Science and Theology, the sequel

09/19/2008 01:08:55 PM · #802

Originally posted by milo655321:

Originally posted by Louis:

Originally posted by eqsite:

Originally posted by Louis:
I thought we already knew why apples fall?

If you can explain how gravity works, I'm sure there are a lot of physicists anxious to hear about it.

Oh, I know nothing of such things. I'm quite ignorant of them. But I assumed that apples fell due to gravity, which seemed to answer your question. Anyway, I was certain that there was some understanding of why bodies are attracted to one another. Doesn't it have something to do with the expansion of the universe. Again, I'm quite ignorant when it comes to physics.

Don't discount Intelligent Falling Theory!

Heh... thanks. :) It even seems to have answered my question: "The laws [of gravity] predict the mutual force between all bodies of mass, but they cannot explain that force."

09/19/2008 01:25:36 PM · #803

Originally posted by milo655321:

Don't discount Intelligent Falling Theory!

That was awesome. ROFL.

I thought we had a pretty good handle on gravity, no? It's like the 3 (or 4) dimensional version of putting an object on a stretched sheet of rubber. The more massive it is, the faster surrounding objects will accelerate toward it (9.8m/s^2 on the surface of the earth, and about 26 m/s^2 on the surface of jupiter, etc.). Why know "why" just as we know why a tennis ball rolls toward a bowling ball on a trampoline, and a better articulation of that reason will not suddenly enable the bowling ball to levitate.

09/19/2008 01:29:21 PM · #804

This is a very timely turn of the conversation, because I finally, after, what, twenty years, got around to buying Hawking's book, which explains all of this in layman's terms. I've only just started reading it, so hopefully I won't be so woefully ignorant in about a week. :-P

09/19/2008 01:46:36 PM · #805

Speaking of timely, THIS should be an interesting study to watch!

Canon EF 17-40mm f/4.0L USM

09/19/2008 01:57:55 PM · #806

Yeah, I read about that. It's a good idea. I wonder what excuses the paranormalists will come up with when the results turn out to be exactly what the researchers expect?

dahkota

Canon EOS-7D

09/19/2008 02:19:13 PM · #807

Originally posted by scalvert:

Speaking of timely, THIS should be an interesting study to watch!

Interesting Study.

Quote: "When your heart stops beating, there is no blood getting to your brain. And so what happens is that within about ten seconds, brain activity ceases â��as you would imagine."

I've heard vastly different. It depends on age, injury and temperature but, within 3 minutes, your brain starts to die and at about 6 minutes you can be irreversibly brain damaged. This is why resuscitation is attempted after a heart stops beating. If it was only 10 seconds, you would see a lot less attempts. I've also read that random neural firing during this period could be the cause, but I hesitate to write that as I don't have the reference in my brain (I will look it up).

I find anything about the brain fascinating. For those interested, check out Oliver Sacks and his books.

Canon 12x IS USM (S3 IS built-in Lens) -- 36-432mm (35mm EQ)

09/19/2008 02:25:22 PM · #808

Originally posted by dahkota:

Quote: "When your heart stops beating, there is no blood getting to your brain. And so what happens is that within about ten seconds, brain activity ceases â��as you would imagine."

I've heard vastly different. It depends on age, injury and temperature but, within 3 minutes, your brain starts to die and at about 6 minutes you can be irreversibly brain damaged. This is why resuscitation is attempted after a heart stops beating. If it was only 10 seconds, you would see a lot less attempts.

I suspect there's a difference between brain activity and a dead brain, just as your heart can stop beating while the cells are still alive. That's probably a key element of the study.

GeneralE

Canon PowerShot S3 IS

09/19/2008 02:33:47 PM · #809

The unfortunate man suffered a cardiac arrest during an operation. Luckily, the surgeon began CPR immediately, and the crash cart was at hand and the OR personnel reacted quickly to the emergency, and managed to resuscitate him within a minute or two.

Curious, the doctor asked the patient if he remembered anything of the experience.

"I saw a face hovering over me, surrounded by a bright white glow," he responded.

Excitedly, the surgeon asked if he recognized the face he saw.

"Sure Doc -- it was you."

eqsite

Nikon D7100

Nikon AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 18-70mm f/3.5-4.5G IF-ED

09/19/2008 10:46:09 PM · #810

Originally posted by scalvert:

I thought we had a pretty good handle on gravity, no? It's like the 3 (or 4) dimensional version of putting an object on a stretched sheet of rubber. The more massive it is, the faster surrounding objects will accelerate toward it (9.8m/s^2 on the surface of the earth, and about 26 m/s^2 on the surface of jupiter, etc.). Why know "why" just as we know why a tennis ball rolls toward a bowling ball on a trampoline, and a better articulation of that reason will not suddenly enable the bowling ball to levitate.

That's just silly. If we can understand why then we can apply that knowledge and tamper with gravity, just as we can use our understanding of electromagnitism to utilize electricity. We may not be able to make the bowling ball levitate of it's own accord, but we could quite possibly create technology that allows us to levitate it. Of course, we could just pick the damn thing up, too ;)

yanko

Canon EOS-5D Mark II

Carl Zeiss 50mm ZE f/1.4 Planar T for Canon

09/19/2008 11:39:29 PM · #811

Originally posted by milo655321:

LOL. I remember a while back the Onion ran a spoof about the Yankees buying every superstar in baseball. They even showed a photo of all the players with Yankee caps superimposed in the picture. Almost every player shown in that photo later became Yankees in real life. Hopefully the Onion won't be right about this story.

