And Rush song lyrics.
Science - What is it? Can it be trusted?
- Thread starter ThankQ
- Start date
And Rush song lyrics.
You're right. An honest attempt at understading the universe is one half.
The other half is Buddah.
...WAIT:???? Not what you meant?
Rather lengthy commentary in the local paper this past Sunday in which 3 scientists went on and on about how the Noah's Ark theme park opening in Kentucky soon will be damaging to kids.
The heart of their position revolved around the impossibility of an ark containing 2 of every species in existence.
Aren't they....missing the boat? Isn't the 'mainstream' view that if the story is based on fact at all that it was more of a localized event and that Noah or whoever he was simply gathered up whatever animals locally that he could find?
The heart of their position revolved around the impossibility of an ark containing 2 of every species in existence.
Aren't they....missing the boat? Isn't the 'mainstream' view that if the story is based on fact at all that it was more of a localized event and that Noah or whoever he was simply gathered up whatever animals locally that he could find?
As I understand, most cultures from the area and time whose records have survived have a flood myth, and there is evidence that suggests there was a major flood event in the region several (how many?) thousand years ago.
There are no eyewitness reports that I know of. If it did happen, it happened before written record or no records have survived (or yet been discovered). By the time anyone wrote about it, it was hundreds if not thousands of years after the fact.
The "great flood" may have been an actual event (locally, not globally) that was passed down orally and incorporated into most of the religions that came from the area.
THAT BEING SAID, the guys in Kentucky DO NOT subscribe to that idea. The guys in Kentucky belive that God caused the flood about 5,000 years ago, that it covered the entire planet, and that Noah actually did gather two of EVERY single species on the planet and put them on one boat. The Kentucky people are Bible literalists.
Now, we know as certainly as we can know anything that this is NOT TRUE. It did not cover the entire world. There is no evidence that, say, Kansas was under water at any time since the last ice age. Nor Brazil. Nor China.
Yeah, the Kentucky Ark project was the brainchild of the same people that built the Creation Museum. The Creation Museum attempts to back up the insane belief that the Bible is a literal version of events by distorting evidence to claim that the world (and universe) is only 6,000 years old, that there was a flood that covered the whole Earth, and that humans used to keep dinosaurs as pets. They try to claim that these myths are supported by scientific evidence and that's where they are crossing the line as they are committing a fraud against the public.
The Ark park may be built as a theme park, but you can be damn sure that there will be an information board and free pamphlets that explain how the global flood was real and that the dinosaurs died out because Noah couldn't fit them on the Ark. And the kids that visit will have no reason to believe that this nonsense is not supported by any evidence at all.
The Ark park may be built as a theme park, but you can be damn sure that there will be an information board and free pamphlets that explain how the global flood was real and that the dinosaurs died out because Noah couldn't fit them on the Ark. And the kids that visit will have no reason to believe that this nonsense is not supported by any evidence at all.
ST-One
Vice Admiral
Here is a nice example of the kind of misinformation this 'museum' tries to spread:
From their Online Newsroom site.
From their Online Newsroom site.
A
Amaris
Guest
Yeah. "Theme park" is a cover. It does attempt to be a natural history museum, except that it's history is wholly inaccurate and unscientific. It's full of lies, misdirections and theological garbage.
This is essentially what's wrong with the view of science being dangerous or evil...people don't understand that it's a process (with a body of knowledge however) and not just a set of beliefs. I hate it when I try to discuss a touchy subject and people give religion and pseudoscience equal footing with science...when its the SCIENCE PROCESS that must be used to gauge the value of those things in the discussion. I find that without a healthy respect for science--which there really isn't in the USA--that humankind really cannot be as mature or intelligent as it should be.
As far as trusting it...well like anything else, theoretical science and practical science can be abused by those who understand it best. Men have weaknesses and there's no shortage of that manifesting itself in the scientific world...but there is always a self-correcting mechanism in science, and wrongs usually don't go on very long unchecked...unlike real dogma such as religion and pseudoscience.
RAMA
In terms of productivity, sometimes there are benefits to short circuiting science.
The early bird catches the worm; scientific birds will hesitate and miss opportunities.
Unfortunately, the worm was poisonous. An accurate analysis of its cytological characteristics would have shown that, but apparently it was gobbled ravenously before it was possible to perform it.
Science wins again!
Science wins again!
^ I agree, but I'll point out that natural selection is science, too. 
A
Amaris
Guest
Birds are pretty. [smokes pipe]
[smokes bird]
*flips the bird*
* Tells everybody to flock off. *
A
Amaris
Guest
[dumps pipe tobacco ashes in RJ's windowbox]
^ I agree, but I'll point out that natural selection is science, too.
The thing that people call 'natural selection' is just a huge collection of random, unrelated events.
The name is a misnomer really because 'selection' implies direction or purpose, where in reality there is none. The bird eats the poisonous worm, the bird dies. There is no meaning in that event until a human comes along and observes it.
Science is science, natural selection is a collection of events.
