Monthly Archives: July 2008

Science, natural history, and evolution

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Science is a way of knowing about the world that depends constantly on free inquiry, experimentation and empiricism. As such, anything that is established in science has credibility based on the methodology used, not on the word of any individual scientist. It is the ability of other scientists to duplicate the experimental results that one of their number publishes that makes a scientific law credible.

Physics and chemistry are the two foundational sciences on which all others, including astronomy, biology, and geology, are based. Unlike the first two, astronomy, biology and geology also have hypotheses and theories that are historical in nature. The basic assumption is that all physical and chemical laws are constant, remaining the same throughout deep time. Thus, any historical hypothesis or theory, to also be scientific, must be in strict conformance with all the known scientific laws that were previously established as valid via the scientific method.

Understanding this, we can consistently apply all known scientific laws to deep time to both test hypotheses and propose them. For example, the Doppler effect was used to discover that most galaxies were moving away from us and in proportion to their distance from our galaxy. This was defined as Hubble’s Law, which in turn led to the Big Bang theory of cosmic origins. Likewise, repeated experimentation on living animals and plants in which artificial selection is done to change the genetic makeup of their populations in a laboratory setting establishes the validity of Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection. It stands to reason that if slight changes can be made in populations of organisms in a short period of time, then massive changes indicated by the fossil record should be possible over a long period of time. But to show this may not be possible, we’d have to do additional experiments to attempt to find the limits of genetic and physical change in such a population and thus possibly falsify evolution. Such an experiment was proposed and detailed here:

https://dalehusband.wordpress.com/2007/08/02/dale-husband%e2%80%99s-evolution-experiment/

It is important to understand that it is impossible to have genuine natural history without a scientific basis. Previous attempts to describe the past history of the universe without science are mythology. Mythology has no references whatsoever to physical and chemical laws and usually involve one or more supernatural deities, thus they are not scientific. Any tests of a historical hypothesis or theory involving deep time can never contradict the scientific laws previously established as valid via the scientific method.

So, is evolution a fact? Is the Big Bang theory a fact? Is the theory of continental drift a fact? Only if you accept as valid all the scientific laws that support them. And those laws, in turn, are supported by the scientific method. That is why the concept of “creation science” is a fraud. It is nothing more than an attempt to support mythology by the misuse of scientific terminology.

Since it is obvious that evolution is scientific, and creationism is not, why is there even a controversy over teaching such concepts as “Intelligent Design” in public schools? Because of politics and religion interfering with science education. And this is nonsense if you just follow the chain of reason that was used from the late 19th Century onwards to support evolution.

Fear of being shamed publicly

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A friend of mine is being repeatedly attacked by certain people because of her posting names and pics of members blocked from her group on Human Rights, along with specific reasons for the blocking. They claim that this act itself violates human rights, as well as rules of proper behavior. But does it?

When challenged to specify what rights are being violated, they refuse to do so.

When they are issued a judgement, they refuse to accept it.

Instead of moving on after they state their case, they keep repeating it, as if saying it 1000 times will make a difference after failing to make their case the first time.

That’s trolling, people.

What’s really going on, with at least some of the critics, is fear of appearing on the list they are protesting about. Well, here’s an idea: Don’t violate the rules of the group and you won’t ever appear on that list!

Is Israel trying to start another WAR?

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That is what one would think, based on this news story:

Report: Israel to build settlement in West Bank

Israel radio reports that Israel has given preliminary approval for the construction of a new Jewish settlement in the West Bank.

It would be the first new settlement established by Israel in several years.

The report says a committee has given the approval for the construction of 20 housing units in Maskiot and that Defense Minister Ehud Barak is slated to grant final approval soon.

Calls to Israeli spokespeople requesting comment were not immediately returned Thursday.

The news is certain to anger Palestinians just as the sides try to work out a final peace agreement by the end of the year.

Israel has committed not to establish new settlements in the West Bank, which the Palestinians want to include in a state.

Not only is the building of a new Israeli settlement in the West Bank a violation of the international agreements that allowed Israel to form in the first place, but the peace process can only move forward if Israel agrees to remove any Jewish settlements in Palestinian land that were established earlier.

