Science and Technology
Professor Kenneth Miller On The Threat To Scientific Rationalism -, 07 November 2008 15:00
Is intelligent design about to win America's soul? This is the question asked by Brown University Professor of Biology, Dr Kenneth Miller, at the Chautauqua Institution in New York State. Professor Miller is particularly known for his opposition to creationism, including the intelligent design movement. He's written several books on the subject, including his latest, Only a Theory in which he explores intelligent design and the Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District, as well as the overarching threat ID presents to scientific rationalism.
Comments (190)
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Scopes :
21 Nov 2008 9:45:29am
wasnt this all sorted out at the monkey trial ????
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DocMercury :
21 Nov 2008 3:37:22pm
No, the 'monkey trial' was a debate as the the right to the theory of evolution over the right to creationism on the school curriculum in the USA.
Intelligent design doesn't necessarily deny the theory of evolution, but rather it attempts to support evolution as a science by suggesting that the progress of evolution from the non-living and unconscious matter and energy into things which are living, capable of reproduction, and of a measure of awareness of their own existence.
Be that awareness an entirely biochemical stimulus and response kind of phenomenon, or something else.
It is basically the "something else" notion which is contention, sort of like a debate between the idea that human relationships are nothing more than biochemical cascades and a delusions of neurochemistry, figments of our colourful imagination, or the idea that they're something else.
It isn't easy to prove that we humans are merely an accident of random chance and chemical behaviour, any more than it is easy to prove that some sort of intelligent encoding existed in the quantum foam or the superstring entanglement from which our known cosmos burst or unravelled.
It is a lot easier to be dismissive of either argument by reason of preconceptions, assumptions and pet prejudices.-
graeme :
23 Nov 2008 6:54:44pm
That's very astute doc.
As I wrote somewhere else, I find the notion of holoarchy as a means to describe "everything that is" informative.
An atom is a whole, but most times part of something bigger. A cell is a whole, made up of whole things, but part of something bigger. So it goes to organs, humans (or rats or worms), which are whole things, each made up of other whole things (holons) but part of something bigger.
If complexity level on the holoarchy is what gives us intelligence, then it's a pretty clever process we are all part of.
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Cricket :
21 Nov 2008 9:39:37am
As Richard Dawkins put it so succinctly, the genie of religious fanaticism is well and truly out of the bottle in the USA. If the Founding Fathers were alive today they would almost certainly be appalled at how their brilliant Constitution has been manipulated to give succour to this phenomenon.
While reason and rationalism would appear to be holding the line against religious offensives wielding intelligent design for now, the influence of religion is still much too great in the USA. That a person cannot be elected to high public office without demonstratively being a church-going christian is a savage indictment on the American people's lack of domestic democratic vigilance.-
DocMercury :
21 Nov 2008 3:39:24pm
Richard Dawkins has his own pet prejudices and axes to grind, and may well have his own theoretical biology and cosmology tainted by his own preconceptions and sentiments.
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Cricket :
21 Nov 2008 4:31:17pm
That he does, but I think his comment about religious fanaticism in the USA stands up well to scrutiny.
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DocMercury :
21 Nov 2008 5:23:12pm
Agreed.
Evangelists of the Disney/Vegas variety always remend me of someone sinking deep hole being made deeper by all the passionate digging.
On the "Methinks she protests too much" rule, it looks like they're trying hardest to convince themselves that they're not the ones most deluded.
If it can't sell itself, then it probably isn't worth buying.
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sillyfilly :
20 Nov 2008 10:32:01am
On the seventh day god as god rested, he turned to Mother Nature and said, "I done enough work for this week luv, now it's all up to you, best of luck."
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DocMercury :
20 Nov 2008 8:02:29pm
Maybe IT just buggered off on an extended exercise in goldbricking, knowing that if/when we stuffed anything up, we'd be the ones picking up the bill?
Maybe we're the wager between IT and Lucifer?
Perhaps IT's just as altruistic as we are, and maybe IT doesn't care..
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Groucho :
17 Nov 2008 9:57:05pm
I believe in God and the bible and is agreat influence in my day to day life.It tells me what to wear and what to eat.The creation story is a wonderful point in human history as with the first parents Adam & Eve and their decendants which all & all we are all related.
