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Nobel laureate physicist, George Thomson*, said, "Probably every physicist would believe in a creation [of the universe] if the Bible had not unfortunately said something about it many years ago and made it seem old fashioned." He was commenting on the emerging Big Bang model versus the steady-state theory of the universe, but I believe the same dynamic applies to the idea of God himself. In a philosophical vacuum, stripped of all the cultural and religious baggage, I firmly believe most physicists would conclude that a transcendent, timeless, immaterial intelligence best explains why anything exists at all, and why the universe is so precisely suited for life. I'm convinced, because: A) This is by far the most sensible, elegant, and efficient explanation; and B) When I talk to scientists and science-adjacent people about this, their objections are not usually logical, but emotional. We don't quibble over transcendence or immateriality. More often we end up talking about how evil and suffering can exist, or why God was so angry in the OT, or why evangelicals vote for Republicans. These are all interesting questions, but they have nothing to do with the pure explanatory power of a conscious creative force behind the universe. I might start calling this the Thomson Rule: If there were no such thing as religion, probably every physicist would believe in a Creator of the universe. * Thomson, like his father, physicist J.J. Thomson, was Christian.

@redsteeze Noah is frustrating. He says a lot of things I agree with, and I wish more Democrats were like him on a lot of topics, but then he'll randomly slimeball out a bunch of deranged left wing talking points.

Yeah I figured he would do that after calling his ridiculous shit out.. again

@nathanweisser I love the opening paragraph. What would you do without food or a way to move for a billion years? Umm, you would just die.

Truly imagine thinking this developed by chance variation and some goop getting struck by lightning.

@ChubbyFunsterGC Like Tolkien, make the names English sounding and then sprinkle in some of the "real" names that the names you use were "translated" from.

I have written TTRPG content with French-leaning naming conventions and people tell me they don’t like it because they don’t know how to pronounce it. Ex. Town of Auxenon or the peak of Montonnerre. Is it worth it? or should designers stick with English syllables?

I really would prefer that we actually punish the criminals who do crimes with guns, as liberals assure us is very important, before we get to punishing me for not committing crimes with mine.

@ApoloJedi_ Been thinking about this a lot with that recent Nature paper showing humans have "evolved" more than thought in the last 10k years. (It's selection for pre-existing traits or negative mutations)

Evolutionist: "evolution is simply change over time" Apolojedi: Yes, these changes are universally observed to be loss if biological information (devolution) or activation of a pre-existing trait (recessive expression). Evolution cannot produce new biological information

@Joel__Collinson @nattyover No sane person could look at this and think it's the product of random chance.

@nattyover Evolution is the ultimate engineer. Imitating and iterating on it is often a critical consideration.

Bacteria move around using a molecular machine called the flagellar motor that rotates faster than the flywheel of a race car engine and switches directions in an instant. After 50 yrs, scientists have finally figured out how it works. “My lifelong quest is now fulfilled.” Link⤵️

Christ is in the Old Testament.

Alright, so… Jesus uses this same physical symbolic language in John 6 (same as at the Last Supper) to point to a spiritual reality. He does this all the time. “I am the door,” “I am the vine,” and so on. He’s not literally a door or vine or bread or blood. Nothing in the passage forces you to suddenly switch to a literal reading. In fact, He even clarifies that He’s speaking spiritually, linking coming to him and be believing in faith to drinking and eating in that very passage. So when Jesus later reused this exact symbol during the Lord’s Supper, they would’ve known exactly what he’s talking about (belief, and faith, not ritualistic cannibalism of his body). Turns out, context matters, to which you Roman Catholics often flat-out ignore. Speaking of, look at the context of the Lord’s Supper. It happens during Passover, which is a symbolic meal built around remembrance. The bread and the cup already had symbolic, not literal, meaning tied to God’s deliverance. Jesus is simply taking those elements and pointing them to Himself, their true representation. There’s no reason, textually or historically, to think He’s turning them into literal flesh and blood. And this is where the Jewish context really matters. Jews were strictly forbidden from consuming blood. That’s not a minor rule, it’s a major one in the Law, and one that did not change. Cannibalism wasn’t just frowned upon, it was completely unthinkable. So the idea that Jesus is commanding His followers to literally eat His body and drink His blood doesn’t fit the world they lived in at all. It would have sounded offensive and unlawful, not like faithful obedience. I mean, think about Peter‘s reaction when he has the vision of eating unclean animals in Acts chapter 10. Why would they all of a sudden be okay with drinking human blood? So when you put it all together, the symbolic reading actually fits. It matches how Jesus speaks, it fits the Passover setting, and it aligns with what His audience would have understood. The literal view doesn’t have that same support whatsoever.

