Teaching Religious Views as Science

By: TᵢG  •  Critical Thinkers  •  143 Comments  •  9 Likes  •  7 years ago

“No apparent, perceived, or claimed evidence in any field, including history and chronology, can be valid if it contradicts the Scriptural record.”

Answers In Genesis is probably the most influential Young Earth Creationism organization.   It is an organization with about $172 million in assets which aggressively promotes religious indoctrination of children into a literal interpretation of the Bible, most notably that the Earth is ~6,000...

What Really Happened to the Dinosaurs?

Via: TᵢG  •  Critical Thinkers  •  156 Comments  •  7 Likes  •  7 years ago

“It is the Bible's history that explains dinosaurs.”

An intellectual mini lecture by the distinguished Ken Ham.     This is a disturbing level of serial nonsense.    I make no guarantee that you will retain your current IQ level if you watch this 4 minute video.      

Dumbing down the next generation

By: TᵢG  •  Critical Thinkers  •  121 Comments  •  5 Likes  •  7 years ago

“But her question is: why are there still apes?”

Groups like Answers In Genesis are on a never-ending crusade of disinformation attempting to convince people that bio-chemical evolution is a worldwide conspiracy, fake science, etc. because it contradicts their Young Earth Creationist beliefs of a 6,000 year old Earth and that species are all...

Changing Your Mind

By: TᵢG  •  Critical Thinkers  •  114 Comments  •  3 Likes  •  7 years ago

“What, if anything, would ever change your mind?”

During the Ham and Nye debate a few years back a percipient question ↓ was asked of the debaters:    What, if anything, would ever change your mind? The question was about the existence of God.    The question of course tests the objectivity of the individual.    Since...

Richard Dawkins interviews Saudi Arabian atheist author Rana Ahmad

Via: TᵢG  •  Religious and not News Chat  •  8 Comments  •  3 Likes  •  7 years ago

“I don't want to believe in any kind of religion or god - I want to be in peace without forcing [being forced] to be someone else.”

Rana Ahmad was brought up as a Muslim in Saudi Arabia.   She has escaped both her culture and her religion and currently lives in Germany.   Her reasons for leaving is that she was oppressed.  She could not act freely as a human being in Saudi Arabia given she had limited rights and essentially...

Burden of Proof

By: TᵢG  •  Critical Thinkers  •  268 Comments  •  7 years ago

“When someone declares something to be true one must now show it is so.   That is the burden of proof.”

In debate, one often encounters the phrase 'burden of proof' or 'burden of evidence'.   This will typically follow a claim by one of the debaters.    For example, one might claim:  'Extraterrestrial life exists somewhere in our vast universe'.    While that claim seems reasonable given the...

Guide to Migration

By: TᵢG  •  TechMeta  •  6 Comments  •  7 years ago

“If you have a need to organize your collection, the migrate function provides a means to clean things up. ”

Types of Articles NewsTalkers provides three types of articles:  discussion, blog and group discussion.   The discussion type is the most common - it is used to create articles (original or seeded) in the general forum.   Blogs are typically used by original authors who might syndicate their...

Gravitational waves

Via: TᵢG  •  Critical Thinkers  •  7 Comments  •  7 years ago

“In order to detect gravitational waves … they have to design a detector that can measure the difference in length between two four-kilometer-long...”

This is a lecture by Professor Lawrence Krauss at the National Technical University of Ukraine "Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute" in November, 2018.    It is long but well worth it since Professor Krauss is talking about one of the most recent major empirical findings in science - the...

Is Creation “Very Good” in the Face of Climate Change?

Via: TᵢG  •  Religious and not News Chat  •  6 Comments  •  8 years ago

“So, from a biblical perspective, small changes in the climate are not alarming and not necessarily directly caused by man’s activities. And such...”

EDITORIAL:   This is one of the key problems with organized religion.   People listen to their religious leaders and behave accordingly.   Instead of taking seriously the scientific findings on anthropogenic factors (e.g. carbon emissions) that are negatively (and seriously) impacting our...

What (really) is Artificial Intelligence?

By: TᵢG  •  Critical Thinkers  •  17 Comments  •  8 years ago

“Imagine what might emerge if one enables a suitably empowered AI system to learn on its own. ”

Artificial Intelligence has been a goal of Computer Science since the 50's.   For decades AI tried to understand ways to get algorithms (computer programs) to make decisions that would seem intelligent.   There never was an expectation of trying to achieve human intelligence, but rather to offer...