link up before being incorporated into the new polynucleotide string. It is therefore probably inevitable that some sort of "modularization" of the polynucleotide will occur, as the evolving "machinery" can then handle standard-sized chunks more efficiently than chunks of many sizes.

[Goingonit]

Originally posted by Big Dave


Ok, postulated that 1 billion years is long enough for random chance to create evolution.

Now, how old is the earth again, and please give evidence.
Thanks,

David

Ancient rocks exceeding 3.5 billion years in age are found on all of Earth's continents. The oldest rocks on Earth found so far are the Acasta Gneisses in northwestern Canada near Great Slave Lake (4.03 Ga) and the Isua Supracrustal rocks in West Greenland (3.7 to 3.8 Ga), but well-studied rocks nearly as old are also found in the Minnesota River Valley and northern Michigan (3.5-3.7 billion years), in Swaziland (3.4-3.5 billion years), and in Western Australia (3.4-3.6 billion years). [See Editor's Note.] These ancient rocks have been dated by a number of radiometric dating methods and the consistency of the results give scientists confidence that the ages are correct to within a few percent. An interesting feature of these ancient rocks is that they are not from any sort of "primordial crust" but are lava flows and sediments deposited in shallow water, an indication that Earth history began well before these rocks were deposited. In Western Australia, single zircon crystals found in younger sedimentary rocks have radiometric ages of as much as 4.3 billion years, making these tiny crystals the oldest materials to be found on Earth so far. The source rocks for these zircon crystals have not yet been found. The ages measured for Earth's oldest rocks and oldest crystals show that the Earth is at least 4.3 billion years in age but do not reveal the exact age of Earth's formation.

The best age for the Earth (4.54 Ga) is based on old, presumed single-stage leads coupled with the Pb ratios in troilite from iron meteorites, specifically the Canyon Diablo meteorite. In addition, mineral grains (zircon) with U-Pb ages of 4.4 Ga have recently been reported from sedimentary rocks in west-central Australia.

The Moon is a more primitive planet than Earth because it has not been disturbed by plate tectonics; thus, some of its more ancient rocks are more plentiful. Only a small number of rocks were returned to Earth by the six Apollo and three Luna missions. These rocks vary greatly in age, a reflection of their different ages of formation and their subsequent histories. The oldest dated moon rocks, however, have ages between 4.4 and 4.5 billion years and provide a minimum age for the formation of our nearest planetary neighbor.

http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/geotime/age.html

[Urban Ranger]

Is it just me, or is Lincoln confused about the distinction between creationist/evolutionist and atheist/theist?

Not all evolutionists are atheists.

[Big Dave]

Originally posted by Big Dave
Ok, postulated that 1 billion years is long enough for random chance to create evolution.

Now, how old is the earth again, and please give evidence.
Thanks,

David

Ok, I'll tell you what. The most liberal figure I've seen is 6 billion. Let's go with that. Would you say that 6 billion is enough to allow for the random formation of life?

David

[Goingonit]

Originally posted by Big Dave


Ok, I'll tell you what. The most liberal figure I've seen is 6 billion. Let's go with that. Would you say that 6 billion is enough to allow for the random formation of life?

David

yes. If you had 6 billion years and an earth-sized bowl of primordial soup (preferably gazpacho) life would form spontaneously. NOTE: you have to have hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, carbon, and iron!

[Lars-E]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger
Is it just me, or is Lincoln confused about the distinction between creationist/evolutionist and atheist/theist?

Not all evolutionists are atheists.

I'd be very surprised if Lincoln didn't know these distinctions Urban. He surely knows that some christians are evolutionists. You just found out right?

You're trolling, huh?