So simple it must be true!

The Journal of Imaginary Sciences, Volume 21, 2009

So Simple it must be true!

The team at Answers in Genesis have recently unveiled a new debate strategy against Evolution. Their founder, Ken Ham, revealed the new strategy on the site in a recent post.

"Often wisdom comes from the mouth of babes. Previously we stated that teaching your children at a young age the truth about the young age of the world and God's creative power was a good thing. However, research on my own offspring their own offspring has revealed that even they as young children were able to recognise the truth of the Bible and have rejected this message from evolutionists. Their acceptance of this fact demonstrates that the Bible is correct as even children are capable of recognising the truth of God's statement."

Holidays beckon

Good afternoon and welcome to another week of articles, etc.


I am sorry to say that next week there will be no updates as I will be in Belgium and whilst I could update, I would rather spend time on more pressing things, i.e. the girlfriend I will be with. Updates will hopefully resume as normal the week after.

I might also add, the article may be late this week as I am busy today. Fear not, because the news shall still be posted here.

Firstly, this reposted article on RD.net made me stop and think. It kinda makes you think how much creationism considered the lunatic fringe and really has no place in science. Unfortunately, with their tendency to shout and scream as well as throw their toys out of the pram, creationists are a serious threat. Simply because the doctrine is idiotic.

I managed to get my July edition of Current Archaeology today. One of the things I noticed was their feature on Alice Roberts. It seems that the general archaeological community is supporting her program as fairly good. There is a brief extract in the link, but the article does back up the claims Alice Roberts makes.

The free paper on British transport, The Metro, had this article on exorcisms done on homosexuals in Britain this week.

http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?Homosexuals_left_traumatised_by_ceremonial_cure&in_article_id=692445&in_page_id=34 (please note, the link was problematic for me)

And a week ago I was complaining about practices in the Middle East!

On and on a lighter note, LucidFlight posted this on the RD.net

Expelled Star gives up on modern living

Journal of Imaginary Sciences, Vol 20, 2009

Expelled Star gives up on modern living

Today, Ben Stein announced he was giving up his lifestyle as an actor and economist as he w\as about to go back to nature.

The star of Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, announced that due to the reliance on evil science in the modern world, he was going to return to nature in order to avoid the comforting evil brought on by modern Godless, science.

The star explained that this derived from a comment he once made, in which he stated that:

"Love of God and compassion and empathy leads you to a very glorious place, and science leads you to killing people."

Someone, he said, pointed out that all modern technology was brought on by science. He then decided that this meant he must renounce technology and live in the woods like the animals. He then proceeded to tear his clothes off and run stark naked into the woods behind the press conference centre.

Several hours later, Mr Stein, was escorted into an ambulance and treated for hypothermia. Police are also cautioning him for public nudity.

Pseudo-science, no excuse for manslaughter

Good afternoon and welcome to another sunny weekend. For once, I have not one but 4 news articles which have attracted my attention this week. Let's look at the all.

Firstly, my attention was brought to this amusing site Election Meter

If you notice, it has the all too predictable poll on Evolution vs Creationism. I would like to also draw your attention to the part of the graph which marks the 2nd of May.

This my friends, is what happens when PZ Myers encourages people to vote on an issue. I'm glad it shows quite a nice bias to a scientific theory. As a result it brightened up my day a little.

Onto some more sober news, the Saudi Gazette has published a story which detailed the arrest and trial of a 70 year old man, accused of witchcraft. Now I don't know about you, but 840 lashes and a 3 year prison sentence for having different beliefs is fucking inhumane. I'm seriously glad that I live in the UK where this thing is not supported by law (with the humorous exception of the Stockport Witches, which I might add, only includes barring them from worshipping in another religious place). Its shocking that some people are so closed minded that they can't accept people examining other options. I would advocate more on this subject, but it seems rather tricky to comment upon, considering the nature and the tensions in the area.

Onto faith healing now and another trial is taking place in Oregon, where a couple have been accused of manslaughter. Again we've seen another trial, which suggests an increase in common sense on these issues. I'll be glad if people finally see that conventional medicine actually does work.

And finally, a more peculiar article. Apparently, some homeopathic remedies may have side effects. Now I'm rather confused with this idea. Somehow, someone isn't diluting them like they apparently should be doing........ I'm rather confused here......

Supermarkets show record levels of tin foil being sold.

Journal of Imaginary Sciences, Vol 19, (2009),

Supermarkets show record levels of tin foil being sold.

Supermarkets have displayed a record level of tin foil being sold since May 2008 last year. The manufacturers have stated they are currently lagging behind demand as tin foil is continuously being reordered by supermarkets.

"We're not entirely certain what the cause of this is" said one supermarket spokesperson. "There is no cause as far as we can see really."

