The Skeptard

Basic Principles:

2008-02-26T12:54:00.000-08:00

John Wilkins over at Evolving Thoughts has an interesting post on basic concepts in science; Chris Rowan at Highly Allochthonous has posted several times on similar topics. I thought maybe I would dip my fingers in this topic too, to whit:
There are certain things you have to take for granted (not on faith, the evidence is there) when doing geology, whether it is in the field, or in the lab, or even in the classroom. Regardless of what young earthers, ID proponents, or just your garden variety of creationist say, there is no need to reinvent the wheel:

1. The earth is very, very old. 4.6 billion years old in fact. There is literally tons of evidence of this, thermodynamic, radiometric, and other models all state the earth is old, some with more accuracy than others. The oldest rocks on earth are reliably dated to over 3 billion years old (Jack Hills metaconglomerates show 4.4Ga), why there aren’t older ones is covered in 2. The concept of a very old earth is just as basic in geology as a very old universe is basic in astronomy and cosmology. These tend to reinforce one another, and I have not seen anyplace that they contradict. The Old Earth is axiomic.
2. The surface of the earth is a dynamic place, even though the time scale is very slow compared to our observations, the evidence of changes, both catastrophic and gradual changes in the rock formations, surface deformation, continental position and most important to life, the environment, are preserved in the rock record. This record has to be interpreted. That interpretation is really what geology research is all about. That the earth has changed over time is also axiomic, how and why can be debated, but that the earth did is not.
3. Life evolved. How, life started is an open topic for now, at what threshold you call something living? That debate will go on for some time. Life did start at some level (very simple living things) long ago. There are fossil stromatolites that date comparably to some of the oldest rocks known, 3.465 Ga from the Apex Chert microfossils from Australia. Life may have spent several billion years hanging around as simple cyanobacteria, but it did change, as its environment changed. These changes grew and added to the diversity of life, eventually leading to entirely new organisms, including us. That this change, this evolution occurred is also an axiom.

Using this knowledge of the past, and these basic principles, predictions can be made about what should be found, and even where. This has led to new discoveries of fossils and formations that continue to intrigue and occupy scientist and geologist.

Pareidolia: Hey look! It's James Randi!!!

2008-02-25T13:20:00.000-08:00

projecting himself onto the cutface of a log, oh wow!

Pat sticks a fork in Tom Cruise

2008-02-22T13:28:00.000-08:00

the price of $tupidity

2008-02-14T12:02:00.000-08:00

Glen Beck may be a tard, but like anyone, he does come up with something intelligent, and observant on occasion, to wit: Just how much of my fucking tax money has congress wasted on trying to pin down Roger Clemens on using steroids? Look, its over, yes steroids hurt the game, we already know people did it, we already have taken measures (as to the quality of the measures, that is a separate debate) to address it, now it is simply a witch hunt you and I have to pay for. When congress does crap like this, they all really, really, need whacked with a large, blunt object.

I love Louis Black

2008-02-13T14:14:00.000-08:00

an old favorite:

Justice? what justice

2008-02-11T22:22:00.000-08:00

If the universe was a just and fair place, the Phred Phelps Phanaticas would just spontaneously combust. Fucktards.

http://www.nbc5.com/news/15247089/detail.html

this is how you do it

2008-02-11T12:31:00.000-08:00

I love reading things that other people can say with words, that I only have the facility to say with a stick. Thank you Greta Christina.

Somebody Needs a Bitchslap

2008-02-11T11:22:00.000-08:00

Edit: from CNN
anyone else see the paralles?

I was just watching the news this morning, and the CNN anchor stated that Clinton was beating Obama by about 30 delegates, with the super-delegates added in, but that Obama had the popular vote. When this whole process is done, if the super-delegates cause the nomination to go against the popular votes, I think I will sit back and enjoy the histrionics that follow, while most democrats will be justly angered, I'm certain a lot of the super-delegates will just smugly sit back on their hypocritical asses and say, well that’s the system, just like the republicans did in 2000.

Obama

2008-02-10T11:26:00.000-08:00

I have been of voting age since I first voted for Bush Sr. Since that point I have never, not even once, voted for a democrat for president (and seldom for other offices either). Last night watching CNN, they showed his speach for Virginia I think, and he said something that shocked and amazed me, it was something I have been preaching for, for years. Go to college, get money for doing so, in return you must SERVE; military(he did not say military, but it should be included), forein service, peace corp, even a homeless shelter. WOW. The idea that people should pay back thier country and people with service *gasp*. I smiled, and promptly told Obama (through the TV) that he had just won my vote.

I'd like to see Pat with a stick and little free rein

2008-02-10T11:22:00.000-08:00

I wish you could beat sense into people, I would have to lay about myself with a stick quite often (and yes, I would hand the stick off to someone else for a little thumping about my head and shoulders periodicly too)

A Journey Into Rationality....

2008-02-09T16:01:00.000-08:00

Many years ago, I used to carry the guidon for christ, I was a member of the assemblies of god (John Ashcroft's old haunt), I personally lead 3 people to christ, it was very satisfying. I would like to say, then I grew up, but it was not so simple as that. My belief first started to fade as I received more education (most likely why religious despots first kill all the teachers, not the lawyers). As the years go by first to fade was my belief in christ, I was jaded by the concept that someone who had never heard of christ was doomed to a fiery eternity in hell, where is the logic of a loving god in that? At that point I still believed in a abrahamic god, not quite jewish, not quite christian. Once I started studying geology, and realize just how old the earth was (I had known 4.6 Gy, just never really dawned on me how long that really was). At that point all thought of an abrahamic god went away, and I was just left a deist, I mean, I had spent the first 20+ years of my life being trained to believe in god, it wasn’t going to go away overnight. That lasted another ten years or so, and even belief in that was strained, things were just too big, too amazing to be part of a scrutiable god, at that point I became an agnostic, the concept of god was just too big for our puny human minds to contain. My wife is a young earther, so, trying to find a way to explain that the earth is NOT young, no where near young, in fact, young is right out, I started searching the web for people better able to explain it than me. That is when I ran into people like PZ Myers, Phil Plait, Jon Voisey, and Les Jenkins. That did it, I saw for the first time just how childish belief in a diety was. Its a child’s need to be comforted by something bigger than us. _AND_ its a childish need for the concept of individuality after death. I think that is what the problem is for most deists/christians, they just can not get past the death of their individuality. So what, the universe doesn’t care. Get over it. Live your life, it’s the only one you have, live it for yourself, live it for your children, for in the end, THEY are the only form of immortality we really have.