Skeptic Friends Network

Username:
Password:
Save Password
Forgot your Password?
Home | Forums | Active Topics | Active Polls | Register | FAQ | Contact Us  
  Connect: Chat | SFN Messenger | Buddy List | Members
Personalize: Profile | My Page | Forum Bookmarks  
 All Forums
 Our Skeptic Forums
 Creation/Evolution
 God exists
 New Topic  Reply to Topic
 Printer Friendly Bookmark this Topic BookMark Topic
Previous Page | Next Page
Author Previous Topic Topic Next Topic
Page: of 4

Simon
SFN Regular

USA
1992 Posts

Posted - 06/28/2009 :  08:56:02   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send Simon a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Originally posted by Landrew

Simple faith, blind faith, earned faith or verified faith?
I think there are many ways to achieve faith:

I have faith in things that stand up to questioning, critical testing and are derived from rational arguments and good evidence.


Technically, that's not faith but knowledge.

Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.
Carl Sagan - 1996
Go to Top of Page

Dave W.
Info Junkie

USA
26020 Posts

Posted - 06/28/2009 :  16:35:41   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Visit Dave W.'s Homepage Send Dave W. a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Originally posted by Landrew

I have faith in things that stand up to questioning, critical testing and are derived from rational arguments and good evidence.
The only way that is "faith" is if you begin with a firm footing in solipsism. It's possible to climb out of that philosphical cess pool without needing to have faith in reality.

- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too.
Go to Top of Page

Zebra
Skeptic Friend

USA
354 Posts

Posted - 06/28/2009 :  18:48:52   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send Zebra a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Welcome, Sfhts!

Originally posted by Sfhts

[snip]

Well reader, God is an entity made up of millions, if not billions of 'energies'...
Oh dear. This is what came to mind when I read this part of your OP.

Consider this; When you die your body ceases to be of any use, save fertiliser for the ground, but once that mortal coil is shed it allows the energy trapped inside to be released, and 'pool' with the rest of the dead energy.

[snip]

As anyone with a basic knowledge of science will tell you, energy cannot simply disappear, it merely changes state. Think of when you made a mock plane as a child, you made wings, a tube for a fuselage, a propeller and rigged a rubber band inside. When wound, this band would unwind itself to power the bands, elastic energy becoming kinetic energy (movement). The same principle applies to us, as when we die the electric energy contained within that powers the internal organs like the heart and brain, is projected from the corpse to roam free. So what of this energy?
Nope. One word: entropy. Another word (actually, an acronym): ATP. (BTW, what the f*** does "dead energy" mean??)

Electric potential across cell membranes exists because of an active process by which charged particles (potassium, sodium, calcium) are moved against their diffusion gradient, and the electric gradient, by enzymes such as Na-K-ATPase, and require intact cell membranes and a source of ATP. Death of the organism leads to death of the cells, including cessation of the active maintenance & metabolism functions, including cessation of manufacture of ATP and disruption of cell membranes (by cellular autolysis, and failure to maintain the integrity of the membrane by active functions). One of the results is the equalization across cell membranes of EVERY substance which was previously maintained at one level inside cells and a different level outside cells through active, energy-requiring functions. (And the loss of electric potential, which happens VERY early on. Cessation of function of the brain & heart, those key electrically-active organs, are the definitions of death: "brain death", and "cardiac arrest".)
This energy is simple in it's nature [snip]
Pet peeve:
it's = "it is"
its = possessive form of "it"

Again, welcome. And now I hope that your eyes are opened; at least to the nature of scientific skeptics.


Edited to try for a basic explanation of electric potential in neurons: potassium is selective crammed into cells WAY beyond what the natural diffusion would permit. This takes energy, and creates an electric potential across the membrane. Potassium keeps leaking back out of the cell, and has to constantly be moved back into the cell (using energy) to maintain the electric potential. All you have to do is stop providing the cell w/ a source of energy and - voila! - potassium rampages out of the cell following its diffusion gradient, and - voila! - that hard-won electric potential is No More.

I think, you know, freedom means freedom for everyone* -Dick Cheney

*some restrictions may apply
Edited by - Zebra on 06/28/2009 19:01:16
Go to Top of Page

Science Pricktion
New Member

USA
16 Posts

Posted - 06/29/2009 :  08:53:00   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send Science Pricktion a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Someone explain how the pyramids in Egypt were built please.

Try not. Do... or do not. There is no try
Edited by - Science Pricktion on 06/29/2009 08:53:49
Go to Top of Page

Science Pricktion
New Member

USA
16 Posts

Posted - 06/29/2009 :  08:55:41   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send Science Pricktion a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Pet peeve:
it's = "it is"
its = possessive form of "it"




Wow, a punctuation Nazi.

Try not. Do... or do not. There is no try
Edited by - Science Pricktion on 06/29/2009 08:56:17
Go to Top of Page

Hawks
SFN Regular

Canada
1383 Posts

Posted - 06/29/2009 :  09:07:50   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Visit Hawks's Homepage Send Hawks a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Originally posted by Science Pricktion

Someone explain how the pyramids in Egypt were built please.

Why don't you start a new topic? Or look online?

METHINKS IT IS LIKE A WEASEL
It's a small, off-duty czechoslovakian traffic warden!
Go to Top of Page

Kil
Evil Skeptic

USA
13476 Posts

Posted - 06/29/2009 :  09:28:45   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Visit Kil's Homepage  Send Kil an AOL message  Send Kil a Yahoo! Message Send Kil a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Originally posted by Science Pricktion

Someone explain how the pyramids in Egypt were built please.

And this is in reply to what? Or is it the non-sequitur that it appears to be?

Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.

Why not question something for a change?

