Life On Earth, Science Vs Religion

[jd_1984]

I don't wish to denigrate any individuals beliefs, but I am curious how this story is received by those who follow religion and the origins of the earth taught through religion.

Do some Christians take the biblical accounts of creation literally, believing that they describe exactly how the universe and human beings were created.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/life-earth-started-300-million-6664589

[naomi24]

But why would you?

[naomi24]

And actually, Khandro, they're not all straight. There are depictions of animals amongst them.

[Khandro]

//But why would you? //
Well, it passes the time.

[jomifl]

/ There are depictions of animals amongst them. /
now that is unusual.

[Hypognosis]

@naomi

According to one recent line of research, the desert drawings were basically a population's plea to the gods for water, at a time when the climate was irreversibly changing, in that region. It remains parched, to this day.

So much for gods.

[naomi24]

Hypognosis, indeed. Thank you.

[jomifl]

Don't go there Divebuddy...that way leads to ....dubious reasoning.

[naomi24]

Divebuddy, more have fairly recently been uncovered.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2715588/Mystery-Nazca-Lines-deepens-Gales-sandstorms-reveal-geoglyphs-snake-llama-Peruvian-desert.html

[Hypognosis]

@divebuddy

//yeah, I know, so why live in a desert then//

The theory I was alluding to was predicated on the fact that archaological remains of day-to-day living were known from the area, which proves long-term habitation.

The obvious question arises: how the heck did they manage such a lifestyle in a wasteland like this? They sought more remains and found evidence of farming and sea fishing, as opposed to hunter/gatherer culture.

Next question: if they farmed, where had all the soil gone and what was seasonal rainfall like, in that region (it has quirks of terrain etc.) thousands of years ago? Finding a suitable proxy for "paleoclimate" is not easy and I've forgotten how they pulled that off. I can return to this point, if need be.

End result: changed weather patterns was the emerging story. The meso-american culture who carved a town out of a cliff face similarly went extinct due to changed rainfall patterns but a lot later, 1000AD or thereabouts.

Or, if you prefer, the aliens took a dislike to humans grovelling at their feet all the time and demanding things be magicked up for them and meddled with their weather until their land was laid waste.

[Khandro]

"Archaeological surveys have found wooden stakes in the ground at the end of some lines, which support theory the ancient people used simple tools and surveying equipment to construct the lines."

Told ya !

[Hypognosis]

@divebuddy

//It is unbelievable that we didn't find "spaceman" examples among our discoveries of it.//

Quite so. Jim has already touched on the matter of the way that we (exposed to modern entertainment media types) have a preconceived idea of what aliens look like* and there are no desert drawings which satisfactorily fit those expectations.

As a sidebar, there is the aspect of gaps in the record, as in the one you hint at just hasn't been found yet. I don't wish to undermine the way how gaps in the fossil record are used to counter 'absence of transitional forms' but let us not revisit that, so soon after the last thread on those lines.

* Star Trek, et al did their best but, for all their prosthetics, the myriad variety of aliens still ended up mainly being bipedal, two armed, single-cranium creatures.

Then again, maybe tentacles and spanner-tightening doesn't mix..

[Hypognosis]

@divebuddy

Forgot to ask: where are the nearest pyramids to the Nazca lines?

[jomifl]

/the ancient people used simple tools and surveying equipment to construct the lines/
Being contemporaneous with the Roman civilisation in Europe they put up a comparatively poor show. No alien aqueducts, venusian viaducts, or martian motorways. Whereas in Europe the colosseum was obviously a flying saucer dock, the Pont du Gard part of a maglev high speed railway system and Trajans column a hitching post for hover cars. Actually that sounds quite silly being so close to home despite the Roman achievements being somewhat superior.

[naomi24]

Divebuddy, //Naomi, nice, but just more birds, animals, etc. //

Oh right. I thought you, and perhaps others, might find it interesting. My mistake.

//Do you have an opinion on Corn Circles. //

I do indeed. I think some of them are fantastic. I know a farmer who decided to get in on the act and charge people to come and look at the very plain Corn Circle he'd made. Unfortunately for him his wife was rather more honest and stopped his new business venture before it began.

[naomi24]

Divebuddy, // My main point is that if Aliens/Gods visited a "primitive" people and hung around long enough to (say) help them build the pyramids they would have left a lasting and very big impression. //

If (say) they helped a "primitive" people to build the pyramids, they did leave a lasting and very big impression. The pyramids.

//These people were quite capable of producing artwork of various sorts. It is unbelievable that we didn't find "spaceman" examples among our discoveries of it. //

We did.