Profile
Name:
Marcus
Channel Views:
19,446
Total Upload Views:
47,208
Style:
Educational
Age:
32
Joined:
Jan 8, 2008
Latest Activity:
4 days ago
Subscribers:
1,177
About Me:
I hope to take a civil approach to educating people about the public debate on evolution. I think that if people actually examine the evidence with an open mind, then they will accept (as the experts all do) that evolution occurs. You can check out my videos and some of the ones in my Favorites for some summaries of this evidence.
I try to be respectful of people's beliefs, but I also feel that it is condescending to ignore potential conflicts when they arise or pretend that they don't exist. I think that by engaging in civil discussion, much can be accomplished.
It is my policy not to accept friend requests unless we are at least well acquainted, which doesn't tend to happen online. So, if you didn't know me from face-to-face contact before finding my page, then don't feel bad if I turn down your friend request. Please do subscribe, though!
Peace and Love everyone!
Country:
United States
Occupation:
Research associate growing algae for the production of biofuel.
Interests:
Science, music (especially hand drums and other primitive instruments), theology (including history and analysis), education, philosophy, politics
Movies:
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, The Dark Crystal, Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail, Heroes, The Daily Show, The Colbert Report
Music:
Gogol Bordello (and other gypsy influenced rock), traditional music from pretty much anywhere (have you heard Tuvan throat singing?), classic rock, reggae, and a bit of almost everything else
Books:
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, The Foundation Trilogy, Lord: Save Us From Your Followers, The Alphabet Versus the Goddess, Ishmael, The Epic of Gilgamesh, Tom Robbins, Douglas Adams
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Recent Activity
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EvoBiologist commented on Chordate Evolution (1/2)
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EvoBiologist liked a video
Complete video at: http://fora.tv/2009/10/07/Richard_Daw...
Evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins explains that he no longer debates creationists b... more |
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Complete video at: http://fora.tv/2009/10/07/Richard_Daw...
Biologist Richard Dawkins identifies what he views is the single most compelling fact to... more |
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EvoBiologist commented on Sir Karl Popper's "Science as Falsification"
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EvoBiologist liked a video
Originally published in "Conjectures and Refutations" (1963). A key discussion in the philosophy of science.
A discussion of Sir Karl's P... more |
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Channel Comments









All I was trying to say is that one shouldn't expect a test-tube to resemble the conditions on early Earth. Modelling chemical processes occurring over billions of years across a whole planet, with tides, lightning, sunlight, etc., is necessarily a bit of a search of what is possible.
Anyway, as I said, if you are convinced of a supernatural or sci-fi origin of life, I'm not really interested in debating it (it can't be tested anyway). I'm a population biologist and zoologist, not a chemist. Please watch my GULOP video and get back to me on common ancestry.
"You need ALL LEFT HANDED amino acids to start life!!!"
As I mentioned, you don't need amino acids to start life, you need RNA. RNA has the properties needed for simple life - it carries hereditary information and has enzymatic properties. Regardless, you can get all left-handed molecules from a mostly-left-handed racemic mixture.
Personally, I like to focus on the evolution of life, which is where my training is. If you want to argue that a powerful, intelligent being played organic chemist on ancient Earth, be my guest. It seems a bit more far fetched to me than that it happened naturally in a way we just haven't yet determined.
More significantly origin of life experiments never start with undirected processes, raw chemicals and molecules are never just put into test tubes, and left to self organize!
"nature can never produce 100 percent of either"
Actually, natural organisms produce enzymes that do it all the time.
I'm not sure why creationists like citing an experiment conducted in 1952 (the year before DNA's structure was discovered). Plenty has been done in abiogenesis since Miller-Urey. Furthermore, abiogenesis starts with nucleotides, not amino acids (something Miller & Urey didn't know), making your whole argument irrelevant. Nucleotides are imperfectly hereditary and have enzymatic properties, so arguments about abiogenesis should focus on things like RNA, not proteins.