A mortal blow to Young Earth creationism

Hello Dutch,

Dutch Uncle said:
Agreed that Westerners, especially Americans, view "religion" as having a deity at its focus, but I use the more general definition that religion is "a particular system of faith and worship." Ergo, atheism is a religion for some although more loosely described as a cult:

a relatively small group of people having religious beliefs or practices regarded by others as strange or sinister.
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Atheism a cult?

A cult is a group devoted to an individual.

Atheism has no individual the beliefs are centered around.

It is therefore difficult to see atheism as a cult.
 
Dutch Uncle said:
Agreed that Westerners, especially Americans, view "religion" as having a deity at its focus, but I use the more general definition that religion is "a particular system of faith and worship." Ergo, atheism is a religion for some although more loosely described as a cult:

a relatively small group of people having religious beliefs or practices regarded by others as strange or sinister.
Click to expand...

For sure, I do not think Daoists, Theravada Buddhism, Neoconfucists, Hindus, or the various and sundry practices of animism even understand or recognize the dogmatic modern western definition of what religion is allowed to be.

I try not to pigeonhole it, but in it's broadest sense I like the Stackhouse definition that it is a systematic metaphysical moral worldview which is generally held as binding by a community in the belief it reflects a higher truth.
 
Cypress said:
If you make handprints in drying concrete, your prints will be roughly the same age as the concrete, at least on geologic time scales.

Maybe you can explain why this concept is so difficult for conservatives to grasp.

Too much glue-sniffing as kids?
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Agreed. A muddy lake shore with footprints that dry out in a drought and then are covered by dirt or sand would eventually harden to sedimentary rock.

Glenn Rose, Texas (near SW Fort Worth) has fossils and tracks. Most famous is the Paluxy River Dinosaur Chase Sequence
https://dinotracksdiscovery.org/special/video/paluxy-trackway/

https://atlas.thc.state.tx.us/Details/5425001226

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glen_Rose_Formation
Dinosaur footprints and trackways are found in at least 50 localities in the Glen Rose, primarily at the top of the Upper Glen Rose and a smaller number at the top of the Lower Glen Rose.[28] The most famous of these sites is the Paluxy River site in Dinosaur Valley State Park near the town of Glen Rose, Texas, southwest of Fort Worth. In 1938, Roland T. Bird, assistant to Barnum Brown of the American Museum of Natural History ("AMNH") in New York, New York, discovered a dozen sauropod and four theropod or carnosaur trackways all following the same general direction.[29] These were the first sauropod footprints scientifically documented, and were designated a National Natural Landmark in 1969. Some are as large as about 3 feet (1 m) across. The prints are thought to have been preserved originally in a tidal flat or a lagoon.[30] Large slabs of the trackways were excavated and are on display at the AMNH and the Texas Memorial Museum in Austin, Texas, among other institutions.


Some tracks were taken to NYC:
https://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/permanent/saurischian-dinosaurs/the-glen-rose-trackway
 
Phantasmal said:
Bones decompose at different rates depending on the soil and other conditions. A human skeleton can decompose in 20 years. It’s why we don’t find ancient skeletons, conditions have to be perfect to preserve the bones.
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Thank you. Quite true. My anthropology professor has been called to help the medical examiner identify remains found up here, usually well-decayed and gnawed on (and removed) by wild animals. In a typical climate with moderate rainfall they decay quickly. We have a "body farm" up here that the university runs. You can donate your remains to it. It's used to help forensic scientists and law enforcement study the effects of decomposition in a cold climate.

https://www.nmu.edu/frost/home
 
Cypress said:
For sure, I do not think Daoists, Theravada Buddhism, Neoconfucists, Hindus, or the various and sundry practices of animism even understand or recognize the dogmatic modern western definition of what religion is allowed to be.

I try not to pigeonhole it, but in it's broadest sense I like the Stackhouse definition that it is a systematic metaphysical moral worldview which is generally held as binding by a community in the belief it reflects a higher truth.
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Stackhouse's definition works.
 
Trumpet said:
The far right sure knows how to indoctrinate the feeble minded, and those with severe mental issues.
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Agreed. To be fair, so does the far left.

OTOH, my observation is that religion and/or politics rarely makes people crazy but crazy people are drawn to the extremes of politics and religion to, IMO, justify their actions and beliefs.
 
Trumpet said:
The far right sure knows how to indoctrinate the feeble minded, and those with severe mental issues.
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Agreed. To be fair, so does the far left.

OTOH, my observation is that religion and/or politics rarely makes people crazy but crazy people are drawn to the extremes of politics and religion to, IMO, justify their actions and beliefs.
 
ThatOwlWoman said:
Thank you. Quite true. My anthropology professor has been called to help the medical examiner identify remains found up here, usually well-decayed and gnawed on (and removed) by wild animals. In a typical climate with moderate rainfall they decay quickly. We have a "body farm" up here that the university runs. You can donate your remains to it. It's used to help forensic scientists and law enforcement study the effects of decomposition in a cold climate.

https://www.nmu.edu/frost/home
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Wow! I know they have one at Quantico, and it makes since to have them in different climates. It fascinates me, I love forensic science.
 
Cypress said:
It is probably Neaderthals or Homo Denisovans, because I do not think Homo Sapiens were on the Tibetan plateau 226k years ago.
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seems like every year there is a new discovery that rewrites the presumed history of man on earth.
I'm inclined to withhold opinion until such time as they have sufficient data to make a better theory.
 
ThatOwlWoman said:
Thank you. Quite true. My anthropology professor has been called to help the medical examiner identify remains found up here, usually well-decayed and gnawed on (and removed) by wild animals. In a typical climate with moderate rainfall they decay quickly. We have a "body farm" up here that the university runs. You can donate your remains to it. It's used to help forensic scientists and law enforcement study the effects of decomposition in a cold climate.

https://www.nmu.edu/frost/home
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Thank you for adding some brainpower to the thread.

How do you manage to tolerate the scientific illiteracy of the right wing?

I tolerate it by equating it to comedy gold
 
Celticguy said:
seems like every year there is a new discovery that rewrites the presumed history of man on earth.
I'm inclined to withhold opinion until such time as they have sufficient data to make a better theory.
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I believe every educated person is aware that scientific knowledge is provisional and incomplete. What we know about human evolution today will be substantially different from what is understood 50 years from now.

In 50 years we won't just be using fossil evidence, but we will have more and better genetic evidence for anatomically-modern humans as well as archaic humans, aka Neaderthals, Homo Erectus etc.
 
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Phantasmal said:
Wow! I know they have one at Quantico, and it makes since to have them in different climates. It fascinates me, I love forensic science.
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Same here. I esp. like forensic anthropology, and hope to be able to take the one they offer at NMU. Doesn't this look so cool?

8Sbp3yH.jpg
 
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