Intellgent design must be taught in our schools as pure science and eventually the bible should be the linch pin or basis of law making in this country.Then it flows into comerical law and civil law too.The parlimentry system that we have today is flawed as it ignores the word of God-
Mr Universe :
18 Nov 2008 5:19:37pm
Good on you Groncho,random as usual.It was good to see you write something without mentioning chickens & Paul keating.What a dribbler
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DocMercury :
18 Nov 2008 8:09:45pm
I understand that talking books are a relatively recent innovation, since the unwashed illiterate had to settle for someone in a gown to read to them.
If someone is using a book to stake a claim against individual free will, then the dogma is either manipulative or fraudulent, and translates into seduction for clandestine vested interest.
Everyone is free to mess up their own lives and they don't need any help. -
Shack :
19 Nov 2008 12:09:28am
Excellent idea. Laws based on the Bible. I am looking forward to some public stonings of people who dare to wear clothes made from more than one material or gardeners who put more than one crop in the same field. And as for those cheeky boys who disrespect their fathers, it will be a fun day out for all the family casting stones at the little monsters.
In addition all those instances and situations that our modern Parliament ignores can be addressed such as treatment of slaves and the like. Hell it even addresses what soldiers need to do to cleanse themselves if they should have a wet dream while in a military camp (I kid you not, such is the wisdom of God's word in the Bible.)
As for commercial law, it will be great to know what is a fair price next time I am trading my camels and goats.
Sign me up Groucho. -
Groucho :
19 Nov 2008 12:12:21am
Seriously,
if I ever go down the road the flatterer above has- give me the iki jima-just based on the horrific spelling and grammar.
Graeme,did the uni sack you or worse- tell you to moderate your online flagellations? -
sillyfilly :
19 Nov 2008 2:00:29pm
a failed attempt at sarcasm, I hope!!!
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Shack :
19 Nov 2008 4:59:35pm
One would imagine so.
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Groucho :
19 Nov 2008 5:17:45pm
My opinions are as valid as you four Mr Universe,Groucho the Pretender, sillyfilly & Shack.It's important to see that justice and morals are protected by law and especially Gods law.We will not be a nation until we embrace that.
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Shack :
20 Nov 2008 10:21:55pm
The validity of opinions depends on the ability to support them with reasoned argument, facts and evidence.
After all the opinion of a child who believes in the tooth fairy is not as valid as an adult who knows it is all just make-believe.
But I am curious. Have you actually read the Bible and understood some of the more barmy parts? If you do live completely by God's Laws as stated in the Old Testament, including all that completely barking stuff in Deuteronomy, I would be curious to know how you have survived this long. -
Groucho :
23 Nov 2008 12:17:49pm
Except Shack the opinions above are those of someone envious of my intellect,comedic skills and popularity
Flattery is very sincere,thanks usurper.
However the quote below is something I would utter if was trying to induce vomiting.
You really should research my ethos before any dismal attempts at playground behaviour.
Who knows I may pop around for a cuppa any day soon and you can explain your bravado face to face?
QUOTE of the imposter
"Groucho :
19 Nov 2008 5:17:45pm
My opinions are as valid as you four Mr Universe,Groucho the Pretender, sillyfilly & Shack.It's important to see that justice and morals are protected by law and especially Gods law.We will not be a nation until we embrace that.
Reply Alert moderator "
So childish-but predictable given the IQ of the mimicker.
The irony is the pretender has to take everything I dish out,lest they expose their true failed character.
Aaagh Unleashed, what viral pus buckets lurk in our midst.
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CASE :
20 Nov 2008 12:06:40am
Please feel free to move to Iran where God is in control. As you will discover, men of reason may not seem as godly, but they get the job of government done well.
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Jim :
23 Nov 2008 1:50:04am
The story of Adam and Eve is a story from Sumeria about the hunters and gathers being overtaken by the farmers and landowners. proven and recorded history.
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Jamster :
17 Nov 2008 8:42:45am
If God invented the sun on the third day, how long were the first two days?
