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posts about #worldscollide more →
Obama Girls Just Wanna Have Fun
"Same Facts, Different Conclusions"
| posts about #worldscollide more → |
Obama Girls Just Wanna Have Fun |
"Same Facts, Different Conclusions" |
11/04/09
11/04/09
11/04/09
Cyrus may not be out there being super positive saving the whales or whatever but she's just singing old fashioned bubble gum pop without the hint of innuendo. Her audience caps out at about 14 anyway. If anyone older likes it it's usually done so ironically. #sashaobama
11/04/09
Part of me thinks that Sasha and Malia are handling their newfound fame very well, at least so far, but once they hit those angsty teenage years, things are going to be tough. I feel a little sorry for them, but I can't imagine any other age that's a good one to enter the white house with. They're still at the age where it's totally awesome that they met the Jonas Brothers and they seem to have had enough of a real life, with great parents, not to turn into spoiled-brat teenagers.
I mean, at least I hope. #sashaobama
11/04/09
11/04/09
11/04/09
06/30/09
It frustrates me, since I'm the type of person to try to learn about everything, but I don't think creationists are (necessarily) stupid.
Also, religion is really powerful. Not everyone can get past the way they were brought up. And I don't think just because some people can makes them better people than those who can't.
I think the creationism museum is absolutely ridiculous, and so are a lot of the people who frequent it, but they're not all stupid, really.
06/30/09
06/30/09
06/30/09
Needless to say that's around the same time I left the church.
06/30/09
06/30/09
Obviously, there's no way to prove such a thing. Scientists have tried to, but there's no real way to recreate earth's conditions in the extreme. So, therefore, one could argue that this theory of evolution is in itself a belief. And one that we should respect, but also realize that it's not a hard "fact".
As for the dating of these fossils, I read a fascinating book recently that carbon dating has a myriad of problems and flaws in accuracy. Google it! So the fact that we cling to this belief that fossils ARE what scientists SAY they must be, based on faulty measurements - well, I find it just as strange as the creationism museum.
06/30/09
We know that mutations happen, and in humans every time our DNA replicates (to make new cells) or DNA damage occurs (UV radiation, other mutagens), the changes can and have been shown by sequencing. It is actually rather easy to observe evolution in bacteria, because they adapt in response to changing conditions very quickly.
06/30/09
06/30/09
Something I read once really stuck with me, and that is that scientists would be over-the-moon happy to discover evidence that evolution isn't "real", not only because it would further human knowledge, but because they'd be the famous person to make the discovery. There's no Bible that scientists have to stick to; they're free to test any idea they want.
Personally, I don't see why evolution and religion is that incompatible to anyone but the kookiest fundamentalist. Why not just suppose that evolution is a tool that God works through? That's the problem with Creationism and other faulty religious suppositions, from Earth being the center of the universe to Flat Earth: It's the prevailing theory, so the religion just denies and decries until the evidence is so overwhelming that they decide that it turns out God's OK with it, after all.
06/30/09
06/30/09
06/30/09
And yes, bacteria does evolve with changing conditions. But have we ever seen bacteria mutate into something OTHER than bacteria? I remember seeing some evidence that one celled organisms can combine into multi-cellular ones. But I forgot the result of that. I need to take out my textbooks.
06/30/09
[www.talkorigins.org]
The first example is very cool - there is a new species of mosquito that lives exclusively in the London Underground and cannot reproduce with its closest relative from which it is descended (Culex pipiens). The like above has a reference to the papers that described it.
Also, as someone working in the hard sciences on their PhD - if you knew of someone falsifying data, I hope you reported it. That's a (justifiable) career ender. I know if I reported something KNOWINGLY false in a refereed journal and got caught, the rest of the community would be on me like a pack of rabid dogs. I work in a pretty contentious field, and my colleagues are generally assholes who'd have no problems calling out their best friend if they thought they were lying about data.
06/30/09
Sigh. That's a whole other discussion. we can PM about it if you like, but it's not for this public arena.
06/30/09
I wish I hadn't had to leave the house for a few hours and miss the rest of this discussion.
06/30/09
06/30/09
[www.answersingenesis.org]
This information says he founded Answers in Genesis after moving to the US, but I have read other sources that say he started it in Australia.
06/30/09
[nky.cincinnati.com]
These people believe this shit and they are trying desperately to spread their ignorance.
*The most hilarious Creation Museum moment yet, however, is when the Cincinnati Zoo joined with it for a cross-promotion involving discounted admission to both. It didn't go over well. Apparently, no one in the Zoo's marketing department had the sense to realize that maybe -- just maybe -- an organization devoted to science and the Creation Museum were not a natural fit.
06/30/09
A few years ago, one of the major polling organizations included a question about whether or not creationism should be taught in schools. The majority said yes.
Then another polling organization decided to ask people if they knew what creationism is (these kind of questions are not part of standard opinion polls). 7 in 10 did not know what creationism is.
That means that many people were in all likelihood, saying that creationism should be taught because they thought it was another theory, not because they were fundamentalist Christians.
06/30/09
06/30/09
06/30/09
06/30/09
06/30/09
"Theory" to a scientist means something different from "theory" to a lay person. To a scientist, a theory is something that's all-but-proven, like gravity or the way atoms interact to form molecules. Lay people tend to think of theories as though they're hypotheses--which are actually a starting point from which to work.
06/30/09
06/30/09
06/30/09
Oh, Sweden. God gave you a pass on the disgusting fermented herring thing, but this is too much. Prepare to be smited. Your only hope is that God doesn't read the New York Times and hasn't heard about your educational lapse yet.
06/30/09
06/30/09
06/30/09
06/30/09
06/30/09
06/30/09
It's that HOSHIT YOU REALLY ARE BONKERS moment. My sympathies!
06/30/09
06/30/09
"Stop helping God across the road like a little old lady!"
Why oh why oh why must so many people of faith take the Almighty into their two, little, grubby hands, and attempt to make Him (Her! Whatever!) into the teeny-est, tiny-est of things? God is not as small as you think He is, people!
If you do not believe in God, I am cool with that. (Indeed, you may be my husband!) But if you believe in God and yet cannot get your mind around the notion that the knowledge given us by science acts to reveal Him, well then. I have no time for you.
I said: Good day!!
06/30/09
See, this is what I could have said if the whole thing didn't throw me into such a swivet.
06/30/09
06/30/09
Not that I have faith myself, but when I realized it didn't add up for me, I stopped being a Christian.