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 George Simpson, an evolutionist
Author: SL Lee 
Date:   07-19-07 05:53

As one of the founders of the "modern synthesis" of evolution, paleontologist George Gaylord Simpson argued that the fossil record supports Darwin's theory that natural selection acting on random variation in a population is the driving force behind evolution. Simpson was among the first to use mathematical methods in paleontology, and he also took into account newly discovered genetic evidence for evolution in his study of paleontology. In his 1944 book, Tempo and Mode in Evolution, Simpson divided evolutionary change into "tempo," the rate of change, and "mode," the manner or pattern of change, with tempo being a basic factor of mode. Simpson saw paleontology, revealing the long history of life on earth, as a unique field through which to study the history of evolution.

George Gaylord Simpson: Natural Selection and the Fossil Record:


The early part of the twentieth century saw evolutionary theory embattled by disagreements over Darwin's emphasis on natural selection. The then-newly rediscovered work of Gregor Mendel in the nineteenth century was an uncomfortable fit with evolution, as many scientists saw it. They weren't at all certain that natural populations contained enough genetic variation for natural selection to create new species. So they entertained other explanations, including inheritance of acquired characteristics, "directed" variation toward a goal, or sudden large mutations that resulted in new species.

In the field of paleontology, the scientist who did most to resolve these questions was George Gaylord Simpson (1902-1984), who was on the staff of the American Museum of Natural History for 30 years. At a time when other paleontologists were convinced that the fossil record could best be explained by directed variation, Simpson disagreed. He said that fossil patterns needed no mystical or goal-oriented processes to explain them. For example, where others saw the modern horse as having arisen in a single advance toward the specialized form, Simpson saw the path as that of an irregular tree that had many side-branches leading off to extinction.

Simpson argued that the evolution of mammals, as seen in their fossilized remains, fit perfectly well with the new mechanisms of population genetics being studied at the time. He used the then-new mathematical methods to clarify how evolution occurred in "gene pools" in populations, not in individual members of the population.

Importantly, he showed that gaps in the fossil record reflected periods of substantial change through rapid "quantum evolution" in small populations, leaving little fossil evidence behind. At other times, he observed, rates of change could be so slow as to seem almost nonexistent.

----------------

"Life is the most important thing about the world, the most important thing about life is evolution. Thus, by consciously seeking what is most meaningful, I moved from poetry to mineralogy to paleontology to evolution."
----- George Simpson, PALEONTOLOGIST & EVOLUTIONIST (1902-1984)

The fact - not theory - that evolution has occurred and the Darwinian theory as to how it occurred have become so confused in popular opinion that the distinction must be stressed.
George G. Simpson


=======

Evolution is a fact, not theory.

Abiotic synthesis is repeatedly done in laboratories. Under the optimized conditions, inorganic compounds (carbon monoxide, methane, nitrogen..) can form amino acids, nucleic acid bases, which are the basic building blocks of life.

http://users.rcn.com/jkimball.ma.ultranet/BiologyPages/A/AbioticSynthesis.html
http://www.americanscientist.org/template/Login?nextpage=AssetDetail&print=yes&assetid=48545&fulltext=true&message=PageAccessDeniedMessage

To quote one sentence without citing the article is to take Professor Simpson's statement out of context. It is unethical and unscholarly.


--------------

SL Lee

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 Re: George Simpson, an evolutionist
Author: bobo05 
Date:   07-21-07 01:08

Even Dr. George Simpson, American paleontologist and evolutionist, confessed that:

”. . . All life comes from life. That is one of the really great and fundamental generalizations of biology”.

This means theory of evolution's break down.

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 RE: reply
Author: bobo05 
Date:   07-21-07 02:27

Even if the theory of evolution is a fact, a God is still necessary to put the intelligence and laws behind the evolutionary process.
Otherwise, there would be NO BEAUTY, NO INTELLIGENCE, NO ORDER in this world.

Moreover, the theory of evolution is still a theory.

___________________________________________________________

Paralysed Woman Instantly Cured

An almost totally paralysed 60-year-old Italian woman has been instantly cured of her illness in Lourdes in the past week.

"I am overjoyed, most happy, Our Lady of Lourdes has cured me," said Giulia Mongelli Tofani, who prior to her visit was almost completely helpless and had to be spoon fed by her family.

"When I came to Lourdes I was full of anguish, now I feel like a cricket," she said. "I can walk up and down. I climb the stairs, I go up and down now and never stop. I laugh and joke."

Giulia is convinced a miracle has occurred and top Vatican official Cardinal Camillo Ruini, vicar-general of Rome Diocese who led her party to Lourdes, backed this view when he publicly thanked God and the Virgin Mary for "the gift received by Giulia" on the final evening of her visit.

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 RE: reply
Author: SL Lee 
Date:   07-21-07 10:39

There are many more miracles (something without explanation). There could be a god, but it does not have to be Jesus, Muhammad, or any one with a human face. Do not associate god with any religion. That is the misleading part.


By the way, god did not create the world 4006 years ago. That is for sure a fact.

