AC> Stromatolitic bacteria (blue-green algea to anyone who speaks 
 AC> plain english) can still be found alive.  That's a long 
 AC> time of stability, heh?  Besides, I still dispute the date. 
The date relates to the ratios of various radio-active isotopes in 
a given sample of rock.  As the isotope degrades to a stable state 
without gamma emmission, it changes the kinds of chemical bonds an 
electron in the outer shell can produce with other elements. 
 
To be sure, the world could have been made 6000 years ago, with an 
array of chemical compounds *in place* so that the sample only has 
to *appear* to be much older based on the radioactive character of 
that sample.  Likewise, the fossils could have been created in the 
ground, just like all the other minerals, which only *appear* such 
that they had great antiquity. 
 
But of course, the universe could just as well have been created a 
few moments ago, just *as* I see it, with the computer in front of 
me, a similar in front of you, these glowing phosphors, some books 
on the shelf, right down to the ink in your Bible.  Or, do you say 
that God could not do that? 
 
I frankly do not *care*.  What we are really talking about is what 
the world appears to be.  That you see it different is obvious and 
no doubt exasperating inasmuch as the rest of us are made to see a 
very different world.  *Appearances* are, as they say, *deceiving* 
in the world I live in. 
 
The Bible presents a very binary view of existance; one is either, 
damned, or saved.  For the latter, one either has enough faith, or 
not, and there is no way that I could tell if whatever faith which 
I had at the time was sufficient, or whether the Holy Spirit would 
grant me the grace, or not.  The Devil could at any time approach, 
and test my faith in God as he had Job.  Tough shit. 
 
The world that I *see* however, is not binary, but floating point; 
every act has repercussions that ripple out to an ocean of doubts. 
Doubts about my motivations, those of others, a free market of the 
interactions, where every action has the price to be paid both now 
and later, interest compounding complexity.  There is no way which 
I see that I can guarantee that I have done the good work that the 
Bible demands to save my soul.  I found it a fruitless enterprise. 
 
I did find the escatological opinion of Plato to accomodate a life 
lived in such a world.  Epictetus said to try to just do the right 
thing at the right time, in the right way for the right reason; he 
admits that I won't always know what that is, but just give it the 
best I have.  And to do *that*, I'm not to study him, or any book, 
but the world around me, and the nature of the men in it. 
 
So, I study creationism to know creationists, and evolution to see 
how it's supporters think.  I dunno who is right, if either.  From 
what I have read of the Bagavad Gita, it is neither, and the world 
is *still* undergoing a state of creation, which accounts well for 
the phenomena of new facts always arising that are only obvious in 
retrospect.  The reason new obvious facts were missed is that they 
did not previously *exist*, and were just created by God. Fun hey? 
___ 
 * OFFLINE 1.58 * Chief Charlie White Eagle discovered Germany in April 1943. 
--- Maximus 3.01
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