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Appendix Quotes

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Appendix Quotes

“Even if we have a reliable criterion for detecting design, and even if that criterion tells us that biological systems are designed, it seems that determining a biological system to be designed is akin to shrugging our shoulders and saying God did it. The fear is that admitting design as an explanation will stifle scientific inquiry, that scientists will stop investigating difficult problems because they have a sufficient explanation already. But design is not a science stopper. Indeed, design can foster inquiry where traditional evolutionary approaches obstruct it. Consider the term "junk DNA." Implicit in this term is the view that because the genome of an organism has been cobbled together through a long, undirected evolutionary process, the genome is a patchwork of which only limited portions are essential to the organism. Thus on an evolutionary view we expect a lot of useless DNA. If, on the other hand, organisms are designed, we expect DNA, as much as possible, to exhibit function. And indeed, the most recent findings suggest that designating DNA as "junk" merely cloaks our current lack of knowledge about function. For instance, in a recent issue of the Journal of Theoretical Biology, John Bodnar describes how "non-coding DNA in eukaryotic genomes encodes a language which programs organismal growth and development." Design encourages scientists to look for function where evolution discourages it. Or consider vestigial organs that later are found to have a function after all. Evolutionary biology texts often cite the human coccyx as a "vestigial structure" that hearkens back to vertebrate ancestors with tails. Yet if one looks at a recent edition of Gray’s Anatomy, one finds that the coccyx is a crucial point of contact with muscles that attach to the pelvic floor. The phrase "vestigial structure" often merely cloaks our current lack of knowledge about function. The human appendix, formerly thought to be vestigial, is now known to be a functioning component of the immune system.”

SciencePurposeEvolutionBiologyDnaDarwinismIntelligent DesignAppendixIdJunk DnaVestigial OrgansCoccyxHuman AppendixHuman CoccyxScientific Prediction
Author:William A. Dembski
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“Big Brother isn't watching. He's singing and dancing. He's pulling rabbits out of a hat. Big Brother's busy holding your attention every moment you're awake. He's making sure you're always distracted. He's making sure you're fully absorbed. He's making sure your imagination withers. Until it's as useful as your appendix. He's making sure your attention is always filled. And this being fed, it's worse than being watched. With the world always filling you, no one has to worry about what's in your mind. With everyone's imagination atrophied, no one will ever be a threat to the world.”

WorldMindMomentsBigsImaginationAttentionWorryBrotherSingingFilledDancingThreatBusyAwakeHatsFedsPullingFillingRabbitsDistractedSinging And DancingAppendix
Author:Chuck Palahniuk
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“He loves me, he doesn't love my bowels, if they showed him my appendix in a glass he wouldn't recognize it, he's always feeling me, but if they put the glass in his hands he wouldn't touch it, he wouldn't think, "that's hers," you ought to love all of somebody, the esophagus, the liver, the intestines. Maybe we don't love them because we aren't used to them, but if we saw them the way we saw our hands and arms maybe we'd love them; the starfish must love each other better than we do.”

IfsThinkingWayFeelingsHandsUsedSawsArmsOughtGlassesLove Each OtherLiverBowelsIntestinesAppendixStarfish
Book:The Wall: (Intimacy) and Other Stories
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“The thinnest I've ever been was after I had my appendix out, during the London run of The Seagull. I went down to 112 pounds and realized my brain doesn't work when I'm that thin, so I can't do my job. That's why, when I came out here, I never had that whole Hollywood pressure thing. I never said I wanted to be a lead actress; I never said I wanted to be a film actress. This need to trump everyone bewilders me. I'm only 25. I'm not better than anyone. I just want to watch other people and learn to be good.”

PeopleWantNeedsSaidI CanWholeRunningWantedJobsFilmBrainWatchesTrumpHollywoodPressureActressesBe GoodLondonPoundsSeagullSure ThingAppendix
Author:Carey Mulligan
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“Our mind has its history, just as our body has its history. You might be just as astonished that man has an appendix, for instance. Does he know he ought to have an appendix? He is just born with it....Our unconscious mind, like our body, is a storehouse of relics and memories of the past. A study of the structure of the unconscious collective mind would reveal the same discoveries as you make in comparative anatomy. We do not need to think that there is anything mystical about it.”

ThinkingKnowsMenNeedsMindDoeDreamBodyMightPastBornMemoriesStudyOughtDiscoveryStructureInstanceUnconsciousCollectivesMysticalAnatomyRelicsUnconscious MindPast MemoriesAppendix
Author:Carl Jung
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“Religion is like our appendix, a vestigial remnant from a primitive past. Perhaps in a few millennia the god of Abraham will invoke the same curious amusement as rain and sun gods do today. Or perhaps our god will simply be shelved along with Zeus and Jupiter. Some day. But until then, we suffer the consequences of a population that believes in the absence of evidence and, more curiously, rejects an objective reality that conflicts with beliefs easily proven false.”

BelieveRealityTodayPastReligionSufferingBeliefSunConflictEvidenceConsequenceRainPopulationAbsenceGods WillObjectivesCuriousRejectsPrimitiveProvenAmusementAbrahamInvokeZeusJupiterRemnantsObjective RealityAppendixSun God
Author:Jeff Schweitzer
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“Souls were the same. They, too, had useless baggage that impeded their proper performance, these annoying, holier-than-thou bits dangling like an appendix waiting for infection. Faith and hope and love...prudence, temperance, justice, and fortitude...all this useless clutter just packed too much damn morality into the heart, getting in the way of the soul's innate desire for malignancy.”

WayLoveHeartSoulAgeDesireBitsWaitingJusticeToo MuchMoralityPerformancesAnd LoveUselessDamnAnnoyingInnatePrudenceFortitudeClutterBaggageTemperanceInfectionHope And FaithHope And LoveAppendixHolier Than ThouMalignancy
Book:Covet: A Novel of the Fallen Angels
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“The pace of science forces the pace of technique. Theoretical physics forces atomic energy on us; the successful production of the fission bomb forces upon us the manufacture of the hydrogen bomb. We do not choose our problems, we do not choose our products; we are pushed, we are forced -- by what? By a system which has no purpose and goal transcending it, and which makes man its appendix.”

MenProblemSciencePurposeEnergyForceGoalSuccessfulHe ManProductsScientistProductionsTechniquePhysicsBombsPaceTheoreticalHydrogenTranscendingAtomic EnergyTheoretical PhysicsHydrogen BombAppendixFission
Author:Erich Fromm
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