--------------

SL Lee

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 RE: reply
Author: Andries Zijlstra 
Date:   07-30-07 17:07

bobo05,

I really don't understand what you want to say. Giulia Mongelli Tofani certainly was very lucky to get cured but is this a miracle? And moreover is this a prove that the evolution is obsolete? When you say that "a God is still necessary" that is an assumption that you don't substantiate. You might mean a superior force that some call God and than I could agree. The visiualisation as a human person is doubtful and subject to many discussions. You know that the difference between a subjective opinion and a scientifically proven statement is vested in reproducible and substantiated evidence?

Regards,
Andries

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 RE: Are they just luck ??
Author: bobo05 
Date:   07-21-08 23:44

Dear Andries,

You said that Giula Tofani was lucky to get cured instantaneously with Lourdes water at Lourdes, France and doubted it was a miracle.

Cured instantaneously. She was not the only person. There were thousands of people before and after her that got cured instantaneously
(although the Vatican only officially proclaimed 67 of them , simply because it takes too long and too much efforts to investigate a case).

If they were just luck, then we can give up studying and make our living by buying lotteries or going to casinos...
___________________________________________________________

The Medical Power of Lourdes Water

There exists no natural cause capable of producing the cures witnessed at Lourdes which dispense an unbiased mind from tracing them back to the particular agency of God.

Those who refused to believe in a miraculous intervention sought at first the scientific interpretation of the occurrences in the chemical composition of the water of the Grotto.

But it was then declared by an eminent chemist officially appointed to make the analysis and his statement has since been corroborated, that the water contains no curative properties of a natural character.

Then the incredulous said, perhaps it operates through its temperature, or the results obtained at Lourdes may be accounted for by the bathing in cold water.

However, every one knows that hydrotherapy is practiced elsewhere than at Lourdes, and that it does not work the miracle of curing every kind of disease, from cancers to troubles which bring on blindness. Besides, many ailing ones are cured without ever bathing in the basins of the Grotto; this decides the question.

Therefore, those who deny supernatural intervention attribute the wonderful results seen at Lourdes to two other causes.

The first is suggestion.

To this we answer unhesitatingly that suggestion is radically powerless to furnish the hoped-for explanation. Omitting nervous or functional diseases, since they are in the minority among those registered as cured at the Medical Office of the Grotto, and the fact we are now establishing does not require them to be taken into account, we may confine our attention to organic diseases. Can suggestion be used efficaciously in diseases of this nature? The most learned and daring of the suggestionists of the present day, Bernheim, a Jew, head of the famous school of Nancy, the more advanced rival of the Ecole de la Salpétrière, answers in the negative in twenty passages of the book in which he has recorded the result of his observations: "Hypnotisme, Suggestion, Psychotherapie" (Paris, 1903, 2nd edition). Studying this work, we find also that in the very cases where suggestion has a chance of success, as in certain functional diseases, it requires the co-operation of time, it cures slowly and progressively, while the complete cures of Lourdes are instantaneous. Therefore curative suggestion is no explanation. It is not suggestion that operates at Lourdes; the cause which cures acts differently and is infinitely more powerful.

There remains the last resource of having recourse to some unknown law and of saying, for instance, "How do we know that some natural force of which we are still ignorant does not operate the marvellous cures which are attributed directly to God?"

How do we know? In the first place, if a law of this nature did exist, the pilgrims of Lourdes would not be cognizant of it any more than the rest of mankind; neither would they know any better than others how to set it in motion. Why should this law operate for them and not for others? Is it because they deny its existence and the others believe in it? Moreover, not only there does not exist, but there cannot exist, and consequently will never exist, a natural law producing instantaneously the generation of tissues affected with lesion, that is to say, the cure of an organic disease.

Why so? Because any growth and consequently any restoration of the tissues of the organism is accomplished -- and this is a scientific fact -- by the increase and growth of the protoplasms and cells which compose every living body. Every existing protoplasm comes from some former protoplasm, and that from a previous one and so on, back to the very beginning; these generation (the fact is self-evident) are necessarily successive, that is, they require the co-operation of time. Therefore, in order that a natural force should be able to operate a sudden cure in an organic disease, the essential basis of life as it is in the present creation would have to be overthrown; nature as we know it would have to be destroyed and another created on a different plan.

Therefore, the hypothesis of unknown forces of nature cannot be brought forward to explain the instantaneous cures of Lourdes. It is logically untenable.. As a matter of fact, no natural cause, known or unknown, is sufficient to account for the marvelous cures witnessed at the foot of the celebrated rock where the Virgin Immaculate deigned to appear.

They can only be from the intervention of God.

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 RE: Are they just luck ??
Author: SL Lee 
Date:   07-22-08 07:02

Bobo,

The question is not if there is a God or natural force that predetermines everything.

The question is who represents God, which church, temple, mosque, synagogue, shrine should we attend to listen to the true god or natural force.

Should the Native Americans hand out all their gold and subdue to the Conquistadors because they held the true God in their hand? Should African Americans turn themselves in to the white masked Christians who burn white crosses?