The Zionist dream of having an independent Jewish homeland has already been fulfilled. But some extremists among the Jews don’t know when enough is enough. And they, along with all their fellow Jews, will ultimately be the losers if they are not stopped from stealing any more Arab land. The Arabs will surely strike at Israel and set back peace in the Middle East by several decades. And the United States needs to stop blindly supporting Israel and put firm conditions on any future aid it may offer any nation in that part of the world.

The absurdity of Gitmo

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OK, let me get this straight
First the Bush Adminstration attempts to define the prisoners at Gitmo as neither criminal suspects nor as POWs. It should be noted that the former class are forbidden to be tortured under the Bill of Rights, while the second class are prohibited from being tortured under the Geneva Conventions. Then to cover their @$$es further, the Bush Adminstration attempts to reclassify waterboarding, excluding it as a form of torture. 

What is one supposed to conclude from that? You join the points together and thus conclude that waterboarding, and other forms of torture, are probably being done at Gitmo. And do you not think that’s why those prisoners were sent to Gitmo in the first place, to try to prevent the public from seeing what was about to take place there? Even German or Japanese POWs during World War II were never sent to Gitmo. 

If such nonsense was ever done to American citizens by any other government, we’d all be howling in protest about it. But we are Americans who were so hurt by 9-11, so we can do whatever we want to anyone we please. We are special! We are better than all other peoples! We can’t trust THEM to live their own lives out without us looking constantly over their shoulders to make sure they do things OUR way. All because a few extremists nuts rammed a few planes into a few buildings, we go ballistic and throw due process out the window and put ourselves in a perpetual state of “war”. Remember, war is good for business too.

Of course, that doesn’t absolutely PROVE that torture and other human rights violations have taken place at Gitmo. But when the police have probable cause that a criminal suspect has committed a crime, even if it wasn’t done openly, they are duty bound to arrest the suspect. Likewise, we Americans are duty bound by our allegiance to the US Constitution to end the detaining of the prisoners at Gitmo and investigate those who detained them. No one should be above the law!

My recent statement about Israel-bashing

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I wrote this during a discussion about a friend of mine:

“I try to make subtle distinctions to be as accurate as possible. I’ve noticed that when I do this, people who think in the opposite way slam me for being inconsistent. Take Israel, for example. Israel-bashers take the real examples of Israel’s dismal treatment of the Palestinians and translate that into outright labling of the Israeli state itself as criminal. When you do that, you are expressing prejudice. So even if the human rights violations by Israel ended, the Israel-bashers would still demand that the Jewish state should not exist because the act of establishing it displaced some Palestinians.

What they don’t tell you is that if Israel had never come into existence, the Jews still living in Palestine would be under ARAB rule and would be subject to whatever treatment the Arab rulers felt like doing. Given that most Arab states even today are either absolute monarchies or military dictatorships, how can efforts to establish a democracy for Jews like what was done in 1948 not be justified?

So I will slam Israel for specific acts that are excessive, but defend its right to exist and protect its citizens within lawful limits.”

And that’s the only decent way to operate. Anyone who takes a different route is a hypocrite, looking for excuses to have a second Holocaust in the Holy Land.

Behold the Blasphemy!

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What else would you call it when certain people portray God as no better than Satan?

http://www.godhatesfags.com/

Since 1955, Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) has taken forth the precious from the vile, and is therefore as the mouth of God (Jer. 15:19). In 1991, WBC took her ministry to the streets, conducting over 34,000 peaceful demonstrations (to date) opposing the fag lifestyle of soul-damning, nation-destroying filth. In response, america bombed WBC. Now, God is america’s enemy, dashing your soldiers to pieces. 4,122 dead. 29,978 wounded.
America crossed the line on June 26, 2003, when the Supreme Court (the conscience of the nation) ruled that we must respect sodomy. WBC believes her gospel message to be this world’s last hope.

http://www.godhatestheworld.com/

Click a completed country (how do I zoom?) to find out why God hates that country, and why this world is doomed. “And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.” Revelation 19:15.