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Marrow Master :
17 Nov 2008 1:47:23pm
Jamster:
Good question:
And animals were created on Day 5
and Man on Day 6.
There is the technical point that a day
is the time it takes the earth to rotate
on its axis. One Year is the time it
takes for the Earch to orbit the Sun
And then the real fun comes with
Genesis 5 - all that water - where did it
come from?. And is it still here? -
DocMercury ®:
17 Nov 2008 3:56:43pm
Time is relative.
If tectonic movement of the Earth's crust were seen via time-lapse photography, the planet would look like it were 'breathing'.
The cycle of rotation of the galaxy we're in, with our Solar System riding its wake like a cork on a wave in the outer 'burbs, is about 250,000,000 Earth years.
The literal Earth "day" doesn't mean much between supermassive star nova and the condensation of smaller new stars and plants like ours out of primordial stellar dust.
IMO, you need to be "thick" to apply literal translation to the text of scribes who'd never known in their time something as fundamental and basic as a radio wave.
Light is a magnetic field chasing an electric field at the perpendicular.
Yeah right!
Everyone knows it is living emanations from Sol.
Or so you might believe in 5000BC. -
Scopes :
19 Nov 2008 8:51:24am
Jamster, I'd say the first two days might have been about, oh, 2 billion years apiece. Inherit the wind.
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Scopes :
17 Nov 2008 8:41:17am
Bananas!
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DocMercury ®:
17 Nov 2008 3:59:22pm
Banana: a human cultivated herbal plant which no longer posesses the ability to strike its own seed.
The banana plants are totally dependent upon Homo sapiens for their survival as a species.
It happens.
Dairy cattle would be traumatised by varieties of mastitis without us. -
CASE :
20 Nov 2008 12:08:37am
Classic Way of the Master silliest moment ever.
How is it that Ray Comfort is still in the evangelism game. Do theists just not laugh their embarrasments out of the profession?
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DocMercury :
16 Nov 2008 11:53:10am
The perception of intelligent design is like the Great Red Spot on Jupiter.
It is something which has coalesced from chaos. -
Nemesis :
15 Nov 2008 6:59:12pm
71 + minutes of this drivel.
That is the sort of punishment they should mete out instead of capital punishment.
Did god see climate change or nuclear bombs coming?
Why didn't he warn someone.
Oh yeah free will.
god is the big hand on Monty Pythons Flying Circus TV series-end of story.
Methinks religion is for people who think having a sense of humour is another deadly sin.
ID lovers, get a life. -
Groucho :
15 Nov 2008 3:13:46pm
ANAGRAMS for Intelligent design include;
Deleting Listening
Tinselled Tingeing
Needle Slinging Tit
Legged Ninnies Tilt
Legend Ignites Lint
Legends Lie Tinting
Edges Entitling Nil
Linseed Getting Nil
Linseed Leg Tinting
Dense Tingeing Lilt
Tensed Legit Lining
Tensed Lie Glinting
Tensed Lie Tingling
Gelding Tensile Tin
Gelding Entitle Sin
and over 58,500 more!!-
Marrow Master :
17 Nov 2008 1:54:07pm
Groucho:
Sledging Lie Intent:
This appeared in the first 1000
of the 58824 found by wordsmith.org-
Groucho :
17 Nov 2008 7:54:20pm
MM
We share the same shopping centre!!!-
Marrow Master :
18 Nov 2008 5:17:29pm
Groucho:
Everywhere Internet:
Well they are not actually everywhere
- they are not in WA, SA, TAS and have
only 1 place in VIC. But that have
everywhere else in Australia covered.
There is no was I would ever do any
work from a PIE terminal. Nearest PIE
to me is Woden.
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IB :
14 Nov 2008 10:29:12pm
Given that no amount of consistency with experiment can ever prove a theory to be correct, and a single discrepancy proves it to be wrong, there is no point in demanding proof of any theory. The key to any theory is its utility in predicting events before experiment is performed. If a theory has no predictive power it is worthless, and "Intelligent Design" falls into this category. What events can it predict? In what sense is a tsunami killing 300,000 people a part of "Intelligent Design"?