Message edited by author 2008-09-19 23:42:17.

dponlyme

Nikon D3000

Nikon AF-S DX 18-105 f/3.5-5.6 ED VR

09/21/2008 10:30:00 AM · #812

Thought the atheists would get a kick out of this...

LINK

Message edited by scalvert - Changed insanely long URL to a link.

dponlyme

Nikon D3000

Nikon AF-S DX 18-105 f/3.5-5.6 ED VR

11/02/2008 01:38:31 PM · #813

I'm here JMart. I would like to hear why you reject God.

JMart

Nikon D80

Tamron SP AF 90mm f/2.8 Di for Nikon

11/02/2008 01:47:50 PM · #814

Originally posted by dponlyme:

I'm here JMart. I would like to hear why you reject God.

Hey there. Sorry if I put up the wrong link in the previous thread. I meant to link to your earlier thread.
ETA: yes, I linked to the wrong thread & just fixed the link. Sorry.

Message edited by author 2008-11-02 13:50:05.

Gordon

RIM BlackBerry Curve

Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM

11/20/2008 09:35:29 AM · #815

and so it goes on

Reading through the comments, I'm once again amazed that religion isn't taught in schools. It'd make all this nonsense go away, for one thing.

freakin_hilarious

Canon EOS-550D Rebel T2i

Tamron SP AF 28-75mm f/2.8 XR Di for Canon

11/20/2008 11:26:25 AM · #816

This one is my favorite:

"There are 100 million fossils which show that animals which lived hundreds of million years ago are exactly the same as their current counterparts. This is clear evidence "against evolution."

Also, natural selection does not have the capacity to change the genetic code on the DNA. The rabbits may run faster, and survive but they do not turn out to be other "more advanced" and "advantageous" creature because their DNA code is not effected. They die in the end along with their faster running legs. Lamarckism is already an outdated theory.

Therefore, creation is a fact, evolution could not have happened."

Peleng 8mm f/3.5 Fisheye MC In M42 Mount

11/20/2008 11:38:18 AM · #817

Originally posted by freakin_hilarious:

"There are 100 million fossils which show that animals which lived hundreds of million years ago are exactly the same as their current counterparts. This is clear evidence "against evolution."

One can only hope the courts recognize that these people haven't the faintest clue what they're talking about. If only they'd paid attention in school. Oh... right. :-/

Matthew

Canon EOS-5D Mark II

11/21/2008 03:27:38 AM · #818

Originally posted by scalvert:

Originally posted by freakin_hilarious:
"There are 100 million fossils which show that animals which lived hundreds of million years ago are exactly the same as their current counterparts. This is clear evidence "against evolution."

One can only hope the courts recognize that these people haven't the faintest clue what they're talking about. If only they'd paid attention in school. Oh... right. :-/

Part of the problem is that people like this embarrass themselves with such open displays of ignorance, but then accuse any detractors of arrogance.

It is quite hard to point out to such people the stupidity of their remarks in a polite manner and be persuasive. Such people can use raw emotion and unthinking language to be persuasive - whereas these get in the way of a rational discussion.

trevytrev

Canon EOS-5D

Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L USM

08/31/2009 10:09:39 PM · #819

Apparently to the Sadalia Missouri School district, in my own backyard, evolution is a religion now. linky

my favorite is the quote from one of the "teachers"

â��I was disappointed with the image on the shirt.â�� Melby said. â��I donâ��t think evolution should be associated with our school.â��

I'm thinking she shouldn't be associated with the school....

Nikon AF-S Nikkor 17-35mm f/2.8D IF-ED

08/31/2009 10:31:36 PM · #820

Originally posted by trevytrev:

I'm thinking she shouldn't be associated with the school....

More like students shouldn't be associated with the school. Amusingly, the link I clicked had a banner ad for a T-shirt that read, "Put me out of my Missouri."

Flash

Nikon D700

11/24/2009 03:54:45 PM · #821

Article

Matthew

Canon EOS-5D Mark II

Peleng 8mm f/3.5 Fisheye MC In M42 Mount

11/25/2009 11:40:28 AM · #822

A couple more stories.

For those who claim that evolution cannot be observed:

Speciation Observed

and in the ongoing war against ignorance:

Mandatory Teaching of Evolution in the UK

(and here is a loose link to photography)

DrAchoo

Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX5

12/07/2009 10:02:08 PM · #823

With a bit of trepidation I am re-entering a Rant thread in the hopes of understanding. I heard a quote by William Provine this weekend and wondered if the atheists on these threads would check off on it 100% or would they qualify it somehow to their own liking. I'm not looking for argument but rather just to know if my understanding of the other side is as accurate as I think. I view atheists as agreeing completely with the following statement and would view disagreements as possibly being logically inconsistent (although I'm happy to hear arguments otherwise).

There are no gods, no purposes, and no goal-directed forces of any kind. There is no life after death. When I die, I am absolutely certain that I am going to be dead. That's the end of me. There is no ultimate foundation for ethics, no ultimate meaning in life, and no free will for humans, either.

Opinions?

Message edited by author 2009-12-07 22:02:45.