23. SOFT ATTRIBUTES OF HUMAN BEINGS
There is enormous "soft" non-physical (psychological, spiritual) complexity in human beings that seems to me to have no relevance and no way of coming into existence with a mechanical evolution from molecules model.
Following are some quotes, statistics and phrases to consider:
23.1. SELF SACRIFICING LOVE
Sir John Templeton "Agape Love: A Tradition Found in Eight World Religions" (35)
Works of love find a high-minded financier
William R. Macklin, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Winter 2002
Sir John Templeton cares so much about agape love that he's even written a book about it. But when he's asked to define it, he pauses, lets a few reflective moments waft by, then, almost cryptically, says, "It's easier to tell you what it is not."
"It is not eros love. It is not filial love. It is not tribal love," says Templeton.
Then, the one-time financier reaches into the recesses of the complex mind that helped conceive the rudiments of global investment and finds a definition that seems to belie all the hard-nosed tactics associated with the business world in which Templeton made millions.
"It is pure love for every human being with never any exception," he says.
Love, boundless and all-encompassing, a concept the ancient Greeks termed agape (AH-gah-pay) but that Templeton says exists everywhere and knows no sectarian boundaries.
"I might even say that the universe is an expression of God's love," he says.
Templeton, a lifelong Presbyterian who turns 87 tomorrow, expounds the prevalence of universal goodwill in his recently published book, Agape Love: A Tradition Found in Eight World Religions. The founder, chairman and chief donor of the foundation that bears his name - which pays upwards of $35 million a year for the scientific study of spiritual faith - Templeton is a forceful, sometimes controversial figure in the world of ecumenical theology.
Before remaking himself as a sort of Indiana Jones in search of lost spiritual virtues, Templeton made a fortune in international finance as the founder and head of the Templeton Group of Mutual Funds.
But while he once commanded the forces of global capitalism, he now seeks to understand the vast, "mysterious force" of agape.
Its disparate strands are evident in Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Confucianism and American Indian religions, Templeton maintains. Agape is the charity, kindness, forgiveness and compassion expressed by believers everywhere, he says. At least everywhere that the human ego has been brought into check.
http://www.templeton.org/sir_john_templeton/phillyinquirer.asp
I find it very difficult to conceive how what is described above could evolve from a primordial soup.
Agape Love
A Tradition Found in Eight World Religions
John Marks Templeton
The tradition of agape, or unconditional love, is not exclusive to any one religion. Actually, it is a major underlying principle found in religions worldwide. The concept of altruistic love is one that challenges the spiritual person to "love your enemies," or to "love without thought of return." It is a love that flows out to others in the form of compassion, kindness, tenderness, and charitable giving.
Buddhists have a path of compassion, where caring for others becomes the motivating force behind existence. Hindus have a branch of yoga, the heart-centred path, that leads to enlightenment through an overwhelming love for God that takes the form of loving all of humanity. Eastern religions, such as Taoism and Confucianism, see transcendent love as an essential part of true wisdom.
The Jewish faith carries the essential message of agape in this passage from Leviticus: "You shall not hate your brother in your heart... but you shall love your neighbour as yourself." - Lev. 19:17f. This is very similar to the New Testament passage: "You shall love your neighbour as yourself." - Matthew 22:39.
The universal theme of love is found in all religious traditions, whether Buddhist, Christian, Islam, or others. As we begin to realize that all religions have at their core this spiritual principle of love, we can develop a sense of common humanity. The religious tradition of agape love examined in this book will serve as an inspiration for those who are learning to grow in compassion and love for all people.
http://www.conexuspress.com/catalog/agape_love_world_religions.htm
Various phenomena or experiences that seem to me to be spiritual and not amenable to explanation by spontaneous evolution and yet which are referred to throughout the Internet representing the thoughts of millions of writers (statistics as at April - May 2004) -- love (122,000,000), passion (15,4000,000), telepathy (277,000), intuition (1,690,000), intuitive (3,230,000), empathy (843,000), feelings (8,320,000), feel (57,500,000), emotion (4,930,000), emotional (9,430,000), fear (18,700,000), fearful (1,130,000), laugh (7,050,000), laughter (3,110,000), joy (15,000,000), joyful (1,170,000), happy (41,600,000), happiness (5,380,000), anger (6,500,000), angry (6,580,000), numb (1,300,000), numbness (503,000), stress in human terms, other uses of this word -- stressful (1,270,000), hugs (1,640,000), hug (2,410,000).