When independent researchers did a survey of the people buying tin foil, many of them simply said "cooking", however, one or two referred to a documentary they saw recently called Expelled.

Subsequent research demonstrated that the sale of tin foil increased more or less to the day that the film was released. Discovery Institute had this to say:

"We are pleased to note people are wearing the hats as they encourage reception between themselves and the Designer". The scientists who describe this as rubbish are on the same side as the evolutionists who are suppressing our free speech".

Tin Foil Hats

Censorship and free journals

Hello and welcome to another week.

Today several news items have caught my eye. Firstly, I would like to bring to attention this video:

As we can see, the DI seem to have been caught filing illegal claims. Besides the obvious legal problems with this, it is clearly an act of a black hole coloured kettle describing the "apparent" matte finish of the pot. These are people who complain science is out to censor them. Its clear what they want is simply to impose their own idiocies in place of actual science. As a result, I'm happily putting up (in big flashing lights) DonExodus's video here. Maybe I'll put it up next week too.........

Onwards to my life. Now on my course, there are people that despite my own bemusement, believe in creationism and want to become science teachers. Whilst I have only minor unvoiced problems (any problems that occur due to this are going to be thankfully away from me), I don't enjoy it when I get preached at. I'm not religious, I don't want to talk about God, I just want to get on with my life. As I was leaving college the other day, I get one of my coursemates proceeding to engage me in a conversation on my opinions. Whilst I am happy to explain my opinions, I do expect a degree of respect for them. If I say I am agnostic, it is respectful to understand why I said that, because quite simply I don't know if there is a God and I find them utterly impossible to prove. However, stating my opinion is crap and is fence sitting shows a certain stupidity which I do object to.

Another habit I have is reading science books when I have free time before/after/during my classes. I enjoy learning about science and opinions on it from professionals. So when I get the forementioned person commenting on my reading material (its crap) I do get annoyed, especially when this person a) is a YEC and b) has never read these books. I don't know about you, but having this shoved in your face is irritating to the extreme and whilst I would usually ignore it, today you lucky people have a page of ranting from yours truly.

Onward to something cheerful. I found this enjoyable link today which allows you to subscribe to a free Evolution Education journal. Simply register and the articles are free.

Evolution: Education and Outreach

Please enjoy and may I add, thank you for those scientists setting this wonderful journal up.

Enjoy the rest of the articles this week.

Science works

And hello again on this blog. My apologies for last week, however, I was busy and since I am starting to prepare for my big move to York to live with my girlfriend, there may be problems occasionally putting up posts.

As you can see, I've started a new post relating to hilarious pseudo-scientific methods of debate made by those wacky pseudoscientists. I made a draft of some points last night, however, I feel it is incomplete and as a result, each month I will update the post with new and funny posts I have found on the net. Let's just hope that "Dr" Davison (apparently he's very keen to have people refer to his title despite his retirement) whose blog wall I wrote on recently, comes over here to debate with me as he hinted. However, I think this may be an empty threat as I see a certain apathy when it comes to debating the problems with his objections to modern science.

Onto reviews. I've been able to watch a further 2 episodes of Dr Alice Robert's series: The Incredible Human Journey and I'm still fascinated. I've heard from people that the show is often too "poppy" and using non-peer reviewed material, but I'm not entirely certain. The show I watched on Europe fits into my archaeological knowledge (and what I know as standard archaeological ideas) and the series also has the excellent Chris Stringer helping research it. Trawling through the net I'm hard-pressed to find any negative reviews by the tv critics either. If anyone knows of any critical reviews, I would love to see them so that I can understand where I may have missed something. But so far, I'm glad series like this are present on the BBC.

The other day I also found this article on a friend's facebook account. Now this story really pissed me off. Now let me outline something Thomas Sam, I have eczema. Your point you made in your speech that:

"Conventional medicine would have prolonged her life ... with more misery. It's not going to cure her and that's what I strongly believe."

Is fucking stupid. Of course conventional medicine doesn't cure us, its a disorder which is genetic. What you could have done, is use conventional medicines to prevent her scratching. I use E45, a salve in Britain which helps moisturise. This child could have been living if you, her parent had kept her skin moist! Just taking care, ensuring this child had the right clothing/soaps/moisturisers/food, etc could have kept her alive and prevented your stupidity.

Conventional medicine would have indeed prolonged her life and as a sufferer I can say it can make it livable. I probably didn't have the same problems or the same severity of this child (my eczema is mild at this present time), however, I've had infected cuts from scratching in my sleep, which was treated thanks to a good doctor.

People like this just sicken me with their inability to comprehend that modern medicine works.

