Aggregator Post

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Rather than post one of my rather long winded diatribes on a specific topic, I thought I’d mention a few things I’ve seen and found interesting on other blogs, in the news or elsewhere. So, without further adieu…

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NASA has announced plans to send a probe to the Sun in 2018. The probe will be protected by a carbon-composite heat shield that will be able to withstand radiation and heat up to 2,550 degrees, and will be able to approach the Sun at a distance of 4 million miles, which seems like a large distance, but in galactic and scientific terms is quite close. They are looking to answer at least two questions unanswerable to date – “why is the sun’s outer atmosphere so much hotter than the sun’s visible surface and what propels the solar wind that affects Earth and our solar system?”

I was wondering if they could perhaps have the probe manned, but the link says no. Too bad, because Newt Gingrich, Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck would be ideal candidates for a trip to the Sun.

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I saw this video over at The Friendly Atheist and thought it was such a good rant/response to Pat Condell (who I usually enjoy, but find he’s getting a bit strident about Islam, perhaps because of his particularly British experience with it)  on the New York Mosque question, that it should be further disseminated around the blogosphere.

Even if it wasn’t a response to Condell, it’s a well stated opinion in its own right. Maybe with a little luck it’ll go viral. It should.

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The justifiably-hated, execrable Westboro Baptist Church has won another Free Speech case in Federal Court, proving once again that the old adage “I may disagree with what you say, but I’ll fight for your right to say it” is still applicable in this country, despite constant onslaughts against the First Amendment. As a child of the Vietnam War/1960s era, I don’t really react adversely to anyone mutilating a flag (such as using it for a bedspread), because, after all, it’s just a piece of cloth, despite its intrinsic symbolism. I found the Phelps family protesting at funerals itself far more repugnant than their flag desecration, but if they want to trample a flag to make a point, the First Amendment allows it, and the Nebraska legislature has no business trying to outlaw it.

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In the Please-Don’t-Think-I’m-Pandering-To-Gideon department, I wanted to point out an instance where science polices itself. A Harvard researcher has been suspended, and may even lose his job, over what appears to be fabricated data in a paper published in 2002. It’s not really clear from the article exactly what happened, but his superiors suspect that the conclusions reached in the paper were based on contrived evidence from an experiment, a test of whether monkeys could distinguish algebraic rules. It appears that control portions of the experiment were not performed. If true, the consequences are serious.

Some forms of scientific error, like poor record keeping or even mistaken results, are forgivable, but fabrication of data, if such a charge were to be proved against Dr. Hauser, is usually followed by expulsion from the scientific community.

This is what science does, and why it is different than religion. Religion decrees truth based on some unprovable and unreproducible revelation, a truth which can never be subsequently revised or replaced. Science, on the other hand, constantly performs error checking, to see if what is now considered true continues to hold true. If it doesn’t, it is jettisoned. Only a process like this can be trusted to give us an accurate representation of reality.

Can you imagine the Pope saying “Oh, wait! I’ve been praying about it, and God now tells me that child buggery is a sin and a crime. My bad.” (OK. That’s not a great example, but you get my drift.)

But the really sad quote in the article is this one, which refers to the fact that the researcher was the only one doing research in his specialized field.

“It’s always a problem in science when we have to depend on one person.”

If we didn’t have so many people being home schooled to avoid science, matriculating at fundeological religious institutions, or attending seminaries to become preachers, some of them might actually be able to become scientists, and use their education to actually help improve the world, rather than suck it dry with superstitious, delusional nonsense.

We need more scientists and less preachers.

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34 thoughts on “Aggregator Post”

  2. “We need more scientists and less preachers.”

    Scientists like Richard Dawkins are more preacher than academic when you witness the fervor and dogmatism in their attacks upon God and Christians. Indeed, there are people that attempt an impartial approach at discerning truth. Those, if true to their own maxim, soon see the fallacy behind humanism and soon feel the wrath of their infidel colleagues determined to silence them.

    “Science, on the other hand, constantly performs error checking, to see if what is now considered true continues to hold true. If it doesn’t, it is jettisoned.”

    Or, in many cases, it merely evolves more complex arguments to buttress failing ones that do not meet with critical analysis and examination. Neither come close to the truth, only buying time in the hopes that the issue will either resolve by way of confusion or pass away, altogether.

    Anyway, the Word also provides instruction in correction of any false interpretation of it, in that if anything were written or stated contrary to it, it should be regarded as false, “… having no light in it.” (Isaiah 8:20)

    Many medical, astronomical, historical, geological, sociological truths were contained within scripture, thousands of years before they were accepted in academic circles. Ecclesiastes 1:6-7 colorfully describes the hydrological cycle, 1600 years before the Roman engineer Vitruvius. Job 26:8 specifically shows how precipitation is formed. In Deuteronomy, certain foods are specified for their healthful benefits, denouncing in turn those foods that the heathen relished and consumed at cost to their health and longevity. Sanitary procedures were outlined providing for the disposal of waste outside camp. In medieval Europe, waste was simply dumped in the streets. Small wonder there were shorter lifespans, health problems and plagues associated with this practice. Hell, doctors weren’t even washing their hands before performing surgery in the Nineteenth Century in North America!

    So you see, John, your beloved science has benefited greatly from scripture. In fact, science when properly utilized is scripture’s greatest witness. Unscrupulous infidels like Richard Dawkins, David Suzuki, etc, are the exception to good science. They are merely pagan priests expounding their heathen principles under the guise of science. They are more than willing to bend the rules, when and if it becomes necessary, and, there are many cases, as you know, where that has happened.