Continuing: kiss (14,800,000), smell (4,720,000), taste (13,700,000), lust (7,660,000), lustful (294,000), lusting (121,000), covet (225,000), covetous (111,000), magic (30,500,000), luck (11,800,000), hypnosis (1,540,000), hypnotize (298,000), curses (884,000), curse (3,400,000), lucky (11,800,000), selling (34,500,000), sell (58,100,000), market (89,500,000), marketing (71,400,000), perfect (41,300,000), perfection (3,500,000), mercy (5,290,000), grace (13,400,000), intuition (2,140,000), intuitive (3,260,000).
Evidence of creativity in humans -- music (224,000,000), song (43,900,000), art (180,000,000), dance (39,400,000), imagine (12,900,000), imagination (5,970,000), vision (32,000,000), visionary (1,650,000), cognitive (5,490,000), cognition (1,520,000), experience (75,100,000), experienced (16,800,000), knowledge (51,700,000), abstract (62,100,000), abstractness (23,900), abstraction (1,800,000), concept (22,800,000), conceptualise (166,000).
There are a huge number of references to music and art.
Non tangible attributes of knowledge and ability: IQ (15,800,000), psychology (14,100,000), psychometric (277,000), psychiatric (3,180,000), semantics (2,710,000), individuality (793,000), knowledge, experience, experienced.
How did all this come to pass spontaneously and randomly when it all fits together in such a complicated and congruent manner? Why is it so difficult to believe in a creator who created this entire environment and creates us in all our complexity in order to teach us about things like love, joy, caring, compassion, empathy, passion, partnership, sacrificial love, putting others first and innumerable other intangible and abstract concepts all directed at assisting us to learn to know Him better day by day.
Surely learning about these things and how to apply them in a holistic, integrated manner for the better service of those around us is the ultimate test of fitness (as in survival of the fittest)?
Evidence of a need for plans or guidelines or other assistance in order to reliably create things -- recipe (14,700,000), plan (108,000,000), design (167,000,000), analyze (13,900,000), analysis (72,000,000), guide (103,000,000), "step by step" (7,930,000), instructions (29,900,000), teach (14,100,000), teaching (32,200,000), blueprint (1,290,000), "change management" (1,890,000), "how to" (23,000,000), coordination (8,210,000), liaison (4,670,000).
Evidence of a consideration of beauty and form -- aesthetics (1,440,000), beauty (41,500,000), beautiful (38,000,000, proportion (7.030,000) -- various meanings not necessarily what i had in mind.
People working collaboratively -- teams (25,300,000), teamwork (1,780,000), marching (2,160,000), army (27,200,000).
The numbers are offered without comment other than to say that they are an indication of the level of interest of human beings in these subjects and therefore an indication of the probability that these non-tangible attributes exist and, i submit, evidence of a higher creative authority in creating this level of abstract, non-tangible complexity.
23.2. POWER OF WORDS
You've heard of the saying, "A picture is worth a thousand words?" Well, it's also true that "a word is worth a thousand pictures!" Let me show you what I mean. Like the dentist example earlier, it's hard to picture, say, "calculus removal." Wouldn't you agree?
But with "beautiful smiles," you can instantly visualize teeth that are (among many other things): shiny, white, stainless, straight, unbroken, clean, healthy, strong and perfectly aligned!
You see, words are extremely potent! So, the words you pick are CRITICAL!