Most people were taught Darwin’s theory of evolution explains how all life came to be. What if that’s not the full story? Stephen C. Meyer says growing evidence is challenging that idea, and many scientists are now calling for a new theory of evolution. “There’s a huge difference between the idea that natural selection is a real process… and the claim that it has unlimited creative power.” “Many leading evolutionary biologists today are now calling for a new theory of evolution.” “They recognize that the mutation natural selection mechanism has limited creative power.” “It does a nice job of explaining small-scale variation and adaptation.” “But it doesn’t do a good job of explaining… major new body plans or new forms.” @stephencmeyer

They don’t want you to know this but the “we” who cured cystic fibrosis is… that’s right, Big Pharma

@MattWalshBlog No different from straight people who don't marry

Yes

@NewReaganCaucus What I'm seeing is some 51st state candidates. One even comes with an important man in a funny hat completely enclosed! (/s)

Yeah, Western Europe's problems precede Trump.

I never understand why some Christians mock other Christians for this. This is a tangible part of the Second Temple. Both Jews and Christians believe that Gods presence rested in the Temple. Which is why it’s significant to both Jews and Christians

@cremieuxrecueil What led to the government declaring sugar unhealthy?

Fun fact: Sugar consumption only became associated with bad outcomes after healthy people started taking the government's advice to avoid sugar. The harm signal is a result of selection based on differential uptake of the belief that sugar is bad!

French is right about a need for greater kindness in political discourse. But I’ll tell you what’s troubling to me. He behaves as though he and Russell Moore are representatives of that kind of kindness. And yet, as @conservmillen pointed out , his misrepresentation of her positions on toxic empathy was very much not kind. The same thing goes for Russell Moore likening her to Nazis. He could’ve argued with her thesis on toxic empathy in a straightforward manner. Instead, he called her about the worst name that anyone can call a political opponent in the modern era. This is some of the nastiest, cruelest rhetoric you can see out there. And yet, because they couch it in kind of scholarly terms, they pretend that this is not cruel. And because they don’t sound off in the way that some ordinary person on Twitter who doesn’t have their level of education or expressive ability would, they position themselves as the nice men with the clean nails. And my point is, the nice men with the clean nails publishing columns in the New York Times have been incredibly cruel. They’re just a little better at hiding it.

This is a misunderstanding of the situation. Gaza receives among the most aid per capita of any place on earth. The food is limited because Hamas never developed a real economy that includes food production. Instead, the entire population is reliant on food aid. Hamas fully controls the aid because the aid groups coordinate with them so, while there is no shortage overall, there is always a restriction on who gets it. Hamas uses that control to also control and abuse the population.

@pythagoras999 @SambidWasti @MJTruthUltra I think most people would consider me maga or maga adjacent, so I'm not sure that's a great point in context.

@__tpbpp @SambidWasti @MJTruthUltra You're confusing the MAGA people with science. The one thing you'll never find is a MAGA scientist. The two don't mix.

🚨 RFK Jr just destroyed Democratic attempts to say Tylenol is NOT linked to Autism Foxx: A new Danish study shows Tylenol is not linked to autism RFK JR: That study is GARBAGE! According to their own study, they only included women who were PRESCRIBED Tylenol, which accounted for only 2% of the women… silky considering it’s available over the counter. Nobody gets a prescription for Tylenol. The industry has the capacity to generate these studies all the time and it’s fraudulent! Unbelievable… rumble.com/v78mw16-rfk-jr…

A common Roman Catholic talking point about praying to Mary or other deceased Christians is that they’re not really “praying” to them at all. They’ll say they’re simply asking for intercession, no different than asking a friend on earth to pray for you. But that comparison breaks down real fast. If I ask a friend here on earth to pray for me, I just ask. I tell them what’s going on and ask them to keep me in their prayers. Scripture actually encourages this kind of mutual care among believers. But that’s not what’s happening with Mary. I don’t - build statues of my friends and kneel before them. I don’t - burn incense or light candles in their honor. I don’t - call them a co-mediator between me and God. I don’t - use language for them that the Bible reserves for God alone. And I certainly don’t - bow in prayer to them so they can pass my requests along. At that point, the “it’s just like asking a friend” argument isn’t just weak, intentionally misleading. Whatever is going on in those practices, it goes far beyond simply asking a fellow believer to pray.