If you believe in prophecy, there are quite a few Chinese prophetic books that might interest you - 烧饼歌,推背图, and Nostradamus. They are all Medieval books. I am not a believer in any of them. Just for fun, you can compare what other hidden messages can also build "faith".

Did you read the news that the resurrection story was an old one before Jesus was born?

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/06/world/middleeast/06stone.html

Welcome back after a full year of silence. You seem to be trying to find some answers. But they have to be better and you have to wrok harder.
--------------

SL Lee

Reply To This Message
 
 RE: Are they just luck ??
Author: Zhao Yun 
Date:   07-22-08 17:39

Hahaha..... Krishnamurti once said, "To believe means you DON'T know. Otherwise, why would you want to believe?"

It is like saying, "I'm afraid of the unknown" The truth is how can you be afraid of something you don't even know??? Isn't it ridiculous? ROFL :-)

Be Happy!

Reply To This Message
 
 RE: Scam ...?
Author: bobo05 
Date:   01-12-10 08:37

Me looking for an answer ? No, I was just too busy. Nice to be here again.

What did you mean I have to work harder ?

Did you mean 150* years of Lourdes Healing is simply a scam ?
During those 150 years, millions of people went to Lourdes and got cured,
did they got cured just by placebo effect ?

Oh, 150 years of placebo effect curing .... hmmm.......
If placebo effect is THAT MIGHTY, should people stop studying medicine and learn to cure by placebo effects instead ??

*Started in 1858, when Bernadette Soubirous saw the Marian apparitions
at Lourdes, France. Bernadette Soubirous' body is still incorrupt today.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Medical Power of Lourdes Water

There exists no natural cause capable of producing the cures witnessed at Lourdes which dispense an unbiased mind from tracing them back to the particular agency of God.

Those who refused to believe in a miraculous intervention sought at first the scientific interpretation of the occurrences in the chemical composition of the water of the Grotto.

But it was then declared by an eminent chemist officially appointed to make the analysis and his statement has since been corroborated, that the water contains NO curative properties of a natural character.

Then the incredulous said, perhaps it operates through its temperature, or the results obtained at Lourdes may be accounted for by the bathing in cold water.

However, every one knows that hydrotherapy is practiced elsewhere than at Lourdes, and that it does not work the miracle of curing every kind of disease, from cancers to troubles which bring on blindness. Besides, many ailing ones are cured without ever bathing in the basins of the Grotto; this decides the question.

Therefore, those who deny supernatural intervention attribute the wonderful results seen at Lourdes to two other causes.

The first is suggestion.

To this we answer unhesitatingly that suggestion is radically powerless to furnish the hoped-for explanation. Omitting nervous or functional diseases, since they are in the minority among those registered as cured at the Medical Office of the Grotto, and the fact we are now establishing does not require them to be taken into account, we may confine our attention to organic diseases. Can suggestion be used efficaciously in diseases of this nature? The most learned and daring of the suggestionists of the present day, Bernheim, a Jew, head of the famous school of Nancy, the more advanced rival of the Ecole de la Salpétrière, answers in the negative in twenty passages of the book in which he has recorded the result of his observations: "Hypnotisme, Suggestion, Psychotherapie" (Paris, 1903, 2nd edition). Studying this work, we find also that in the very cases where suggestion has a chance of success, as in certain functional diseases, it requires the co-operation of time, it cures slowly and progressively, while the complete cures of Lourdes are instantaneous. Therefore curative suggestion is no explanation. It is not suggestion that operates at Lourdes; the cause which cures acts differently and is infinitely more powerful.

There remains the last resource of having recourse to some unknown law and of saying, for instance, "How do we know that some natural force of which we are still ignorant does not operate the marvellous cures which are attributed directly to God?"

How do we know? In the first place, if a law of this nature did exist, the pilgrims of Lourdes would not be cognizant of it any more than the rest of mankind; neither would they know any better than others how to set it in motion. Why should this law operate for them and not for others? Is it because they deny its existence and the others believe in it? Moreover, not only there does not exist, but there cannot exist, and consequently will never exist, a natural law producing instantaneously the generation of tissues affected with lesion, that is to say, the cure of an organic disease.

Why so? Because any growth and consequently any restoration of the tissues of the organism is accomplished -- and this is a scientific fact -- by the increase and growth of the protoplasms and cells which compose every living body. Every existing protoplasm comes from some former protoplasm, and that from a previous one and so on, back to the very beginning; these generation (the fact is self-evident) are necessarily successive, that is, they require the co-operation of time. Therefore, in order that a natural force should be able to operate a sudden cure in an organic disease, the essential basis of life as it is in the present creation would have to be overthrown; nature as we know it would have to be destroyed and another created on a different plan.

Therefore, the hypothesis of unknown forces of nature cannot be brought forward to explain the instantaneous cures of Lourdes. It is logically untenable.. As a matter of fact, no natural cause, known or unknown, is sufficient to account for the marvelous cures witnessed at the foot of the celebrated rock where the Virgin Immaculate deigned to appear.

They can only be from the intervention of ...

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