http://www.godhatesamerica.com/

God Hates America. This is a profound theological statement that any God-fearing person will recognize as truth. America is on a path to sure destruction, and there is no remedy available to Her anymore. She was once a great nation, like Sodom and Gomorrah, blessed with great propserity and power not before seen in the modern world. And, like Sodom and Gomorrah, she has spit in the face of God until His wrath has been brought down upon her with fierce anger. “Thus shall mine anger be accomplished, and I will cause my fury to rest upon them, and I will be comforted: and they shall know that I the LORD have spoken it in my zeal, when I have accomplished my fury in them” (Ezekiel 5:13). America is the spitting image of ancient Israel and Judah “But they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and misused his prophets, until the wrath of the LORD arose against his people, till there was no remedy” (2 Chr 36:16).

http://www.godhatesmexico.com/

WBC Thanks God For 900,000 People Made Homeless By Flooding In Mexico

Viva La Flooding- See This Article About The Flooding Done To Evil Mexico

Sodomite Mexico is fast reverting to the vile Satanic ways of the filthy fagot Inca and Aztec empires, which were obliterated by God Almighty because of their sins: Mexico – Land of the Sodomite Damned. Ezekiel 16:3 And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD unto Jerusalem; Thy birth and thy nativity is of the land of Canaan; thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother an Hittite. Mexico is even in a worse state than Doomed america is; at least america has the prophets of God (though they be a small remnant). Mexico doesn’t have even that one lone voice crying in the wilderness. Mark 1:3 The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.

http://www.godhatescanada.com/

WARNING!!!

To God’s Elect:  Leave Canada NOW!!!

“And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, come out of her my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.” Rev. 18:4

Fags have a 3 point agenda:  1) decriminalize sodomy, 2) add fags to the protected classes as victims like blacks, and 3) criminalize Gospel preaching against fags.  Canada’s doom is now irreversible!

On April 28, 2004, Canada hoisted a filthy fag finger in the Face of God by passing a law making any criticism of homosexuals a crime punishable by fines and imprisonment.  The churches and preachers of Canada tried massive last-minute lobbying and protests on Parliament Hill to defeat the bill — too little, too late!

For years, WBC has warned that Canada is a homo-fascist state where the filthy fag agenda has become the law of the land.  WBC members have been arrested at Ottawa’s International Airport upon entering Canada to picket Parliament and burn the Canadian flag.  In Albert, WBC members were ordered by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police not to carry “God Hates Fags” signs on pain of arrest and prosecution.  When WBC members did in fact actually burn the Canadian flag in religious protest to Canada’s approval of same-sex marriage, the so-called Christians of Canada were the loudest in denouncing WBC and “widely reviling” her Gospel message.

There is no hope for Canada.  God hates Canada!

With God believers like these, who needs atheists or Satanists?

The sad downfall of Silly Old Bear in Care2

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Silly Old Bear, also known as Henric Jensen, is one of my best online friends. He is Jewish, Swedish, married, a transexual, and one of the best human rights activists I’ve ever known. He was also one of the most hated people in Care2. Hated because he was a firm opponent of Israel-bashing, which he saw as anti-Semetic, and was just as eager to defending men’s rights even before angry feminists who seemed to have a grudge against all men. Continue reading →

Why debates are often unethical in nature

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Today, I saw this statement in Care2:

http://www.care2.com/c2c/groups/disc.html?gpp=7939&pst=1030979

there are some discussions pre-loaded with so much faulty premises and inaccuracies and false assumptions, that you just don’t know where to begin. these are the ones that i find are normally too exhausting to get involved in, and the chances of anything constructive coming out of it is extremely small, given that the biased starting premise indicates little to no desire to entertain understanding rather than confrontation. one cannot have a fruitful discussion about another worldview by being firmly anchored in another. so people who do that can’t provide any kind of useful exchange. take it from someone who actually knows at least two worldviews, and can see the one from the other interchangeably.

i’ve always disliked debates in school, you know. even though my teachers are forever nominating me on debate teams. the silliness of picking whatever side of whatever topic with the pre-intention of ensuring your side prevails whatever the truth is, is too philosophically pointless for me to overlook.

It’s not only “philosophically pointless”, it’s downright dishonest, yet most people debate in just that way.

