Enterprise (retitled Star Trek: Enterprise at the start of its third season) is a science fiction television program created by Brannon Braga and Rick Berman. It is set in the fictional "Star Trek" universe created by Gene Roddenberry in the 1960s. It aired from 2001 to 2005. The series follows the adventures of humanity's first "Warp" 5 starship, the "Enterprise", ten years before the United Federation of Planets shown in previous "Star Trek" series.
Popularity
Popularity is the state of being well-liked or well-known. People, things, and ideas can be popular. Popularity figures are an important part of many people's personal value systems, and forms a critical part of success in fields such as management, politics, and the entertainment industry, among others.
Many different varieties of popularity exist, and many ways in which to gain it. General popularity usually involves respect in two ways: a popular person is respected by groups of people and will take that respect. This reinforces the idea that the person deserves the popularity. Likewise, amicability (friendliness) is an important part of popularity, as a person who does not like others is unlikely to be liked by others. This inverse nature of interpersonal popularity is often overlooked by people (particularly the young) who are attempting to become popular: being loud may be successful in gaining attention, but is unlikely to provide mutual respect.
Prime mover (locomotive)
In engineering, a prime mover is an engine that converts fuel to useful work. In locomotives, the prime mover is thus the source of power for its propulsion. The term is generally used when discussing about any locomotive powered by an internal combustion engine.
Argument from design
The argument from design is an argument for the existence of God or a creator. According to the argument, the appearance of design in nature is evidence for the existence of God. The argument is teleological, because it assumes a purpose. The word "teleological" comes from the Ancient Greek "telos", which means "end" or "purpose".
Teleology assumes there is purpose or direction in the works and processes of nature. Immanuel Kant called this argument the physico–theological proof.
Most of the classic forms of this argument are linked to monotheism. Simply talking about a "designer", gives the following, simple formulation.
A concise and whimsical teleological argument was offered by G. K. Chesterton in 1908: "So one elephant having a trunk was odd; but all elephants having trunks looked like a plot."
Socrates (c. 469-399 B.C.) He argued that the adaptation of human parts to one another, such as the eyelids protecting the eyeballs, could not have been due to chance and was a sign of wise planning in the universe.
Plato (c. 427–c. 347 B.C.) posited a "demiurge" of supreme wisdom and intelligence as the creator of the cosmos in his work "Timaeus". For him, the "demiurge" lacked the supernatural ability to create "ex nihilo" or out of nothing. The demiurge was able only to organize the "ananke" (αναγκη). The ananke was the only other co-existent element or presence in Plato's cosmogony. Plato's teleological perspective is also built upon the analysis of "a priori" order and structure in the world that he had already presented in "The Republic".
Aristotle (c. 384–322 B.C.) also developed the idea of a creator of the cosmos, often referred to as the "Prime Mover" in his work "Metaphysics". Aristotle's views have very strong aspects of a teleological argument, specifically that of a prime mover, who (so to speak) looks ahead in setting the cosmos into motion. Indeed, Aristotle argued that all nature reflects inherent purposiveness and direction.
Cicero (c. 106–c. 43 B.C.) also made one of the earliest known teleological arguments. In "de Natura Deorum (On the Nature of the Gods)" Cicero stated, "The divine power is to be found in a principle of reason that pervades the whole of nature". He was writing from the cultural background of the Roman religion. In Roman mythology the creator goddess, Gaia was borrowed from Greek mythology. The Romans called her Tellus or Terra.
Augustine of Hippo (A.D. 354–430) presented a classic teleological perspective in his work "City of God". He describes the "city of man" and essentially posits that God's plan is to replace the city of man with the city of God (at some as-yet-unknown point in the future). Whether this is to happen gradually or suddenly is not made clear in Augustine's work. He did not, however, make a formal argument for the existence of God; rather, God's existence is already presumed and Augustine is giving a proposed view of God's teleology. Augustine's perspective follows from and is built upon the "neo-Platonic" views of his era, which in turn have their original roots in Plato's cosmogony.
The idea is that one can infer the existence of intelligent design by looking at an object. The teleological argument says that because life is complex, it must have been designed. It is argued that this is non-sequitur logic. Life or objects are described as "orderly" or "ordered", which shows that an intelligent designer has ordered them. However, in real life, there are examples of systems that are non-random or ordered simply because it is following natural physical processes, for example diamonds or snowflakes.
The design claim is often challenged as an argument from ignorance, since it is often unexplained or unsupported, or explained by unscientific conjecture. Supporters of design assume that natural objects and man-made objects have similar properties, therefore both must be designed. However, different objects can have similar properties for different reasons, such as stars and light bulbs. Proponents must therefore demonstrate that "only" design can cause orderly systems or the argument is invalid.
A designed organism would, on the face of it, be in contradiction to evolutionary theory. Most biologists support the idea of evolution, by means of natural selection. They therefore reject the first premise, arguing that evolution is not only an alternative explanation for the complexity of life but a better explanation with more supporting evidence. Living organisms obey the same physical laws as inanimate objects. A range of chemical reactions could take place, forming other chemicals with complex properties and ways of interacting. Over very long periods of time self-replicating structures could arise and later form DNA. This has in fact been demonstrated artificially via the Avida program, which can construct complex programs without being given any design (similar programs have had similar results with building machines). Biologists therefore commonly view the design argument as an unimpressive argument for the existence of a god.
Another argument states that even if the argument from design proved the existence of a powerful intelligent designer, it would not prove that the designer is God. Voltaire observed in his "Traité de métaphysique":
... from this sole argument I cannot conclude anything further than that it is probable that an intelligent and superior being has skillfully prepared and fashioned the matter. I cannot conclude from that alone that this being has made matter out of nothing and that he is infinite in every sense.
David Hume pointed out that the argument does not necessarily lead to the existence of one God. In his Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, the character Philo argued (p. 108), amidst other counterarguments to the teleological argument, "why may not several deities combine in contriving and framing the world?"