Genetic Literacy Project
Go to Top of Page

BigPapaSmurf
SFN Die Hard

3192 Posts

Posted - 06/29/2009 :  09:30:36   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send BigPapaSmurf a Private Message  Reply with Quote
I saw a video of a guy who showed how it was possible for one person to raise the blocks from Stonehenge alone using only sticks and rocks. What makes you think 100,000 people couldnt build a pyramid over many years? I'm not giving any answers until you say how YOU think they were built.

"...things I have neither seen nor experienced nor heard tell of from anybody else; things, what is more, that do not in fact exist and could not ever exist at all. So my readers must not believe a word I say." -Lucian on his book True History

"...They accept such things on faith alone, without any evidence. So if a fraudulent and cunning person who knows how to take advantage of a situation comes among them, he can make himself rich in a short time." -Lucian critical of early Christians c.166 AD From his book, De Morte Peregrini
Go to Top of Page

Zebra
Skeptic Friend

USA
354 Posts

Posted - 06/29/2009 :  18:58:27   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send Zebra a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Originally posted by Kil

Originally posted by Science Pricktion

Someone explain how the pyramids in Egypt were built please.

And this is in reply to what? Or is it the non-sequitur that it appears to be?
It very likely involved ATP. I'm sure that's what Science Pricktion was getting at.


I think, you know, freedom means freedom for everyone* -Dick Cheney

*some restrictions may apply
Go to Top of Page

filthy
SFN Die Hard

USA
14408 Posts

Posted - 06/30/2009 :  02:16:06   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send filthy a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Originally posted by Science Pricktion

Someone explain how the pyramids in Egypt were built please.
Why, with the period versions of backhoes, bucket loaders and cranes, of course. What kind of a lame-assed question is that? Are you an Erich von Daniken fan?
Wow, a punctuation Nazi.

If you'd learn to write and behave in an appropriate manner, you wouldn't stir them up, now would you?

I don't know how to do an umlaut on a computer. Comments?





"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)

"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres


"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude

Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,

and Crypto-Communist!

Go to Top of Page

Simon
SFN Regular

USA
1992 Posts

Posted - 06/30/2009 :  07:49:44   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send Simon a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Originally posted by filthy

Originally posted by Science Pricktion

Someone explain how the pyramids in Egypt were built please.
Why, with the period versions of backhoes, bucket loaders and cranes, of course. What kind of a lame-assed question is that? Are you an Erich von Daniken fan?
Wow, a punctuation Nazi.

If you'd learn to write and behave in an appropriate manner, you wouldn't stir them up, now would you?

I don't know how to do an umlaut on a computer. Comments?



Well, this site might help you.
try [ampersand]auml; : Umläut.

Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.
Carl Sagan - 1996
Go to Top of Page

Dave W.
Info Junkie

USA
26020 Posts

Posted - 06/30/2009 :  07:53:45   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Visit Dave W.'s Homepage Send Dave W. a Private Message  Reply with Quote
What Simon said, filthy. Typing "Erich von Däniken" results in "Erich von Däniken"

- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too.
Go to Top of Page

filthy
SFN Die Hard

USA
14408 Posts

Posted - 06/30/2009 :  08:31:23   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send filthy a Private Message  Reply with Quote
That seems straightforward enough. Thänks!




"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)

"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres


"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude

Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,

and Crypto-Communist!

Go to Top of Page

Simon
SFN Regular

USA
1992 Posts

Posted - 06/30/2009 :  10:25:22   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send Simon a Private Message  Reply with Quote
By an amusing coincidence, a similar conversation is going on on the JREF fora, leading to this pretty cool article.

We have a pretty reasonable idea now of the infrastructure behind the building of the pyramids. A whole city was found to host the workers and that contained significant installation to feed the workers and even several workshop for their bronze tools. As yet, the city seems surprisingly exempt in UFO landing strips.

Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.
Carl Sagan - 1996
Go to Top of Page

Science Pricktion
New Member

USA
16 Posts

Posted - 06/30/2009 :  13:15:18   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send Science Pricktion a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Originally posted by filthy

Originally posted by Science Pricktion

Someone explain how the pyramids in Egypt were built please.
Why, with the period versions of backhoes, bucket loaders and cranes, of course. What kind of a lame-assed question is that? Are you an Erich von Daniken fan?
Wow, a punctuation Nazi.

If you'd learn to write and behave in an appropriate manner, you wouldn't stir them up, now would you?

I don't know how to do an umlaut on a computer. Comments?







Where did I "misbehave" or punctuate incorrectly? What is the deal with the black "8" in all your posts? Are you racist? Are you hinting towards a stereotype? Or are you black? I am confused.

That von Daniken seems like a cool cat. You folks don't believe that the Egyptians built the pyramids do you?

Try not. Do... or do not. There is no try
Edited by - Science Pricktion on 06/30/2009 13:19:48
Go to Top of Page
Page: of 4 Previous Topic Topic Next Topic  
Previous Page | Next Page
 New Topic  Reply to Topic
 Printer Friendly Bookmark this Topic BookMark Topic
Jump To:

The mission of the Skeptic Friends Network is to promote skepticism, critical thinking, science and logic as the best methods for evaluating all claims of fact, and we invite active participation by our members to create a skeptical community with a wide variety of viewpoints and expertise.


Home | Skeptic Forums | Skeptic Summary | The Kil Report | Creation/Evolution | Rationally Speaking | Skeptillaneous | About Skepticism | Fan Mail | Claims List | Calendar & Events | Skeptic Links | Book Reviews | Gift Shop | SFN on Facebook | Staff | Contact Us

Skeptic Friends Network
© 2008 Skeptic Friends Network Go To Top Of Page
This page was generated in 0.2 seconds.
Powered by @tomic Studio
Snitz Forums 2000