On the other hand evolution is full of predictive power. For example, whatever evolved last will show greatest diversity in a species. Human intellect evolved well after the underlying biology, and therefore shows considerably more diversity. Two individuals can look much the same, but one might be a rocket scientist and the other struggles to read and write.
The rich get richer, the poor get poorer are also examples of evolution at work. How many rich people couple up with the poor?
Evolution is a scientific theory because it looks for patterns in nature and suggests underlying mechanisms for their generation. It then checks to see if these mechanisms predict other observations. "Intelligent Design" is not a scientific theory because it makes no attempt to predict anything.-
DocMercury :
15 Nov 2008 2:07:30pm
"In what sense is a tsunami killing 300,000 people a part of "Intelligent Design"?"
It reduces destruction of fisheries by two-legged locusts with explosives and poisons.
That is 300,000 people who cannot breed.
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kevin moore :
14 Nov 2008 4:42:18pm
Here are some more odd facts.
There are 109.2 Earth diameters across the sun's diameter. There are also 109.2 Sun diameters between the earth and the Sun at it's furthest point of orbit.
The circumference of the moon is 109.2 x 100 kilometres.
The sidereal days in 1 lunar orbit =27.322 x 4= 109.2
The percentage size,earth to moon = 27.322%-
kate :
14 Nov 2008 9:46:12pm
So?
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Groucho :
15 Nov 2008 3:02:45pm
There are 109.2 grains of sand on the beach surrounded by another 109.2 grains of sand etc etc ad infinitum.
Cool huh?
Glad I wasn't holding the tape measure when they measured the suns diameter.
My kelpie has an IQ of 109.2,which is 109.2 times the IQ of GW Bush.
Cool huh?
The average Australian would like to through JW Howard and his lying ministers off the Tampa 109.2 times each.
Cool huh?-
groucho :
17 Nov 2008 2:10:56pm
OOps -throw not through
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The latest etiquette for women :
17 Nov 2008 2:44:50pm
Tthis happens to people who are too eager to point out other posters' mistakes. It's God's punishment!
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Groucho :
17 Nov 2008 7:55:07pm
Huh. What's god?
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GOD :
18 Nov 2008 9:39:00pm
Huh What's Groucho?
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HST :
20 Nov 2008 8:04:41am
Looks like we have two Grouchos here.
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jeff :
17 Nov 2008 5:48:31am
So? is exactly right... this sort of silliness smacks of fortune telling and the wackiness of numerology. the fact that similarities or patterns can be found in selected areas has no statistical or mathematical relevance whatsoever.
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DocMercury :
16 Nov 2008 11:39:28am
Which diameter?
The equator has one figure and the polar longitude another, which is even more pronounced with the Sun than the Earth.
Similarly, the distance between Earth and the Sun isn't perfectly circular, and the Earth0Moon system wobbles in orbit like a dumbell.
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kevin moore :
14 Nov 2008 3:51:48pm
Which came first, the chicken or the egg?
And don't forget about the rooster.-
Groucho :
15 Nov 2008 3:15:17pm
Ask Graeme Bird he has intimate knowledge about chickens,he's related.
Mr Puniverse too,if you can separate the two that is. -
Groucho :
15 Nov 2008 6:30:18pm
KM watch this space
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DocMercury :
16 Nov 2008 11:41:31am
Plaque amd pond slime came first, and since they reproduce asexually by binary fission, the rooster and/or hen issue doesn't apply.
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CASE :
20 Nov 2008 12:13:14am
Technically, the sexual division between chromosomes occured prior to the evolution of the chicken. Accordingly, the mutation or variation of the first chicken was that chicken being laid by a different species. Thus, we know from genetics that the egg came first.
Glad I could clear that up.
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DocMercury :
14 Nov 2008 2:55:48pm
Evolution and Thermodynamics.
It is within the nature of the things we refer to as "living" to do so by defying the physical laws of of energy loss and entropy.
There are a number of ways by which this is achieved.
One is through spreading energy across multiple receivers, balanced and interfaced by symbiosis into a gestaultic whole, using solar energy and vegetative photosynthesis as a virtual perpetual energy source.
