Skepticism, Skeptics & Debunkers

[Pericles]

Eric,

Guillermo has opened Pandora's box and I for one am going to hook in for the wild ride. About 22 years ago I was broadreaching across Brightlingsea Creek straight at Point Clear hooked in on starboard tack. The 6 sq. metre RAF sail to port obscured my view upstream. I was lucky that day, because I slipped one foot out of the straps to look around the mast and discovered I was headed straight at the rusty steel side of an old coaster headed out to sea and very high out of the water. I went from 25 knots to zero in 6 metres by releasing the wishbone and splashing in to windward. Board & rig were pushed away from the coaster by its bow wave, but the half immersed screw looked awful close as I floated past. Chomp, chomp, chomp, was the sound!

Ohhh, but the buzz!

So, Pandora's Box is open to all and only Hope remained. Where shall we Sceptics (English spelling please) go to feast tonight? Basel II?

Eureka! I have it! http://sealevel.colorado.edu/current..._ns_global.pdf

Perry

[masalai]

Hi Pericles, looks a bit like a chart of one of the fiscal markets without the recession/depression and another source I have posted earlier declared 60m sea level rise potential if all land ice was to melt for those using ancient measurement scales that is about 197 feet ASL... Good swimming - I prefer warm to frozen....

[MikeJohns]

Originally Posted by Eric Sponberg

The most fundamental thing to be skeptical about is whether or not there is a god.............. boat design and boat building?

Eric

I wasn't going to go there; you are very bold

You spoke of healing; efficacy of prayer on hospital patients has attracted some investigation and fraud has reared its ugly head, exposed because someone was skeptical enough to check.
http://www.time.com/time/columnist/j...660053,00.html


We could talk of the contortions that Christian fundamentalists go through to try and harmonize science and their beliefs; even in Naval Architecture. How many people still believe the Jammal hoax and that Noah’s ark has been found ?.

Noah's Ark is a classic. Structurally the wooden vessel is 'sunk' before being built, yet there persists a claim dished up in every discussion, article and web page, that some un-named authority (a "Korean University" ) has showed that it was structurally sound. The same groups that vilify science, name drop universities and scientists to try and gain credibility without being specific enough for the source to be checked.

Huge amounts of effort (at times blatantly dishonest) are expended by fundamentalists trying to warp science to fit allegory. They give otherwise intellectual minds an excuse not to think, because the desire to believe is so compelling. It really amounts to intellectual self neutering, and I have otherwise learned friends that do this.

Einstein thought that we were essentially the collection of prejudices that we had gathered by the age of 18. If you were taught to be credulous for religious reasons then you are unlikely to be incredulous particularly of charismatic people’s claims.

That people want to believe without question is evident in the religious groups founded by con-men that carry on under their own weight sans the original exposed con artist.

[Frosty]

It was on telly the other night that the Noahs ark flood was a tsunami!!. But im not sure I believe that.

[Pericles]

The Black Sea was filled from the Med. Robert Ballard investigated the theory as the most likely source of the Flood myth surrounding the name of Noah.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Sea_deluge_theory

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Ballard#Black_Sea

[Pericles]

Brian,

The chart I posted is produced by satellites, first TOPEX and then JASON. The measurements are scaled in millimetres. The item you posted earlier is a crock of ordure. You are grasping at straws my friend. The oceans are cooling and the levels are falling by millimetres, just as they have been rising by millimetres as the oceans were warmed due to the heat of the sun. I am relieved I do not have such difficulty in remembering recently learned facts.

"Os bós e xenerosos
a nosa voz entenden,
e con arroubo atenden
o noso rouco son,
máis só os iñorantes,
e féridos e duros,
imbéciles e escuros
non os entenden, non.

Regards,

Perry

[Guillermo]

Originally Posted by Pericles

"Os bós e xenerosos
a nosa voz entenden,
e con arroubo atenden
o noso rouco son,
máis só os iñorantes,
e féridos e duros,
imbéciles e escuros
non os entenden, non.

Ei, carballeira.....!!!!

[Guillermo]

Originally Posted by Eric Sponberg

Therefore, Guillermo, where do you really want to go with your proposal? Open this up to general skepticism, or only scientific skepticism with respect to boat design and boat building?

Hi, Eric. I see you've been reading Dawkins, but then you should read McGrath to get the full picture.

Well, these are boating forums, you know, and Mike already pointed that. My original intention was talking scepticism (ok, Perry?) in its wider sense, not only about boating, but probably that's going to be too wide and it'll soon derive in having several discussions/debates at the same time, making the thread difficult to follow. So, perhaps it's better to tighten to boating matters, although, as Mike already cleverly introduced, we can 'colour' the debate admitting other issues as religious fundamentalism, i.e., if (and only if) the debates are boating related. Noah's Ark and Universal Flood are good examples.

But it's up to you, my friends. Just let's avoid personal attacks.

Final note: Perry, we can even admit food if it has something to do with boats! Let's try onboard's diets!

Cheers.

[Pericles]

Moitas Gracias. Nom tem de quê.

To avoid scurvy. http://www.westonaprice.org/motherlinda/sauerkraut.html

I found the most amazing but limited dictionary to translate Galego into Japanese with English on the way. http://valesne.homestead.com/untitled11.html

Which should I learn, Reintegrational or Isolationalism?

Perry

[Guillermo]

Originally Posted by BillyDoc

Skepticism is fundamentally a questioning of the "truth value" of some premise....

Nice post, Bill. Should we discuss truth then?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truth

Cheers.

[Pericles]

BTW, a good reason to give up beer. http://www.axethebeertax.com/

33% of the cost of a pint is tax to Brown's useless government. Desist I say. Drink seawater, it will make you just as looney.

Perry

[Pericles]

As Terry Pratchett wrote, "What you say is true; for a given value of truth".

[Pericles]

I suppose I had better post a translation.

"The good and generous
our voice understand,
and with determination they attend
our harsh sound,
but only the ignoramus,
and wounded and hard,
idiot and dark
don't understand us, they do not."

Galician Anthem

[Guillermo]

Perry,
using sauerkraut to avoid scurvy may be a good idea, but Mama Linda says the 'curtido', an Ecuatorian sauerkraut, is also very healthy. Now look what the Ecuatorian doctors say:
"Salsa y curtido pueden ser factores importantes de gastroenteritis aguda, porque cualquier microorganismo patógeno puede cultivarse en esos medios."
(sauce and 'curtido' can be important factors of acute gastroenteritis, because any pathogenic microorganism can be cultivated in those environments)
http://www.elsalvador.com/noticias/2...ional/nac6.asp
Remember this is an sceptics thread

Cheers.

[Guillermo]

Originally Posted by Pericles

"The good and generous
our voice understand,
and with determination they attend
our harsh sound,
but only the ignoramus,
and wounded and hard,
idiot and dark
don't understand us, they do not."

Ignorant, not ignoramus.
A somewhat shaming anthem, as it distilates a feeling of inferiority, in my opinion.
http://www.nationalanthems.info/gal.htm

Cheers.