Born again

I agree with Cyracuz. I have no problem with religious people who practice their faith, WITH LIKE MINDED PEOPLE, and keep their ideas to themselves with others, except in a discussion that is desired by all individuals involved.

I may think that their beliefs are total nonsense, but far be it from me to tell another person what to think, as long as their beliefs do no impact on my life, (like blowing oneself up for Allah). If their beliefs do impact upon my life, (even if the impact is not as serious as destruction) then I believe that I have the obligation to counter their precepts.

I find proselytizers obnoxious, annoying, inappropriate, and totally arrogant. I also believe that people who are comfortable with their faith do not need an ever increasing claque of yea-sayers to reinforce their beliefs.

Some good responses. For emphasis let me repost ..."Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit."

To understand 'born again' consider the sequence of events that led us to our present birth in very simple terms.
First the sex act occurs resulting in an egg that is fertilized by the male sperm ..... the resulting DNA is a combination of half egg and half sperm DNA. Still keeping it simple, the result after a nine month growing and development period is a new person. A person with a DNA that, while not a perfect match, is a very close match to the parents combined sample. If you have ever witnessed a birth you will know what I mean when I tell you there is a whole lot of 'water' involved.

As for the spirit part we can discuss that later. For now try to think of your child as a combination of you, your mate. her mother and father, your mother and father etc... times a million billion years. How many times has the DNA wheel of chance come up with the identical combination, the perfect match of the DNA you are sitting there with as you read this .... only without your memories
Born again, but with no 'easily accessible' knowledge about the lives stored in your DNA.

Well, it is not without truth that many religious people are indeed annoying, simply because they do not grasp the fact that their convictions are subjective and personal...

Foley

This issue is being thoroughly examined in another thread. The fact is that atheism is just another belief system, and those who are under the impression that science disproves any notion of god are sadly mistaken.

The truth is that science is inaplicable when it comes to the questoin of whether or not there is a god. There is a lot of information out there, but it can be used to argue both sides of the case, depending on the debater's rethoric and stance in the matter. But at the end, there is no proof for neither view.

So for the record I would like to voice my agreement that there are indeed many annoying atheists too.

Foley/cyracuz, so I have been pronounced an atheist .... based upon what? My understanding of how DNA functions? To me God is a subjective metaphor and yes, I believe in metaphors but hold no grudge with those that don't .... so you can take off that silly pointed hat and put the sheet back on the bed, I'm not a real threat to Christianity, just interested in DNA, not trying to convert anyone to DNAism .... really

it's pure fantasy.

And to make up for it, you become annoyingly religious, to the point it consumes your life, you piss off everyone around you by spewing quotes from the bible and questioning other's religion.

Scientists Write Messages Into DNA "Bottle"
Posted Feb 23, 2007 by geozone in SciTech and viewed 3080 times.
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Digital journaling on DNA.
Japanese researchers have successfully stored messages in the DNA of bacteria. The hardiness of the hay bacillus bacteria ensures the digital data encoded into them can last for millenia.

Generally found in soil or decaying matter, hay bacillus are exceptionally resistant to extreme weather conditions. Two megabits (data equivalent to 1.6 million Roman letters) can be stored in each bacterium of hay bacillus in the form of implants. These tiny implants can be extracted in a lab and read like ordinary text at a later date.

The research team was able to encode Einstein's renown E=MC^2 equation along with the date 1905 into the genome of the bacteria strain. They were able to read the message later on by analyzing its genetic sequence.

Head researcher Yoshiaki Ohashi said, "If I wanted to store my personal diary in these live bacteria and take it with me to my grave, then my story can live for thousands and thousands of years."

One of the practical applications of this technology lies in the area of pharmaceuticals. Fraudulent drugs are a major problem but if pharmaceutical companies could "stamp" their signature into the drugs, it would prevent piracy and at the same time protect their patents. To prevent corruption of the message encoding, the data would be inserted into 4 different places as multiple backups.

The bacteria's hardiness and ability to preserve data for future generations would also be extremely useful in storing vast amounts of data which would not be suspectible to the types of damage that wipe out computer hard drives. Information stored on DNA lasts for more than one hundred million years.

The researchers project being able to develop a type of living memory for a new breed of organic computers which would use strands of DNA to perform calculations and would have the ability to heal themselves if damaged.

Though the promise of this technology is very high, the scientists caution more work is needed before it can be marketed. One of the hurdles to overcome is ensuring very slow mutation rates in the DNA as the bacteria evolve, otherwise the messages encoded will be rendered unreadable.

I am fascinated by the use of this technology to create new types of computers where you have no more worry about the corruption and loss of data. Very few of us have not experienced a hard drive crash, especially when it was not recently backed up. The other aspect of that is what you "write" on it is preserved for a very long time and possibly not eraseable. There are some things you do not want preserved for that long and/or not eraseable.

My understanding of what the first Century Jews and Christians meant by being 'born again' is pretty practical. The Pharisees, Jewish Christians, and non-Jewish Christians all believed in a concept of spirit and all believed in an afterlife. Through descriptions and extraneous reading, we come to know that the ancients believed in the physical body that we all can see, touch, experience, etc. They also believed in a spiritual body unencumbered by material things and unseen by mortal humans.

One exception is the near-death experience (NDE), a mystical experience with elements not always shaped by social and cultural factors. Dr. Raymond Moody coined the term "near-death experiences" in his book Life after Life. An NDE reportedly occurs when one is revived from death, or comes close to death. Anthropologist James McClenon has reported that ancient NDE accounts share common features with modern NDE accounts.4 Further, NDE accounts from prior centuries in Europe, China, and Japan are extremely similar and often include elements that do not correspond with the theologies associated with the time period.5

Also, NDEs often spark an interest in religion. Specifically NDE survivors are attracted to New Age churches or Eastern religions6 (Buddhism, Hinduism, etc.). In his book Life After Death: A History of the Afterlife in the Religions of the West, Alan F. Segal suggests that religious experiences, such as NDEs, have contributed greatly to various theologies over time. Therefore, Dennett would be better served to consider the importance of mystical experiences.