Another means is by using the energy from exothermic biochemical reactions to provide the energy necessary to drive endothermic biochemical reactions, and thus minimise the total energy sum loss.
Virus, for instance, are considered barely alive because they cannot reproduce without parasitism upon the genetic machinery of a host cell, and stars aren't considered "alive" at all, even if they are born, grow old, die, and reproduce from the coalescing interstellar dust of nova parents.
It might be hasty to ignore the life of rock at first base too, given that Earth's oxygen rich atmosphere wouldn't have happened without something having an appetite for iron oxide and sulfur, along with a very high tolerance to high levels of broad spectrum ultraviolet radiation.
Laws of Thermodynamics are not defied, ultimately, because individual living things die, but individual living things can do what a slab of granite cannot, and produce near replica replacements of itself when time erodes the original away.
Evolution does not assume that success of adaptations are guaranteed within a cosmos with environmental changes across extremes more often intolerant to life of any kind we can understand.
Life as we know it on Earth is totally dependent for growth upon the ability for water to exist at all of its 3 phases, and a temperature range on between 0deg and 100deg is not commonplace in the universe.
We're yet to know whether having a big ganglion between the ears is not of itself its own handicap. -
Cricket :
14 Nov 2008 1:58:21pm
Intelligent design: irrefutable evidence of religous desperation and stupidity.
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DocMercury :
14 Nov 2008 11:52:25pm
Intelligent design is also the only reason the car doesn't break down or explode.
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blacksheep :
17 Nov 2008 5:50:34am
You've obviously never had an american-designed car.
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DocMercury :
13 Nov 2008 6:48:39pm
Fluke" doesn't come into it, Lincoln, because the fundamental basics to what things are, how the potential difference between electrons and protons is integral to the structure and form of the DNA double helix and the differences between the protein of your hair and your fingernails, and why sodium chloride makes cubic crystals and quartz and water hexagonal ones.
The cosmos is what it is because of the basic nature/essence/form/collective state of being, IS-ness, at the point in nothingness where space-time, quanta, matter and energy began.
This is where science begins to look like occult, and our own frame of reference for intelligence is projected upon everything else.
Which IS not to suggest IT isn't.
IT is a unified field theorem for which we've not yet invented the symbols and terms we need to insert into the equation.
Perhaps we never do find them all, to ensure that eternity isn't long enough to become dull, tedious and boring.
We've no way of knowing with certainty that the observable universe is alone, on its own, or just one cosmos in as many as there are seconds between now and Earth's solid coalecence in space at the outer edge of a largish galaxy.
Best guesstimate is that we'll all find out, one way or another, ourselves, alone, on our own.
With life this short, there ought be no hurry to find out. -
g3 :
13 Nov 2008 7:13:12am
* the truth ...still u hide [from] "it "
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kevin moore :
12 Nov 2008 9:02:13pm
The Moon has a sidereal rotation period of 655.728 hours,which means it rotates once every 27.322 Earth days. Given that the Moon has an equatorial circumference of 10.920.8 kilometres, this means that the moon is turning at 400 kilometres per Earth day!
The Moon is one 400th the size of the Sun.
The moon is 400 times closer to the earth than the Sun.
The Earth is rotating at 40.000 kilometres per day and the Moon is turning at a rather precise 100 times less.
The Moon always faces the Earth as it travels on its orbit around our planet and yet the average distance is such that the equatorial rotational speed is precisely one percent of an earth day.
When viewed from the Earth during an eclipse, the Moon appears to be the exact same size as the Sun.
If one measures the diameter of an object in inches and multiplies that figure by 8 you arrive at the circumference in centimetres.
The Big Bang or intelligent design?-
Lincoln :
13 Nov 2008 12:09:46pm
Do you really suspect something like that to happen as a fluke?
Also, the effect of the moon on the tides and other fluid movement due to its magnetic value is not a fluke either.-
kevin moore :
13 Nov 2008 1:24:24pm
Just a little extra to think about. If a circle is drawn with the north and south poles as the extremities of the diameter,then the circumference is 40,000 kilometres and the diameter is 500,000,000 inches.
