Thog's Science Masterclass #28

[realthog]

There's really no comment required by this little gem culled from Conservapedia's editorial forum:

There's a broader point here. Why the big push for black holes by liberals, and big protests against any objection to them? If it turned out empirically that promoting black holes tends to cause people to read the Bible less, would you still push this so much? Certainly there is no practical justification to pushing black holes; no one will ever be helped by them in any way. 
                                                ----Andy Schlafly 12:03, 13 November 2009 (EST)

Comments

[martianmooncrab.livejournal.com]

*I* would have a use for a proper Black Hole... I would put it on display and invite folks to check it out and disprove it.. step closer, closer....

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

Schwarzschild is waiting for you.

[martianmooncrab.livejournal.com]

that would be Karl then...

[realthog.livejournal.com]

Thanks for this -- I laughed loud and long.

[realthog.livejournal.com]

Although myself I'd opt to give 'em the rectal implant version . . .

[martianmooncrab.livejournal.com]

then we see where it exits?

[realthog.livejournal.com]

Well, or just watch 'em implode.

[txtriffidranch.livejournal.com]

This argument is actually a great demonstration of another mathematical construct. Namely, Andy's complaint shows what happens when one has his head so far us his ass that he becomes a walking Klein bottle.

[realthog.livejournal.com]

What baffles me is what kind of education can have produced this bizarre mindset -- natural phenomena, great or small, are political items. "There'd be no such thing as sunspots if it weren't for all these godless libruls!"

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

There is a baffling confusion between social and psychological realities, which are plastic, and material reality, which is not. One wonders what would happen if we were to substitute 'gravity' for 'black holes' in Mr Schafly's screed?

[txtriffidranch.livejournal.com]

In that case, and I've experienced it far too often, gravity itself is a constant, as we can experience it and the Bible mentions things falling down. Trying to understand gravity, though, is trying to second-guess God, and that simply cannot be allowed.

(Yesterday, you might have read the article about the Dallas County Jail guard fired for repeatedly expressing his views that gays should be exterminated. He backpedaled on that statement, but he gleefully gave this in his sworn statement on the origin of dinosaurs: "I believe that all dinosaurs were born of Satanic angel who has sex with woman and the animal kingdom that created ungodly reptilian creatures none of these were on the Ark." I spent my high school years surrounded by people who would have agreed with this statement.)

[realthog.livejournal.com]

Oh, this is a riot -- many thanks! Gotta see if there's room for this in the new book. I especially like:

Johnson in October interrupted a private conversation among jail staff and "interjected his own opinions," telling them all gays should be annihilated, according to a sheriff's report.

"They made it out to be that I was a bigot . . .," Johnson said Monday.

[txtriffidranch.livejournal.com]

Glad to be of assistance. This one also struck a nerve because I've experienced this in work areas all over Dallas: no matter the subject, one moron deciding to make a vowel movement of this sort with no warning or justification, and then responding to any complaints with the dull mumble of "Everybody's got a right to their opinion." (Just don't quote Harlan Ellison by noting that you only have a right to an informed opinion, because then the dolts will start waving Bibles around and screaming about how they're somehow being subjected to anti-Christian bigotry. I speak from experience.)

[realthog.livejournal.com]

I speak from experience.

I think we've all been there, alas.

[realthog.livejournal.com]

One wonders what would happen if we were to substitute 'gravity' for 'black holes' in Mr Schafly's screed?

But essentially, since black holes are an inevitable consequence of gravitation, that's what he's saying.

I suppose he'd weasel out of it by claiming gravity as God-given, and thus not susceptible to scientific explanation.

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

Or explained by a pious, Xtian scientist?

[txtriffidranch.livejournal.com]

I grew up surrounded by avatars of that mindset, and it's pure denial. Natural phenomena can't be explained away other than by "God's will", and they get really flustered when God's will produces tornadoes, hurricanes, and black holes. If it all becomes a political issue, and that them damn libruls are working with Satan to test their faith, then it's easy to pretend that big consciousness-expansion concepts such as black holes simply don't exist. (I heard the mantra over and over while in high school: "People keep wondering about things 'out there,' and I'm telling you that you need to look instead to this book called the Holy Bible." Since the King James edition didn't mention black holes, dinosaurs, or quantum mechanics, it's easy to say that anybody bringing it up is a liberal troublemaker who's trying to question God.)

[realthog.livejournal.com]

Natural phenomena can't be explained away other than by "God's will"

I've just been reading an intriguing opinion piece by Eric Michael Johnson that describes, in its first part, his own experience of this mindset: http://scienceblogs.com/primatediaries/2010/03/why_i_am_not_a_humanist.php