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Tracing the whale’s trail [Evolution trial, daily thread for 15 Oct]
York Daily Record [Penna] ^ | 15 October 2005 | LAURI LEBO

Posted on 10/15/2005 3:44:16 AM PDT by PatrickHenry

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To: Havoc
I understand all you say. I attempt to (and most of the time fail) to use the absurd to illustrate the absurd.

Also I understand that some of this stuff is just plain silly.

I hear you, I don't hate them either.
I think them, Turkey, others brilliant. Wrong; but, brilliant.

But do I think that some of it is a very nasty vulgar game played by 'them' in the guise of intelligent argument. I picked up on that part immediately, and maybe thats what drew me in rather than any greater questions, which (for me) would go back to what you said at the start, the absurdity quotient.

But the thing that I have said many times(and I think they truly do not get) is that even a heathen Wolf can see that cosmo-evo is nothing

Wolf

321 posted on 10/16/2005 2:34:28 AM PDT by RunningWolf (tag line limbo)
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To: Havoc; Coyoteman

1. Ice cores don't have annual rings, they have layers. Those individual layers are evidence of yearly cycles of snow deposition. Taken in groups, those layers provide evidence of extremely long periods of time and hold records indicating long-term climatological changes.

2. Trees have annual rings. Those individual rings are evidence of yearly cycles of growth and dormancy. Taken in groups, those rings provide evidence of extremely long periods of time and hold records of long-term climatological shift as well as local events such as fire and drought. These punctuating events allow a scientist to accurately synchronize the rings from a relatively recent tree to an older tree. This allows the ring-counting dating method to progress even farther back in time.

If you have difficulty comprehending and keeping distinct these two sources of information, it does not surprise me that you are susceptible to the fallacies put forth by the YEC crowd.


322 posted on 10/16/2005 3:40:54 AM PDT by King Prout ("La LAAAA La la la la... oh [bleep!] Gargamel has a FLAMETHROWEEEEEAAAAAAARRRRRGH!")
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To: Junior

so?
each side of a tetrahedron (D4) is flat, so it fits the statement


323 posted on 10/16/2005 3:50:46 AM PDT by King Prout ("La LAAAA La la la la... oh [bleep!] Gargamel has a FLAMETHROWEEEEEAAAAAAARRRRRGH!")
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To: curiosity
The highest profile IDer, Michael Behe, beleives in common descent.

Interesting. This seems strange to me, as the most difficult issue to integrate into a Creationist world view is the idea that we descended from other primates. In addition, I have heard that ID does not specifically disagree with micro-evolution, the idea that a trait can be selected out by natural selection, which has been observed.

It seems to me, that once all you are saying is that these changes which scientists attribute to random chance, are actually controlled by God, there is no scientific means of disagreement, and in fact, there would be no problem with evolution being taught in the classroom.

Really, I'll need to look into this further, because the whole idea of irreducible complexity requires that some species were just created from nothing, or that God came down and inserted an eye into an animal at some point. This goes against both the evidence, which shows that the eye grew in complexity over time, and with the Bible, which claims by any interpretation other than allegorical, that creatures were created all at once.
324 posted on 10/16/2005 4:19:06 AM PDT by EasyBOven
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To: Coyoteman

something just occured to me...
do trees growing within a degree or two latitude of the equator have growth rings? If yes, why? If yes, do they appear different (less distinct?) than the rings of trees in the temperate latitudes?


325 posted on 10/16/2005 4:31:17 AM PDT by King Prout ("La LAAAA La la la la... oh [bleep!] Gargamel has a FLAMETHROWEEEEEAAAAAAARRRRRGH!")
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To: All
Blogger forum? Blogger forum? Blogger forum?
326 posted on 10/16/2005 4:55:07 AM PDT by PatrickHenry (No response to trolls, retards, or lunatics.)
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To: EasyBOven; b_sharp; Ichneumon; Physicist; VadeRetro; Dimensio; Coyoteman

a problem with the term "irreducible complexity"

it seems a bastardization of a valid engineering concept properly called "irreducible simplicity"

In a well-designed machine:
1. there are present the smallest possible number of components to accomplish the design objective
2. each component is required for the machine to function
3. each component is specialized for function within the machine, and poorly suited for use elsewhere outside of the machine

*Engineering for reality is more complex. For one example: in the theoretical extreme, the machine and all its parts are suited for one application and a single use. In reality, durable repeat function is desirable, so components tend to be made to be more robust than the absolute extreme simplified form would allow. As another example, also stemming from desirable durability, the requirements of maintenance often cause the engineer to include far more parts (fasteners, pins, access ports, etc...) than the design purpose of the machine itself requires.*

The ID crowd seem to have deliberately parasitized a legitimate engineering ethos and warped it for their own ends.
The classic "illustration" they use, the mousetrap, is a good indicator of what I mean.
A spring-jaw mousetrap is indeed a nearly perfectly simplified piece of engineering. Each component is required, no extra components exist, each component is poorly suited to other applications. It is an elegant example of irreducible simplicity.
However... the IDers disingenuously call it irreducibly COMPLEX, and then dance semantic jigs to imply that biological systems display the same characteristics as a deliberately engineered and aggressively simplified mechanical device.

It seems to me that we have had enough of this nonsense.
It is time to slap them with the real and valid concept: Irreducible SIMPLICITY.

