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Politics : Should God be replaced? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Krowbar who wrote (564)	8/29/2000 10:09:59 AM
From: TigerPaw	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 28931

My cat doesn't give a rip about any great plan, The hypothesis is that humans need a plan because they are aware of their mortality and would get depressed and quit reproducing without one. Kitty is blissfully unaware until actually confronted with a snarling dog. It's still just a hypothesis. TP

To: Krowbar who wrote (564)	8/29/2000 10:53:02 AM
From: epicure	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 28931

I don't think Cosmic means a plan the way most people mean plan- I think he means an underlying organizational structure to the universe- that we do not understand right now- like the unified field theory. But maybe not- that's just the impression I got.

To: Krowbar who wrote (564)	8/29/2000 4:43:25 PM
From: cosmicforce	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 28931

The word "plan" was quoted for a reason. Life is a highly localized contradiction to the rules of thermodynamics. It obeys the laws, but in a surprising and unexpected way. Entropy always increases in random processes, except in the case of life. Life is the reversal of that on the local scale, at the expense of the large scale. All that I'm saying is that there IS a layer beyond what we know. WHAT that layer actually is and how it works are at the very least the subject of conjecture and great interest. When people talk of serendipity, they are talking about the meaningful coincidence of context about which I am speaking. I can't tell you how often it happens, just that it does. Last week I dissected the eye of a horse fly for my kids. It wasn't random in the least bit and as an engineer it struck me as a simply a "good design". I won't say WHO's design, but A design nonetheless. There is a plan whether people, cats, you or I believe in or not is irrelevant to the "plan" ... As a scientist, it is great to watch it unroll before our eyes through the process of gradual discovery. BTW, have you ever played mind games with your cat? It's kinda fun. They are really tuned in and you can mess with them. Stare at your cat and think about dowsing it with a big bucket of ice water ( just THINK about intensely, picturing the act in detail, what the cat's response would be to it and THEN watch the cat's face and ears while you do this). It helps if they are watching you. I usually apologize to them after the experiment. Afterall, it isn't a very nice thought.