When you use the right words on your website, they all have a sort of magical power to make your visitors salivate with mouth-watering envy and mesmerize them to the point that they're whipping out their credit cards, pleading with you to sell them your products!
http://www.webcopysecrets.com/?13168
"power of words" (59,600)
The Power of Words
Emotional appeals, fallacies, manipulations, disinformation,
misdirection and Political Correctness
Generally, when people get their own way with others, they do it with words; they want others to agree with their point of view, give them what they want, do what they ask and buy what they are selling. From the car salesman's hard sell, the hammering of television commercials, the relative's request for a loan, the doctor's diagnosis to the child's pleading to stay up late, the seduction and/or assault of words is continuous.
In these verbal contests between one person's desires and another's, some people find they always lose, convinced they must be wrong, while others consistently win; their logic, their reasons are so powerful, so compelling, they almost force others to change their opinions, their beliefs and their behaviour to comply with what's being asked.
This enormous power is in the meaning of the words, what they mean to the person who hears them. Far more than simple communication, truth, falsehood and the infinite shades between them, words have the power to manipulate other people's thinking and behaviour. These powers have been defined as fallacious arguments.
There are 20 or so of these misleading and deceptive arguments. Their tremendous power lies in the fact that they elicit emotional responses in those who hear them. While the arguments appear to relate to the subject under discussion, they do not. In most cases they have little to do with the subject at all.
Their danger lies in the fact that decisions based on them are not based on truth, common sense, logic, legality, one's best interests or right and wrong but on emotions favouring those who put forth the more powerful arguments. They are designed to benefit someone else!
As emotions are constantly changing, opinions and decisions based on them also change. They are not stable, dependable or consistent over time. At any moment, they can be overthrown by someone else's more compelling argument. Unknowingly making choices based on emotional appeals and logical tricks, one allows others to control their thinking, and their behaviour, setting themselves up to be used for someone else's interests.
Recognizing these arguments for what they are renders them ineffective and powerless. Knowing them to be false and self-serving, one can separate their emotional responses from the subject at hand, knowing they are not the same thing.
http://www.aniota.com/~jwhite/words.html
23.3. PLEASURE AND SEX
I have personal experiential evidence that the coupling of male and female can be ecstatically pleasurable and give rise to sensations that reach great intensity. I am aware of an enormous body of evidence that this is an extremely widespread experience. There are numerous writings on the subject of sexual pleasure and the statistics below indicate that one of the most prevalent uses of the internet relates to people interested in sex.
Searches on www.google.com resulted in the following statistics -- orgasm (4,040,000), sex (214,000,000), lovemaking (545,000), "sex technique" (66,900)
Sex rates with art and music in terms of frequency of occurrence.
This compares with "argument from incredulity" (578), "reductio ad absurdem" (41,000) reported previously and bible (24,200,000), Jesus (24,000,000), Quran (1,010,000), Muhammed (393,000), Christian (48,900,000), Islam (9,540,000), Mohammed (2,010,000), Koran (986,000), Christianity (6,310,000).
Compare this with -- creation (21,200,000), evolution (18,100,000), "proof that there is no creation" (1,110,000)
There are approximately 4.4 times as many instances of "sex" than of "Christian" and 11.8 times as many instances of "sex" than of "evolution". In May 2004 Web pages with the word "sex" represent over five percent of all the web pages indexed by Google.
In April 2002 "sex" was the sixth most frequently searched word on the internet -- http://www.waller.co.uk/web.htm
The site literotica.com which publishes explicit erotic literature was ranked by www.Alexa.com as the 719th most visited web site in the world.
It seems that there is a reasonable basis to suggest that sexual pleasure is one of the most significant interests, if not the most significant interest, on the Internet and, as i see it, by extension, on the planet.
This relates to something that is not tangible and is not necessary for chemicals in a "soup" to combine together randomly to create human beings. In fact, sex is a massive obstacle to non-creative evolution -- it is inconceivable that the two parts could come together without an overarching architect come engineer.
