How did that lying ignorant loonie tune ever get any degree from a university??? If, in fact she did . . .

She obviously has no concept of basic scientific methodology. Please tell me she did not graduate from a fully accreditaed university. If so, I truly fear for the future of civilization.

the creationists are getting some runs on the board – check out Russ Humphries predictions about the magnetic fields of the planets.
based on creationist hypothesis he has successfully predicted neptune & uranus’ fields, and looks to be on track for mercury.

not bad for an ‘abstract … (non)empirical’ science?

rgds,

frank

Listening to that tone of voice, my imagination’s running wild at the sort of things which might go on in their household … children belittled because they are “guilty sinners”. I think it’s a pretty disgusting attitude to take actually, that the reason 1-year-old kids get cancer is because they’re sinners like the rest of us. No, Georgia, bad things don’t happen to people because they offended your God. And if they did, it would mean your God is less than godlike.

Good on you Michael for showing such good humour in the face of such hypocrisy and intolerance. I’d be laughing too, but I think it would be at her rather than with her.

To paraphrase poor Georgia, “sorry to all the Muslims, Jews, Hindus (and in fact anybody who does not believe exactly what I believe), you’re all going to go to Hell when you die”. I can’t understand how these people can believe that they have a monopoly on the truth. There are hundreds of religions, and no reason to believe that AIG’s flavour is any more correct than any other.

re: comment @ #112

i googled “Paper in ‘Statistical Science’ (Aug. ‘94) “Equidistant Letter Sequences in the Book of Genesis””

and i now see that a refutation has been published. so i must retract to some extrent – mind you, on perusing the debate around the refutation (i do not have access to the original papers) i think that i personally am still comfortable with the proposition that ET* has left evidence of his/her intimate involvement in our universe.

*should be EU for extra-universel or “g-d” for the theistic

in the broader context of this debate i would suggest that true open minded scepticism should be sensitive to the possibility that not all believers are necessarily “blind”. there are some, i would submit that may well have a defendable chain of reasonable evidence to substantiate their position.

again, a true sceptic is also sceptical of one’s own “chain of reasonable evidence”

with respect,

However, as Mr. Shermer once said before, I believe on Penn and Teller’s Showtime program, intelligent people are very good at justifying things they came to believe for unintelligent reasons (although I would also include a-intelligent reasons, if there is such a word, to describe those who are simply born into a belief and never thought about it. One can hardly consider a person coming to a belief unintelligently if they never were given a chance or taught to consider a particular belief critically). I wish her well and I do hope Mr. Shermer continues to attempt to pursuade through evidence and reason. I did not care for Mr. Shermer attempting to sell the young lady on an idea that he does not believe (evolution happened because of God), but all things considered this interview was a good one.

Her museum does me no harm, but I am not convinced of her argument and would like to get to the truth, and I would like to see her get to the truth as well. However there are flaws in her reasoning process which suggests to me that she will not get to the right answer without fundamentally questioning and ultimately changing the manner in which she thinks. You do not seek out questions to fit your answers, you do not seek out answers to fit your questions, you say that the burden of proof lies on those that make the proposition and you follow the evidence where it leads, regardless of what your questions were or what you expect the answer to be.

P.S. As a side note, I too have a cleft palate as this woman clearly has and I appreciate the respectful manner in which people posted, basing their critiques on the ideas and manners of thinking without any insults of her speech impairment. I am not in favor of political correctness, but I just want to say thankyou for keeping the comments civil and idea based.

Right. Credentials uber alles. The woman clearly demonstrates that she lacks the slightest understanding whatsoever of the most fundamental principles of the scientific method. Principles that most of us learned in middle school.