The Sacred Cubit in the Great Pyramid is 25 inches, which is the exact 10,000,000th of the mean distance from the centre of the earth to the poles.
The earth is 3.66 times as big as the moon but 81 times the moons mass.-
geo :
13 Nov 2008 10:00:16pm
1 metre was orignally defined as one ten millionth of the distance from the equator to the north pole.
Intelligent design or intelligent choice of units? -
DocMercury :
14 Nov 2008 2:23:34pm
It probably isn't an accident that the weight of a litre of water on Earth is near enough to 1 kilogram at STP, and that this relates to the measure of Earth itself in respect of the planet's mass and gravitational force.
It couldn't be any larger than a cube of 10cm, 1L, 1kg, and a unit directly proportional to planetary dimensions.
An identical volume of water does not weigh the same on the Moon and Mars, but it may weigh up to measure proportional to the size of each planet.
Assuming a similar density, and perhaps liquid water affinity, for each rocky sphere.
It looks like it was planned, designed, but with the frame of reference being part of that being observed, it is impossible to tell if it isn't just synchronicity or blind coincidence.
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Cricket :
14 Nov 2008 2:19:26pm
The religious creationist mindset is an extremely narrow one that fails to encompass the stunning reality that in a universe of inifinite possibilities, even the most unlikely coincidences will occur somewhere and at some point in time.
Lincoln is apparently unaware that the moon is very gradually receding from Earth by about four centimetres every year, in part due to its gravitational influence on our tides. If this process was uninterrupted (our sun blooming into a red giant will probably make the question moot in about five billion years), the moon would eventually recede so far that it's orbital period would be 47 days, not the current 28, and therefore would be relatively smaller when viewed from Earth compared to the sun. Total solar eclipses will be a thing of the past.
Creationists' narrow minds balk at the timeframes associated with the cosmos and the evolution of life on Earth, and so will never appreciate that while the moon appears to be the same size as the sun when viewed from Earth at the moment, this hasn't always been the case and will not be in the future. It's basic celestial mechanics.-
DocMercury :
14 Nov 2008 11:58:44pm
Possibilities are not infinite within the known universe, and if you're inventing an unknown universe, Cricket, then you might as well be adopting an invisible friend.
There are a set of basic rules which apply to matter and energy within the cosmos as we recognise and understand it, fundamental phenomenon like electric charge and magnetic field, the relationship between the two, the valency of the elements, and the behaviour of heavy hydrogen under high gravitational pressure.
Possibilities are finite, limited by the constraints upon the nature of the phenomenon. -
Graeme Bird :
19 Nov 2008 12:20:01am
Well Doc that depends on the compression of the atomic absorbtion spectro glimpington massoflincts.
Unless you produce the evidence though you will be written off as just another Groucho. Evidence kids-evidence. I can't clean up after all of you.Who do you think I am Mr Universe?
PS All this time me and Groucho are one in the same.
Hurruh!
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Mr Universe :
13 Nov 2008 1:26:07pm
Millions of people have died due to war,famine,diseases & religous intolerance.Intelligent design?
Hmmmmmm!-
DocMercury :
15 Nov 2008 2:09:46pm
Yes, each of the dead equals potentially twice their number in demon spawn who will never be.
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CASE :
20 Nov 2008 12:16:54am
I suspect that irrational statements like that (sarcastic in your case, I hope) are the reason that religion is being marginalised.
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DocMercury :
20 Nov 2008 12:24:07pm
Case, te only things on this planet which haven't got any reason to consider us "Demon Spawn" are rats and their relatives (with some reservations for traps and squirrel assassinators), and cockroach and most of their relatives.
Species which are our equals in parasitism and opportunism.
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DocMercury :
16 Nov 2008 11:46:22am
Yes, intelligent recycling.
What do you think you're going to eat if nothing dies to make the compost to grown vegies, and how long could people tolerate each other if we didn't die and everyone took up as much space as sardines in a tin?
Death to disease is entirely unintentional on the part of pathogens, which simply excrete poisons as a consequence of the metabolism, or are themselves made out of toxic substanes.
Nothing personal. -
HST :
20 Nov 2008 8:11:42am
Are you inviting Mr Hmmmm to come and join the discussion?