Article on Thomas Sam's daughter

Davison's blog article

How to debate as a pseudo-scientist, quotes

I thought, as a follow up to my last article I would now quote from examples in this matter. These are a list of quotations taken from pseudoscientists which are mostly, quite amusing. Most of these are from creationist sources simply because they are convenient and take up most of the webspace in this.

1. Preaching

FSTDT always has beautiful quotes:

"Physicists have been theorizing for decades about the 'electromagnetic force,' the 'weak nuclear force,' the 'strong nuclear force,' and so-called 'force of gravity'. And they tilt their findings toward trying to unite them into one force. But readers of the Bible have already known for millennia what this one, unified force is: His name is Jesus..."

From here

2. Spelling and Grammar

Robert Byers is a world leader in this field. Look him up on FSTDT

3. Credentials.

I am reminded of the dentist, Stephen B. Lyndon, who constantly seemed to have lied about his credentials in his blog. Check the discussion here on RD.net for more.

4. Ignore their points.

I recently got into an argument on John A. Davison's blog. This was because one of his supporters, VMartin, ended up systematically ignoring my points.

As you can see there was a reason I decided not to return, which was due to the abusive nature of Davison and his webmaster. Interestingly enough they haven't decided to post here........

5. Argue from Improbability

I found this discussion here

6. Generalise.

There are many arguments like this. However, I found this wonderful one here

7. Hitler

Godwin's Law is ancient. Therefore, let's have a giggle here:

"
Almost every issue Hitler was for Hussein is also for.
Hitler was all in favor of human experiments. Obama loves to support murdering babies and human embroyos.

Hitler believe in evolution. Claimed to be a Christian. Was for gun control. Started the brown shirts. Believe in labeling anyone who disagree with him as potential danger to the father land. Hitler's picture was everywehere . Obama picture is everywhere. Hitler was immoral goddless and a meglamaniac. Obama is far more evil and ego is only surpassed by Satan .

http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/1009/1009_01.asp

Nazi Germany under Hitler commited unspeakable crimes against humanity.

Obama commits unspeakable crimes against the innocent babies so don't tell me that Hitler licensed murdering and Obama doesn't!!!!

Obama upcoming forced volunteer force will be larger than the US military according to Obama nazi squad. "

8. Quote Mining

Please see this article here by me for more.

9. Mud-slinging

Again, I find Davison's vitriol against me as an anonymous poster incredibly interesting considering he has a webmaster that is anonymous.....

10. Mis-applied Science

This is possibly a classic:

"One of the most basic laws in the universe is the Second Law of Thermodynamics. This states that as time goes by, entropy in an environment will increase. Evolution argues differently against a law that is accepted EVERYWHERE BY EVERYONE. Evolution says that we started out simple, and over time became more complex. That just isn't possible: UNLESS there is a giant outside source of energy supplying the Earth with huge amounts of energy. If there were such a source, scientists would certainly know about it. "

Emphasis added by the person who added it to FSTDT.

See here

This post will be a work in process as I get more and more quotes. My apologies if this seems unfinished, but it will be worked upon.

Largenton

How to debate as a pseudo-scientist

Journal of Imaginary Sciences, Vol 18, (2009),

How to debate as a pseudo-scientist

As an eager follower of the pseudo-sciences you may wish to engage in debate with others in order to convince them of the joys of your particular belief. Here is a guide produced by some of the foremost debaters in these circles on the net.

1. Preach. You need to educate your foes with what they are dealing with. Preaching your points at them prevents them from actually raising points of their own which could damage your argument. The more you say, the less they can produce.
2. Spelling and grammar. This is optional. It doesn’t matter whether you can type anything, just as long as you think it supports your argument.
3. Credentials. All arguments seem better when you have credentials. If you haven’t got any, imply you have. Don’t worry about being called a liar, they won’t find out…….
4. Ignore their points. Why bother listening to their arguments? You know you’re right.
5. Argue from improbability. Scientists come up with strange and fascinating arguments, but they are all improbable. State that.
6. Generalise. All scientific objections against your points are easily evaded when you show in general terms how daft their arguments are. Classics include that your family aren’t descended from monkeys. This will result in them trying to raise more and more objections until they can’t remember what they were arguing about.
7. Hitler. Everyone knows Hitler was a bad man. So if he did something, it must be bad too!
8. Quote mine. Quoting is a good way of putting forward your argument from authority and if the quotes need editing well so be it.
9. Mud-slinging. These people who you debate are often vile unbelievers who need to be shown the errors of their ways. Remind them of that.
10. Use mis-applied science. Often science can be used against itself to show the problems with the idea. An example is the second law of thermodynamics which contradicts Evolution.

All these are good and tried methods of debating and have worked exceedingly well against sceptics. One of thing you must remember is this. You’re always right and that the belief from whichever book or leader you have, is always correct. Ignore those who seek to waylay you, you know the truth.