Science Icon Fires Broadside At Creationists

London Times vis The Statesman (India) ^ | 04 July 2004 | Times of London Editorial

[Ichneumon]

why yes it is. where does the 0 end though?

It doesn't.

each 0 must account for every two 9's.

Say what?

[Ichneumon]

yes, "i" is the square root of -1. now, whats its value?

Its value is i. If you want it in vector form, it's (0,1).

"value" is an amount or numeric quantity, a representation of an amount is just that, a representation.

Exactly the same is true of the value of the number represented by the symbol "2".

[Alamo-Girl]

Wow! What a magnificient, informative essay on Galileo. Thank you!!!

Well, I’ve really run on long here as usual. Just one last point before closing. There seems to be some kind of widespread attitude this days that suggests people who believe in God are incapable of doing science, owing to doctrinal “brainwashing” or whatever. The life of Galileo absolutely refutes that supposition.

Indeed. It strikes me as ironic that many of those who complain likewise have an ideological context for their theories.

[Ichneumon]

Since we're taking a side trip into the more philosophical aspects of mathematics, it seems an appropriate time to provide a link to this classic essay: The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics, by Richard W. Hamming.

Dr. Hamming's name is familiar to many people in computer science as the inventor of Hamming Codes, a method of doing error-detection-and-correction on noisy data channels.

[MacDorcha]

1-.9=.1

1-.99=.01

1-.999=.001

etc...

every 0 is accountable for at least one other 9, thus only when it is infinite, and not a whole number, does it work.

[MacDorcha]

interesting, but "i" represents TWO values coexisting, not a single value in the real sense.

[MacDorcha]

though i give you credit for also helping my point. as far as algebra is concerned, it cannot be answered. as for geometry and calculus, it can be explained, but no single unit is held.

this is what i meant by "1+1=2 is a theory"

other studies do not come to the same conclusion, as each study uses a different reasoning, even though they are all mathematical.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thank you so much for the ping to your testimony on the Bible!

Yes of course, js, you are exactly right: the Bible is NOT a scientific textbook!!! And also right that it does teach "morality." But more than that, its main purpose, it seems to me, is to lay out the divine dynamics of the great hierarchy of Being -- God-Man-Nature(World)-Society -- for the purpose of bringing God and man into intimate communication and relationship. The order of the personal soul is fundamental to the good order of society, and of man's responsible relations with the natural world. Or at least that is my belief.

Indeed, the Bible is spiritual, unlike any other text known to man!

When read without the leading of the indwelling Spirit, the Scriptures are much like any manuscript and readers employ the same tools and methods to do their research.

But when the Spirit indwells, the words come alive within the one reading: the eyes scan effortlessly over the written words while the Spirit brings the meaning alive within and compels the reader to other passages. There is no need to memorize or to study it like a manuscript, because the Spirit leads.

That unique property is the authentication of Scripture v ancient but uninspired manuscripts.

[PatrickHenry]

How did that troll get the thread moved to the backroom? He's probably been pounding it continuously since it happened.

[js1138]

Don't know, but he's been spamming me with freepmail. I think he mistook me for someone who cared about his peosonal problems.

[RadioAstronomer]

Dr. Hamming's name is familiar to many people in computer science as the inventor of Hamming Codes

Yup. :-)

A Hamming code is a block code. Other block codes include Golay, BCH, and Reed-Solomon. Interesting side note is that the error correction on a CD player is Reed-Solomon.

[longshadow]

Don't know, but he's been spamming me with freepmail.

One can only hope it is more coherent than what he's posted to the thread.

[js1138]

Less.

[Doctor Stochastic]

Could this be an avatar of Archimedes Plutonium?

[Doctor Stochastic]

Hamming used to visit me when he was in town, mostly to chat about things in his article "Mathematics on a Distant Planet." He made some interesting points such as "Does it make a engineering if functions used in airplane design are Lebesgue integrable rather than just Riemann integrable. Would you fly on a plane if it did?"

(Of course, I told him I was computing to get some insight into how big my numbers were.)

[PatrickHenry]

He's like the Lone Ranger, but in an upside-down universe. I'm speaking of the Lone Troll. All his comrades have been banned, so now, alone, he fearlessly stalks the science threads, seeking victories in the never-ending crusade of Spiritual Warfare.

Yes, boys and girls, wherever reason dares to rear its head, the Lone Troll is there, to distract the dialogue, to nitpick, to divert the thread with trivia. And when he can, he gets posts deleted. This is truly heroic. Sometimes, if all goes well, he can get an entire thread moved to the backroom. Oh, how glorious!

You may sleep soundly, boys and girls, because the Lone Troll will be there to protect you from the evils of rational thought.

[RadioAstronomer]

Archimedes Plutonium

Now there is a name I have not heard in a while. :-)

[PatrickHenry]

[AndrewC]

Trolling for suckers tonight?

More airtight "deductive" logic.

[js1138]

I would never present anything of mine as airtight. But when I engage in sarcasm, I don't deny it.