Tuesday, November 21, 2006

This will really disappoint the Holy Rollers

The New York Times recently published an article about evidence for a possible meteor impact in the Indian Ocean that caused a mega-tsunami some 4500 years ago. Part of the evidence is what the investigators call "chevrons" of displaced earth near the shore in Madagasgar. These valleys are theorized to have been carved out by a 600 foot high tsunami. By examining the direction of the chevrons, the investigators have found solid evidence of a large impact crater at the bottom of the Indian Ocean. Further, silt deposits in the chevrons contain ocean-bottom minerals fused to deep water micro-fossils, which are characteristic of impact events.

Other researchers have correlated multiple flood myths with known astronomical events (a solar eclipse) and found agreement with the geological age data. Torrential rains, weeks of darkness (oh, say 40 days) and of course, tsunami floods would all have been coincident with such an event.

This is certainly a credible explanation of flood myths and end-of-days prophecies. Unfortunately for the Creationists and other holy-rollers it has nothing to do with the supernatural.

There go those scientists again, taking all the fun out of make-believe.

1 Comments:

Blogger Unknown said...

Why can Creationists &/or Intelligent Design (ID) advocates solve Sudoku Number Puzzles so quickly?

THEY JUST PUT A “G” IN ALL THE EMPTY SQUARES.

It’s just a matter of faith! It’s the same method creationists and now ID specialists resort to in trying to prove their unsustainable “intelligent design theory”. Creationists can just stop searching for reality by just assuming all gaps in current understanding and/or knowledge of evolution must be filled with a (G=god) solution. As Prof Richard Dawkins explains in chapter four of The GOD Delusion; “If an apparent gap is found, it is assumed that God, by default must fill it.” Saves them having to think and question I suppose.

Much like the progress one makes by eliminating the possible numbers in each square as a Sudoku puzzle is solved, “gaps shrink as science advances and God is threatened with eventually having nothing to do and nowhere to hide.” This of course “worries thoughtful theologians” however the greater worry for scientists (and the rest of us) is that groups through politics or fear will walk away from the “essential part of the scientific enterprise [that is] to admit ignorance.”

Nothing is more dangerous than a, ‘I have all the answers’ arrogant preacher followed by a bunch of non-thinking ‘god-botherers’ driven by blind faith who absolve themselves from their societal responsibilities with the comfort of unquestioning feeble-minds!

Although some see Dawkins as a bit of a raver and less scientific in his arguments than he could (should) be, if you read Pascal Boyer's "Gods, Spirits and the Mental Instincts that Create Them", Dawkins’ 'emotional' approach to battling the “ID” lobby is also needed.

caliibre

Thu Nov 23, 06:22:00 PM PST  

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