Words indicating interest in sex: "sexual intercourse" (676,000), slang for sexual intercourse (f...) (32,200,000) and f...ing (29,500,000), vagina (6,710,000), slang for vagina (c...), (6,690,000), penis (17,200,000), slang for penis (c...), (25,1000,000), vulva (793,000), slang for vulva (p....), (39,500,000), labia (510,000).
There is a close association between the concept of love and sex "love" and "sex" (10,500,000).
Pornography as an indication of a level of interest in sex that does not seem to me to correlate with any concept of spontaneous evolution, there does not seem to me to be any reason why an evolving animal (humankind) would have such an interest in such things -- porn (70,400,000), pornography (3,850,000), "sex pics" (4,670,000), "live sex feeds" (54,600), "sex videos" (2,560,000). Particularly when the same level of sexual obsession is not evidenced at comparable levels in any of the life forms from which humans have supposedly evolved.
Sexual chemistry as a non physical phenomenon that seems to me to indicate a level of complexity that seems to me to be spiritual and difficult to explain in terms of spontaneous evolution -- "sexual chemistry" (20,700), pheromones (374,000), hormones (2,690,000), stroke (9,010,000), erotic (56,100,000), erotica (8,670,000), caress (817,000), tickle (769,000), erogenous (69,300), "cold woman" 2,970, "cold man" (10,900).
Sex is associated with religion at a seemingly significant level "sex in religion" (1,400), "sex and religion" (11,500), "sex" and "religion" (both words on the same page) (5,220,000).
23.4. NON-ESSENTIAL PARTS OF THE HUMAN BODY
The human body has a number of appendages that appear to only have relevance in the context of biblical requirements. The foreskin is an apparently unnecessary organ (472,000) except in the context of circumcision (793,000).
The clitoris is an apparently unnecessary organ which it does not seem could be explained by spontaneous evolution -- clitoris (2,560,000), slang for clitoris (c...) (3,650,000).
The so called "G Spot" in women is another seemingly redundant organ "G spot" (643,000) that only has relevance in creating human beings to obtain pleasure from sexual interaction in a way that brings about a level of sexual interaction that certainly in humans is dramatic.
It is reported that about 10% of women experience a direct stimulatory link between their nipples and their clitoris -- how did the nerves come into existence that make this possible, what evolutionary purpose do they serve, how do they satisfy any survival criteria?
Orgasm as a phenomenon that it does not seem to me could evolve without a creative intervention "multiple orgasm" (32,700), "simultaneous orgasm" (22,100). It requires the ability in both parties to stimulated and simultaneously be stimulated at a level that is at least partly psychological. How did this happen in random, non-engineered evolution -- the mechanics involved all point to a highly sophisticated design and precise engineering control and standards to enable this to be present in over six billion human beings today.
Another phenomenon that does not seem to have any useful purpose in the context of spontaneous evolution is "female ejaculation" (395,000) it seems to me that it may even work against fertilization in the same way that the design of the cervix as an outward facing cone appears also to work against fertilization. Both of these items seem to support a view that the primary purpose of the female human sexual organs is pleasure not reproduction.
Consider also masturbation as a seemingly unnecessary act in terms of spontaneous evolution, not appropriate for survival -- masturbation (6,650,000).
23.5. VIRGINITY AS SOMETHING THAT SEEMS PARTICULARLY UNNECESSARY
Emphasis on virginity as seeming evidence of creation -- virginity (642,000), virgin (20,6000,000) supported by an organ that does not seem to have any relevance in terms of spontaneous evolution the hymen (327,000).
The hymen (or maidenhead) is a membrane </encyclopedia/membrane> which completely or partially occludes the vaginal opening in human females. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "membrane". Because sexual activity would usually puncture this membrane, its presence has been considered a guarantor of virginity </encyclopedia/virgin> in societies that place a high value on female chastity </encyclopedia/sexual_abstinence> before marriage.
Hymen
http://www.sciencedaily.com/encyclopedia/hymen
Yet the Bible attaches very strong importance to virginity and indicates clearly that a woman who is not a virgin is not free to marry another man.