While biological features and systems are complex, and while it may be very difficult (or impossible) for random mutation and selective-pressure driven population changes to explain how such features and systems could directly evolve from simpler components, it seems to me that the ToE *can* explain such systems as irreducibly SIMPLIFIED results of evolutionary processes.

Looking at parasitism, symbiosis, and cellular organelles is instructive. Multifunctional features and organisms gradually (as populations) lose features and complexities needed for independent function as they become more specialized for interdependent function. Some features become adapted and combined during the simplification process.

I'm not a biologist, so I turn this over to the Big Dogs for a full flesh-out.

I'm tired of hearing this "irreducible complexity" bullpiuckey.


327 posted on 10/16/2005 5:16:25 AM PDT by King Prout ("La LAAAA La la la la... oh [bleep!] Gargamel has a FLAMETHROWEEEEEAAAAAAARRRRRGH!")
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To: PatrickHenry

funny how that works, ain't it?


328 posted on 10/16/2005 5:17:10 AM PDT by King Prout ("La LAAAA La la la la... oh [bleep!] Gargamel has a FLAMETHROWEEEEEAAAAAAARRRRRGH!")
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To: EasyBOven
Interesting. This seems strange to me, as the most difficult issue to integrate into a Creationist world view is the idea that we descended from other primates. In addition, I have heard that ID does not specifically disagree with micro-evolution, the idea that a trait can be selected out by natural selection, which has been observed. It seems to me, that once all you are saying is that these changes which scientists attribute to random chance, are actually controlled by God, there is no scientific means of disagreement, and in fact, there would be no problem with evolution being taught in the classroom.

Essentially the crushing DNA evidence coming in over the last few years appears to have shocked the scientific ID luminaries such as Behe, Denton, and Dembski. If they ever honestly believed in special creation of "kinds" they cannot have expected the molecular evidence to so completely refute it. So they have redrawn the ID map in Behe's case to "Somewhere, somehow, the Designer did something though Behe cannot say what or how", and in Denton's case reversed the claim from "Evolution is so unlikely that a Designer must have intervened at every stage" to "Evolution is so likely that the Designer must have set up the Goldilocks universe to make it that likely". Dembski is largely silent on the issue, but has publicly admitted that the evidence supports common descent. This must have been a bitter pill for them to swallow. Had the molecular evidence come out differently they would have been declaring "I told you so" to the scientific world and collecting their Nobel Laurels. Curiously however they have not shut down the Discovery Institute in their embarassment.

329 posted on 10/16/2005 5:20:49 AM PDT by Thatcherite (Feminized androgenous automaton euro-weenie blackguard)
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To: Admin Moderator
Blogger forum? Blogger forum?

Why was this thread moved to the Blogger forum?

330 posted on 10/16/2005 5:27:26 AM PDT by PatrickHenry
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To: Thatcherite
funny thing about appealing to the mobile vulgus - once you gather a herd and set it in motion, it is damned difficult to change its vector or disperse it.
331 posted on 10/16/2005 5:28:35 AM PDT by King Prout ("La LAAAA La la la la... oh [bleep!] Gargamel has a FLAMETHROWEEEEEAAAAAAARRRRRGH!")
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To: Havoc
On this Glacier Girls site, I don't find any information about the number of layers of ice, only the thickness of 268 ft is mentioned. Their method to retrieve the GG by melting through the ice seems to exclude counting the layers.

Ergo, the annual layers could be ~ 5.5 ft thick, adding up to just 48 layers.

Just to assume that 268 ft of ice have to represent 200 years at any place in Greenland (not the tiniest of islands)seems to be illogical.

332 posted on 10/16/2005 6:15:12 AM PDT by si tacuissem (.. lurker mansissem)
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To: LogicWings

"Yeah, I read Plato. I wasn't impressed."

I'm certain that's true.


333 posted on 10/16/2005 7:03:21 AM PDT by MineralMan (godless atheist)
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To: PatrickHenry
Link change noted and corrected.

This message was automatically generated by Darwin Central Archives

334 posted on 10/16/2005 7:28:46 AM PDT by Junior (From now on, I'll stick to science, and leave the hunting alien mutants to the experts!)
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To: PatrickHenry

It seems to be almost personal doesn't it?


335 posted on 10/16/2005 7:35:37 AM PDT by furball4paws (One of the last Evil Geniuses, or the first of their return.)
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To: King Prout

Well, it's flat up until you fall into one of the engraved numbers.


336 posted on 10/16/2005 7:55:08 AM PDT by Junior (From now on, I'll stick to science, and leave the hunting alien mutants to the experts!)
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To: Junior

well, okay then. glad that's settled


337 posted on 10/16/2005 8:16:15 AM PDT by King Prout ("La LAAAA La la la la... oh [bleep!] Gargamel has a FLAMETHROWEEEEEAAAAAAARRRRRGH!")
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To: WildTurkey

That's not fair. You did the arithmetic Rather than jump to conclusions.


338 posted on 10/16/2005 8:31:23 AM PDT by Doctor Stochastic (Vegetabilisch = chaotisch ist der Charakter der Modernen. - Friedrich Schlegel)
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To: PatrickHenry

Every time "Havoc" posts, the thread moves one step closer to the garbage can.


339 posted on 10/16/2005 8:47:04 AM PDT by balrog666 (A myth by any other name is still inane.)
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To: balrog666
If Hovind goes to prison, will Havoc disappear?
340 posted on 10/16/2005 8:54:29 AM PDT by VadeRetro (I'll have a few sleepless nights after I send you over, sure! But it'll pass.)
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