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sillyfilly :
13 Nov 2008 2:00:48pm
"If one measures the diameter of an object in inches and multiplies that figure by 8 you arrive at the circumference in centimetres.The Big Bang or intelligent design? "
Good attempt, but basically nothing more than simple linear algebra actually.
Rather than given a poor approximation for a simple algebraic function of "pi", you could consider the divine proportion "phi".
Oh and by the way, the rotation period and the orbital period of the Moon are equivalent.
We could also amend genesis to read "in, the beginning, god had a big bang" that may explain adam and eve -
Cricket :
14 Nov 2008 2:21:21pm
Try unintelligent human design, kevin: the units of measurement are arbitrary.
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Kitschead :
16 Nov 2008 3:39:29pm
Listen that is pretty impressive. But I do believe that this is just another one of those miracle feats of mathematics
represented in a much more obvious and hyperthetical way. Take for example any basic mathematical rule. eg the angles in a triangle always adding up to 180 degrees. Or the diameter of a circle always wrapping around the circumference Pi times. -
CASE :
20 Nov 2008 12:21:21am
Ok, here is another lot of numbers. 153. Plato, Prophry and Iambchlus all record Pythagoras walking past some fishermen and predicting that they would catch exactly 153 fish. Pythagoras loved numbers, 153 was important (17th prime) because it was triangular in that 1x1x1 + 5x5x5 + 3x3x3 = 153.
Now take a look at John 21:11.
Thats right. The New Testament includes plaigarism from "pagan greeks".
Numbers are important, why dont you use them for something useful?
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kevin moore :
12 Nov 2008 8:22:46pm
Terence Kealey, a clinical biochemist and the vice chancellor of the University of Buckingham, wrote an article in the [London] Times on November 15th 2004 under the title "Who says science is about facts? They only get in the way of a good theory." In this he recollected as follows:
"When Charles Moore was editing "The Spectator" he once asked me why, of his contributors, it was those trained in science who were the least honest.....Charles Moore had supposed that scientists would revere facts, but that supposition is a myth: scientists actually treat facts like barristers treat hostile witnesses - with suspicion.
The myth maker was Karl Popper. Popper was not a scientist but a political philosopher who proposed that science worked by "falsifiability": scientists discover facts; they create a theory to explain them; and the theory is accepted until it is falsified by the discovery of incompatible facts that then inspire a new theory......yet it is a myth that working scientists always respect falsifiability. Scientists often ignore inconvenient findings." -
Granny :
12 Nov 2008 3:49:48pm
Life is a waste of time,
Time is a waste of life,
Get wasted all the time,
And you'll have the time of your life.
Courtesy of Billy Connolly-
Marrow Master :
12 Nov 2008 8:37:19pm
Granny:
You can spend all your time making money
You can spend all your love making time
If it all goes to pieces tomorrrow
Will you still be mine?
(Take it to the Limit) (Eagles) -
Groucho :
15 Nov 2008 3:19:28pm
Granny has anyone ever sent you a Billy Connolly chain letter ?
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Maree :
12 Nov 2008 3:38:37pm
The ID debate has sprung up because religious adherents are finding it harder and harder to reconcile the evidence of science with the dogma of the religious texts. They are about 6 centuries too late. In order to stop people thinking for themselves they really had to stop the invention of the printing press. Once those pesky, cheap, readily available books escaped into the populace the game was up. And now that the internet has evolved (oops - been intelligently designed) they are panicking and trying to shore up their increasingly untennable position.
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sillyfilly :
12 Nov 2008 2:13:38pm
Can somebody please advise where I can purchase a pet dinosaur for Xmas?
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DocMercury :
12 Nov 2008 6:11:27pm
Crocodiles are close.
Cassowary even closer.-
sillyfilly :
13 Nov 2008 10:40:20am
Already had one bad experience with a rampant cassowary in FNQ, not exactly the pet I was looking for. Likewise a five metre saltie is a bit daunting to secure and train. Something like Dino the dinosaur from the Flintstones, close to intelligent designs' birthplace of Bedrock. Something to give me a "Yabba Dabba Doo Time".
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