coralie.koonce wrote:Dear one and all, this will be my last post for now.
DAR
Of course, off you go. And you made sure to delete some stuff before you went. I think we need to look at changing that feature. I hate doing research and having someone else delete it because they started the thread. That won't do.
I would like to resume the discussion in a few months when my second book is published, as you will surely want to critique it (shoot it down).
DAR
Probably not. I would rather help you out before you publish, then it's too late. But apparently you aren't interested in hearing critiques of your beliefs.
I didn't realize how much we are coming from different perspectives or world views.
DAR
I didn't realize you had such disdain for science.
In one of the threads you deleted before you ran off you made a comment I think is important to respond to. You quoted some lady, and then mistakenly equated science with positivism, and claimed I, or some other bad skeptics like us, believe science is "omnipotent." That's just an absurd distortion, one of several you have floated. The claims of science are tentative, and open to further to inspection. On some topics like astrology and homeopathy we reach a point where, while we cannot prove the negative that they can't possibly work as claimed, we can say, as the evidence piles up that it is very very unlikely (very x100) that these things work as claimed.
Here is a standard explanation of science I refer to when teaching creationists the basics:
***
"A scientific theory must be tentative and always subject to revision or abandonment in light of facts that are inconsistent with, or falsify, the theory.
A theory that is by its own terms dogmatic, absolutist and never subject to
revision is not a scientific theory.
"The creationists' methods do not take data, weigh it against the
opposing scientific data, and thereafter reach [their] ... conclusions. Instead,
they take the literal wording of the Book of Genesis and attempt to find
scientific support for it." pg. 219
The essential characteristics of science are:
1.) It is guided by natural law.
2.) It has to be explanatory by reference to natural law;
3.) It is testable against the empirical world;
4.) Its conclusions are tentative, i.e., are not necessarily the final word;
5.) It is falsifiable. (Ruse and other science witnesses)." Pg. 217
(--The Creation Controversy, Dorothy Nelkin)
***
So stop this nonsense about people claiming science is omnipotent. Science is just the best game in town if you want to find out the truth about the natural world. It's not omnipotent and no one has claimed it is. If you think you have something better (intuition, "I know what is true for me"), then provide evidence to show how this works better. You cannot because it does not. "I know what is true for me" is the same as the argument from personal religious experience and it fails for the very same reasons. You don't get your own personal truth when it comes to objective reality.
Okay, I think you, Darrel, and probably most of the group may be described (from above Wikipedia articles) as activist skeptics,...
DAR
Oh how you love to put things in boxes.
"For example, they may attack alternative methods in medicine (e.g., for a lack of double-blind studies) while ignoring that similar criticisms can be levelled against much conventional medicine."
DAR
Name one. Be careful when you quote someone's mere opinion from wiki. It means very little.
Conventional medicine has a lack of double-blind studies? You tried a litany of attacks against conventional medicine and I responded to each and every one of them last night. All of it was political and irrelevant, nothing even addressed evidence based medicine versus the only other option: "medical claims without evidence." Arrogant grumpy doctors, corrupt officials, capitalism gone rampant, lack of health insurance, are all red herrings and have nothing whatsoever to do with the question at hand: Science, evidence based medicine versus new age claptrap based on anecdotal evidence and "ancient wisdom."
Also, while your form of skepticism favors orthodoxy, mine probably favors unorthodoxy.
DAR
I don't give a flip about the orthodoxy box. Sometimes orthodoxy is right. When it is, when it has the evidence and measurable results on it's side, I will agree with it. My form of skepticism favors finding out what is verifiable and true.
Favoring unorthodoxy is an unnecessary bias that can only skew the results. There is no reason to "favor" either. Follow the evidence. You have a bias against orthodoxy because you fancy yourself a "divergent thinker" and a maverick. Sometimes a position is held only by mavericks, because it is wrong. In fact, this happens a lot.
What is perhaps hardest for me to understand is why you would defend the official explanation of 9/11 without even questioning the dozens and dozens of holes in it.
DAR
Well there we go. You've danced around quite a bit but now you admit you believe in this stuff.
If it has "dozens and dozens of holes in it" you shouldn't have any trouble demonstrating a single example of one of these holes. When can we look forward to you doing this? Oh, you ran off for a couple months. See the links I have provided. Get informed on this subject because right now you are not informed.
You've been reading junk. Read something other than material that supports your own biases, and supports your desire to be a "maverick" and have that special inside knowledge that only conspiracy believers have the inside scoop on. Do you have 9/11 conspiracy stuff in your book? Uh oh.
Am I sarcastic?
DAR
Would you like examples?
Some of my points don't get answered,...
DAR
If you have a point you would like answered that is not, just ask. That's what I do.
...others get twisted.
DAR
You give not one example.
I know what is true for ME.
DAR
Oh no. You can't have that one. That's a biggie. When you get stuck believing in stuff that doesn't make sense you don't get to create your own objective reality as a solution. It isn't the case that homeopathy (or whatever therapy) is true in Coralie-land but not true in Darrel-land. We are stuck with the one.
My mom says the same thing about Jesus returning invisibly in 1914. It's true for her (and each of the 10 million other completely deluded Jehovah's Witnesses who believe this). It's true for them. Unfortunately, it's not true to anyone else, and more importantly it's not true in reality and the claim that it is, is not worth a penny more in value than your claim that you "know what is true for [YOU]."
Could any comment be more opposed to critical thinking and an honest objective search for knowledge? I say this because Coralie is involved with Dick Bennet's group that promotes critical thinking. It's time someone stood up and pointed out this silliness. No one is going to take them seriously and that would be a shame.
And by the way, you have no idea what leg cramps and stiffness might be like.
DAR
And when you return can we look forward to you providing evidence for how you know this to be true?
And not all the sciences are built on the physics/chemistry model of lab experiments. (You never answered that point.)
DAR
I never claimed, and would never claim "all the sciences are built on the physics/chemistry model of lab experiments" so why would I respond to a strawman like that?
I would still like to have the verbatim quote about the ocean that struck me as illogical. VERBATIM!
DAR
At the meeting I explained this in my presention, the BBC clip explained this, the Dawkins clip explained this, Dr. Cherry tried to explain this to you (exponentials: doubling the rice on the checkerboard), I emailed links to you and everyone which explain this, Tamara probably spent 1/2 an hour writing her explanation for you, I tried again in this forum to explain this to you, twice. Tonight she went and transcribed, VERBATIM, the parts from the video clips in question.
Is there anything else we can do for you?
If you are in an algebra class and not getting it, don't blame the teacher. Everyone else is getting it. Maybe it's you and you should just say, "sorry but I am not getting this." It's not the fault of some quote in the movie (which you have been provided the links for and can watch at your leisure online!). I am sorry you don't seem to understand this straightforward ocean dilution analogy. Maybe you are just not going to get it.
You can roast my book when it comes out.
DAR
Why would I do that? Then it's too late. Why don't you try being open to learning this basic stuff
before you write a book with howlers in it? That's my strong recommendation. Then perhaps it will have more "Models" and less "Muddles." I hope you are working with an editor.
D.