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From: MarkE <me22over7@gmail.com>
Newsgroups: talk.origins
Subject: Re: Revealing thought experiment
Date: Tue, 11 Feb 2025 06:47:56 +1100
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On 10/02/2025 8:53 pm, Ernest Major wrote:
> On 07/02/2025 22:02, MarkE wrote:
>> Does the following quotation demonstrate that the naturalistic origin 
>> of life involves amplifying a vanishingly small probability (i.e. the 
>> probability of spontaneous generation in a jar, with small 
>> probabilistic resources of space and time available), to a larger 
>> probability (i.e. the universe over its entire history)?
>>
>> That is, does it demonstrate that the naturalistic origin of life is 
>> spontaneous generation, only with more time and space than Redi and 
>> Pasteur allowed?
> 
> Only if you ignore the conceptual differences between spontaneous 
> generation and spontaneous abiogenesis. What it does reveal is how 
> modern views are contaminating contemporary understanding of spontaneous 
> generation. It also reveals that an understanding that intuition is a 
> poor guide to processes occurring on spatial and temporal scales far 
> removed from everyday experience is more widespread than I feared.

As per my response to Ron, fair point. Some proponents of spontaneous 
generation regarded it as evidence of a "life force" in non-living 
matter (e.g. Aristotle, and John Needham 1745).

>>
>> ______
>>
>>
>> "At this point, I introduced Louis Pasteur’s pasteurization 
>> experiment, which convinced the world that even microorganisms could 
>> not be generated spontaneously.
>>
>> And all students agreed on that conclusion. The following text is a 
>> record of my conversation with my students afterward.
>>
>> Tan. Are you confident that the experiments by Redi and Pasteur have 
>> proved that spontaneous generation is impossible?
>>
>> Students. Yes.
>>
>> Tan. Sure?
>>
>> Students. Yes.
>>
>> Tan. Does it matter what sizes the jars/bottles were?
>>
>> Students. No.
>>
>> Tan. Does it matter how long they waited?
>>
>> Students. No.
>>
>> Tan. Sure?
>>
>> Students. Yes.
>>
>> Tan. What if the bottles are very big? I mean very big, really big. 
>> Still positive?
>>
>> Students. Yes.
>>
>> Tan. How about this big? (A picture of the globe was shown.) Still 
>> positive?
>>
>> Students. Uh… (Some hesitated.)
>>
>> Tan. How about this big? (A picture of the visible universe of the 
>> Hubble deep field was shown.) Still positive?
>>
>> Students. (Silence.)
>>
>> How about you?"
>>
>>
>> Tan, Change; Stadler, Rob. The Stairway To Life: An Origin-Of-Life 
>> Reality Check (pp. 179-180). Evorevo Books. Kindle Edition.
>>
>