    • Or, in many cases, it merely evolves more complex arguments to buttress failing ones that do not meet with critical analysis and examination.

      Really? Got any evidence, or is that just your opinion?

      • “Really? Got any evidence, or is that just your opinion?”

        Nothing that I haven’t explained ad nauseam in the past. Probably the most paramount one that I’ve mentioned and that you all have categorically denied or simply ignored is the idiotic theory of man descending from apes, then, when clearer, less befuddled heads prevailed, the consensus became one where men are simply related to apes genetically, though closely resembling them further back in the evolutionary process.

        Pseudo-intellectual Richard Dawkins, himeslf, has been slow to give up that mantra of being directly descended from apes, because, he’s making tons of money deceiving his disciples and spreading his nonsensical crap on the lecture circuit. In his interview with Ben Stein, for example, he was revealed to be the idiot that he is, revealing his bias and hatred against God and Christians in his verbal diatribe against the character of God quoted directly from one of his books. He also conceded (probably under coercion from the Holy Spirit) that man may, indeed, have been engineered by some superior race… just NOT God! LOL!

        Looking back over the history of infidelism, one sees many claims made about geological processes (Geochronology, Stratigraphy, etc.) showing ‘conclusive’ evidence of a gradual evolution taking place over eons of time… those theories being the source for bickering among the infidels of the day, still a point of contention in some circles though the majority of infidel scientists are beginning to realize that they had better show some kind of uniform front if they want to remain credible with the public. It doesn’t change facts, though, that evolution is bullshit and it’s most vehement proponents are full of shit.

        Of course, there are the forgeries and the scams like Lucy the ape matriarch, (in reality just a dead chimp or a collection of dead chimps) your favorite (and mine) Piltdown Man, the Yale DNA Hybridization scam, Haekel’s embryos… well, we could be here all day, couldn’t we? I personally know people who have worked with museums and archaeological expeditions that have found artifacts and human remains that didn’t fit the infidel model for natural history, those remains either consigned to some dusty corner in a museum and forgotten about or simply reburied and/or destroyed. Sometimes they are merely stuck into an existing skeleton in the hopes that they won’t be noticed amongst the other bones. (How many Archaeoraptor Liaoningensis experts are running around out there?) I mean, let’s face it… infidels run this world and they aren’t going to be letting anyone fuck that up for them, are they?

        Infidels are broken records on “PROVE IT! PROVE IT!” all the time. They, themselves, haven’t proven anything they say, either. Maybe you clowns ought to produce something that will silence us naysayers, huh? How about that? Your pseudo-science dogmatically asserts that it doesn’t have to justify anything that it says, but, that’s not good enough. Enough of this “Oh, the evolutionary process occurs over eons of time, you can’t expect us to show you any specific instance where evolution is occurring at any given moment… bla, bla, bla… and, we’re constantly correcting ourselves… yada, yada…” How fucking convenient and how revealing!

        Fact is, you’ve proven shit and that’s all.

        • No wonder Gideon and cl are BFFs! This is as coherent as her arguments for the possibility that YEC is correct. Understanding of the scientific method: epic fail.

          • You want coherence? You can’t have coherence and Biblical rectitude at the same time. You know that!

    • “Anyway, the Word also provides instruction in correction of any false interpretation of it, in that if anything were written or stated contrary to it, it should be regarded as false, ‘… having no light in it.’ (Isaiah 8:20)”
      Hey, look everybody! Prooftexting! Hurrah!
      Let’s look at Isaiah 8:18-19, shall we?

      Behold, I and the children whom the LORD hath given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel from the LORD of hosts, which dwelleth in mount Zion.
      And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead?

      Shorter Isaiah: “Don’t listen to their silly ooga booga, listen to my ooga booga!”

      • “Hey, look everybody! Prooftexting! Hurrah!”

        Well, I was asked for proof. What, and did you expect me to produce anything from Darwin’s writings or Richard Dawkins’ spew to reply with in regard to properly interpreting scripture, idjit?

        Also, that scripture you quoted has nothing to do with what we’re talking about. It deals with warnings about the occult and using divination and Necromancy in place of consulting God and His Word. Again, that was a warning to believers, as infidels are too busy scoffing and dreaming up nut-bar theories of monkeys and fish-frogs being their mommies and daddies.

    • And apparently your Bible’s being desecrated with gold fringe too. What’s with that ostentatious show of wealth?

      • “And apparently your Bible’s being desecrated with gold fringe too. What’s with that ostentatious show of wealth?”

        My Bible is fringed. Most aren’t. That’s an individual thing, hardly relevant to this topic.

        I don’t care… keep your head buried in the sand, you’re only hurting yourself.

  5. TheAmazingAtheist, who did the response to Condell, isn’t much better than Condell IMO. But he does get things right from time to time and certainly did on this video. There are a lot of atheist dicks on YT. I’m sure some people would agree with that, after watching one of mine. 😉

  8. As vast & infinitely complex the universe is, it is unrealistic to believe that it simply came into being by accident.

    Whoever claimed the universe came into being because of an accident? An accident is when you are fumbling with the tuner on your car radio and plow into a pedestrian because you were distracted.

    • Mission Statement
      This blog is commissioned with refuting the almost universal belief that man is the result of a cosmic accident, blah, blah, blah …

      What a waste of a good blog. I liked your old one better.

      • Nah, I never took to it, John. I decided my moronic writer, Jimbo, wasn’t portraying the real Gidster, so I fired him and started over.

        Don’t worry, though, you’ll still get the quality that one comes to expect when dealing with me, with the new blog.

        You’ll notice I’ve blogrolled you?

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