Usually, I don’t. When I debate, I am open to being proven wrong because I ALWAYS rely on FACTS for my positions, not dogma.

https://dalehusband.wordpress.com/2007/07/21/an-honorable-skeptic/

(((Because I am honorable, I sometimes willingly concede points made by my opponents in debates with them. This should never be seen as a sign of weakness. When I know I am right about something, I will fight like a pit bull to prove my case and defeat my opponent because in some cases I do see my battles here as a struggle between light and darkness, good and evil, ignorance and knowledge. But I am also willing at times to listen to my opponent and consider his point of view, especially if that person is known by me to be honorable. If we do not listen to others, how can we ever grow in knowledge?)))

Obama-bashers are bigots

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Take a look at this first:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FnTXmYyUMY

I once swore that I would NEVER vote for Hillary Clinton to be the next President, for two reasons:

  1. She chose to remain married to Bill despite his infidelities, which struck me as a weakness in her character.
  2. She “carpetbagged” her way to New York to grab an available Senate seat rather than return to Arkansas. To me, that suggested opportunism and disloyalty to her home.

But after hearing from so many former Hillary supporters that they still would never vote for Obama, I understand why. Voting for Obama now for them would be swallowing their pride, and that’s even more painful for some people, male or female, than giving birth. It would be unfair of me to demand of them what I wouldn’t do myself if the situation was reversed. Continue reading →

The BIG LIE of the giant oil companies

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With gas prices in the United States topping $4.00 a gallon in some places, we are now being told that to reduce prices we must drill in more places which oil companies have previously been restricted from going to, such as the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

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

Never mind that people generally condemn such vices as greed and selfishness, that are clearly represented by the desire to drill in such natural places when there are already alternatives available. Even if we had a huge increase in oil supply resulting from such drilling, there is no legal obligation in the United States for the oil companies to reduce their gas prices to the levels one would expect. Since there are only a few major oil companies, it would be a simple matter for them to conspire to keep the gas prices relatively high to enrich themselves further. 

Prices can be determined by both supply and demand. So if we really want gas prices to fall, the surest way to do that is to REDUCE DEMAND for the gas. We can do that by abandoning the gas-burning cars that are currently most popular and replace them over many years with hybrids, or better still with cars with fuel cells that burn no gas at all. Then there are the “electric cars”.  With the concern about greenhouse gases, we need to put pressure on the giant auto manufacturers to END production of standard gas burning cars completely. They are OBSOLETE!

It’s better to do that than allow the oil companies to continue to rape the Earth’s environments, and screw the people with high prices at the same time!

More angry than ever at denialists

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Most global warming denialists I’m familiar with are old people who are set in their ways. Such people are most vulnerable to confirmation bias. Younger adults, on the other hand, are not so attracted or attached to dogma.

I, Dale Husband, along with many others, stand for my chosen causes because I beleive in doing what’s right, regardless of whether I get paid for it or not. And it’s not just global warming either. I have also fought for teaching evolution and to get rid of the Bush regime and anything like it from corrupting America more.

I oppose denialists because they appeal to ingrained prejudices based on what certain people WANT to believe, regardless of the actual facts. The big oil companies, including Exxon, certainly feel threatened by the facts about global warming. The idea that we humans are messing up the Earth with greenhouse gases which will lead to global disaster within a century or two is indeed offensive to people’s egos, because it means they and their descendants must make radical changes to their lifestyles to stop the damage THEY THEMSELVES WILL HAVE HELPED CAUSE. So instead, they LOOK for reasons to deny the truth about themselves and what is happening. People who claim to be experts will then put out fallacious claims all over the internet knowing desparate people are out there to grab it and spread it around. They play their victims like an instrument, really. That is the real scam, not what Al Gore and the IPCC do. Uncertainty about the facts is no excuse for denying them. And noting that the effects of global warming can have natural causes is no excuse for denying outright that man plays a role in that phenomenon. Those are logical fallacies and I will oppose, expose and depose them every time I see them, because I WANT THE HUMAN RACE TO SURVIVE INDEFINITLY! And being able to foresee the downfall of humanity (and global warming is but one cause for profound concern here) and not doing anything about it because you let yourself be misled by people that only live for this present reality is the worst form of nonsense I can imagine.