Deuteronomy 22:13-29
13 If any man take a wife, and go in unto her, and hate her,
14 And give occasions of speech against her, and bring up an evil name upon her, and say, I took this woman, and when I came to her, I found her not a maid:
15 Then shall the father of the damsel, and her mother, take and bring forth the tokens of the damsel's virginity unto the elders of the city in the gate:
16 And the damsel's father shall say unto the elders, I gave my daughter unto this man to wife, and he hateth her;
17 And, lo, he hath given occasions of speech against her, saying, I found not thy daughter a maid; and yet these are the tokens of my daughter's virginity. And they shall spread the cloth before the elders of the city.
18 And the elders of that city shall take that man and chastise him;
19 And they shall amerce him in an hundred shekels of silver, and give them unto the father of the damsel, because he hath brought up an evil name upon a virgin of Israel: and she shall be his wife; he may not put her away all his days.
20 But if this thing be true, and the tokens of virginity be not found for the damsel:
21 Then they shall bring out the damsel to the door of her father's house, and the men of her city shall stone her with stones that she die: because she hath wrought folly in Israel, to play the whore in her father's house: so shalt thou put evil away from among you.
22 If a man be found lying with a woman married to an husband, then they shall both of them die, both the man that lay with the woman, and the woman: so shalt thou put away evil from Israel.
23 If a damsel that is a virgin be betrothed unto an husband, and a man find her in the city, and lie with her;
24 Then ye shall bring them both out unto the gate of that city, and ye shall stone them with stones that they die; the damsel, because she cried not, being in the city; and the man, because he hath humbled his neighbour's wife: so thou shalt put away evil from among you.
25 But if a man find a betrothed damsel in the field, and the man force her, and lie with her: then the man only that lay with her shall die:
26 But unto the damsel thou shalt do nothing; there is in the damsel no sin worthy of death: for as when a man riseth against his neighbour, and slayeth him, even so is this matter:
27 For he found her in the field, and the betrothed damsel cried, and there was none to save her.
28 If a man find a damsel that is a virgin, which is not betrothed, and lay hold on her, and lie with her, and they be found;
29 Then the man that lay with her shall give unto the damsel's father fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife; because he hath humbled her, he may not put her away all his days.
(King James Version of the Bible)
So, circumstantially we find a passage in a book which is believed by many to contain commandments from the Almighty which has very specific commandments relating to virginity. There are other passages which support this interpretation.
It therefore seems reasonable to conclude that the Almighty created woman with a hymen and man with a foreskin for very specific covenant purposes. If this is so then the existence of these organs makes sense. If there is no creator it seems difficult to postulate the relevance of these organs in spontaneous non-engineered evolution.
23.6. BABIES AND EGGS
Surely babies and eggs cannot have evolved, they could not survive. Thus the adult must have evolved and then subsequently developed replication by eggs or babies. How did they replicate before this?
Surely the way they replicated previously must be more reliable and more survivable than replicating through eggs which can be eaten, trampled on, etc and which must frequently be left to fend for themselves or via babies who must be nurtured, fed, etc.
Surely if even the newborn child of the two most gifted (however this is defined) people in the world was left in a room with all the food it required for the first twenty years of its life it would die within a few days?
Surely if a number of newborn children were placed in an environment with all they require to grow and thrive and numerous books, tools and materials and they were somehow kept alive until old enough to feed themselves with no education, they would end up as "primitive" people with no material knowledge and experience who would survive by experimentation and accomplish little more than survive?
If not, why does no one conduct the experiment? Surely, if we evolved our new born infants must have some way of surviving without us or else there is a more reliable form of reproduction that we are overlooking.
24. DOES THE THEORY OF EVOLUTION PROVE CREATION?
It seems to me that it takes a great deal of creativity to arrive at some of the explanations i have read about evolution and about why there is not a creator.
Why reject the long history of a creator?
Surely the people closer to the event have more knowledge? -- so if ancient books like the Bible report creation then surely these sources should be regarded as authoritative at some level?