plasmid

Oh my! I'm not sure whether or not I should post what just came to mind... But as you can see, I decided to anyway.

John B takes this one! Edit: spoiler with explanation

Aha, another biologist has come along! You're following the right track. I suspect this riddle riddle's time is nigh.

not a snake. and not hunger or appetite: the answer, like the answers to my other riddles, and like my head, is quite concrete

but I didn't think it fit, so I didn't say it. the answer doesn't fall in the "vegetable" category

That's getting warmer

Not heading in the right direction yet I fear I may have made this too abstruse if the BrainDeners haven't nailed it It does admittedly call for a bit of not-quite-so-common knowledge for one of the clues But not the whole riddle

neither a hissing worm nor a river with mortar and pestle (although I do admit that a river can carve)

not that

I'm growling and hissing, although denied A mortar and pestle are kept nearby I wriggle and writhe For I'm quite alive Ensuring the fauna can grow and survive I reach with my fingers and feel the wave The master of many a hoggish knave To roam, I'm not keen Equator's my scene I live on the isles and slither 'cross beans

Aieee! You're giving it away! We're not quite ready to launch Uberfaith and take over the world yet... give us just a bit longer. Edit: BTW, thanks for the "creation ex nihilo" tidbit.

If you catch it quick, there will be an Edit button at the bottom of your post so you can go back and put a spoiler on. I THINK it stays there for 10 minutes. Not sure. Hope you find it in time.

Edit: Once again I was too slow to type, bheat beat me to this one!

Edit: Whoops, I see kayotikboi beat me to that one by a minute I should've typed faster!

Since Bran and Izzy were alluding to this, I hope it's not off topic. Regarding the origin of the universe, I'd always been taught the second law of thermodynamics as a probabilistic concept. There is no fundamental "force" driving entropy to increase, it only increases because a system will be most likely to adopt a state with maximum degeneracy. To bring that slightly closer to English, if you have a bunch of gas particles bouncing around in a room, there isn't a "force" keeping them evenly distributed. They only end up being evenly distributed because the probability of having all the gas particles move to one side of the room at the same time is infinitesimally small. The same concept applies to chemical reactions. Any reaction at the molecular level can theoretically go either in the forward or reverse direction. It's just that one direction often ends up being favored because of the resultant energetic and entropic change. There is a point to all of this physics rambling. If the second law of thermodynamics is based entirely on probabilities and the assumption that you will never realistically see any highly improbable reactions taking place in your lifetime (such as matter spontaneously being created in a reaction that is the reverse of annihilation) then would the second law not really apply in an empty universe where you quite literally have all of eternity to sit around and wait for a big bang to spontaneously happen? I don't mean to mislead anyone into thinking that this is a generally accepted scientific explanation for the beginning of the universe. It just seemed reasonable to me. I'm just posting to try to find out if anyone who really knows a thing or two about physics has ever heard of an argument along those lines and could tell me if it's even theoretically credible. That at least would provide a possible scientific explanation for the origin of the universe that doesn't involve a god.

Grayven, you're the perfect one for the job! Back here in the spoiler I was just talking about how we could use a seasoned Shakee solver to find a credible interpretation of Revelations that we could easily fulfill to prove Uberfaith's legitimacy. It would be tough to bring about an apocalypse, but if we can claim that "the beast" is referring to internal combustion engines, then Barack's environmentalist push would mean that he is the prophesied one.

<(^-^)>

LOLz! Well, I guess there's only one way to try to make Uberfaith evolve in the right directions. And Obama and his followers did cross the lands on their pilgrimage. And on the day of St. Patrick, they entered into a county which was dry. There was much moaning and wailing, and Obama stood before his followers and instructed them: “It is heinous that we on this night are in a dry county. But weep not; instead go forth and bring me water, the purest that you can find, so it may be blessed for this night.” His followers went forth to do as he commanded. Many sought the nearby ocean and returned with brine, but a faithful few journeyed far to a freshwater stream and returned with water most pure. When they all had gathered before the dramaless one, he spoke a benediction, and behold! Those who had with them brine found that it had become Bud Light. On that most holy night they did party and they did get buzzed, albeit on swill, and did suffer under the hangover. But those faithful few who brought back water most pure, behold!, they were blessed with Sam Adams. And they enjoyed their drink, and were not the least bit groggy the following morning. And Barack spoke: “Listen, before thou art hammered. Just as with this booze, so too the life after this will rock for those who rock in this realm, and be mediocre for those who here art half-a**ed.” And the followers cried “Amen” and became wasted. A follower approached him and asked: “When thou leave us, and we find ourselves among women chopped into many pieces, how shall we know which piece to choose?” And Obama revealed: “This night, you have seen your charge. Go forth, and accomplish great things. Those which drive you to do so, they are your friends. Those which tell you to relax, they will bring you nothing better than mediocrity. Those which tell you to understand the world, they will bring you great things. Those which mock the wise, they will not enjoy the fruits of those whose efforts they spurn. Those which despise their fellow man, by God above they will be despised, and so they will not get plasma screen TVs in the life to come but will get 16 inch sets, and they will have to watch the commercials.” You're gonna have to get us started on some Socratic stories, unreality!

And this one goes to zzembower!