“If anybody had that cure out there, like so many people swear they do, you’d be two things. You’d be very rich, and you’d be very famous. Otherwise, shut up.” — Patrick Swayze (1952-2009) to the cancer cure quacks.
Thanks to wastrel on the SGU Forums for this quote.
“Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.”
-Carl Sagan, deceased this day in 1996. Carl Sagan was an astronomer, exobiologist, and writer of popular science books. Sagan was also a skeptic, and his studies were far-ranging.
It is truly sad to me that I was not as enthused by science in my younger years. A person like Carl Sagan could have had a profound effect on my life. Now that I am enthused by science, Sagan does effect my life…he was truly a great person, scientist, and skeptic. I guess it is just one of those things, where I rather wish I could have had the chance to meet him.
I wanted to clear something up before it becomes a potential issue:
I am an atheist. I am a skeptic. But I do NOT think that the two go hand in hand. I have a fair amount of this page dedicated to religion. While this site is a skepticism/science blog, it is my personal blog and atheism is a topic dear to me.
Skepticism and atheism are two different things. They are related in many ways, but they are not one in the same. Skepticism follows the principles of scientific inquiry, providing evidence for claims. Atheism is simply a lack of belief. If you are a religious person for purely personal reasons and make no claims of “proof” of your beliefs, I don’t have a problem with you. If, however, you say that you can prove that your god or belief exists, then I want you to present me with your supporting evidence. If you cannot or do not do so, then I have a problem with you.
We all have our sacred cows, myself included (which I will not go into for, as fits my statement above, personal reasons). I am a skeptic despite this.
STATEMENT: “Physicist Melvin Cook, found that helium-4 enters our atmosphere from solar wind and radioactive decay of uranium. At present rates our atmosphere would accumulate current helium-4 amounts in less than 10,000 years.”
RESPONSE: Admittedly, the scientific data regarding this argument is a bit complicated, but Dave E. Matson has written a paper titled “How Good Are Those Young-Earth Arguments?” and addresses the subject of atmospheric helium-4 amounts. Matson goes into great detail, and I shall summarize as best I can:
Helium-4 is the result of radioactive alpha decay. (definition: alpha decay occurs “because the nucleus [of an atom] has too many protons which cause excessive repulsion. In an attempt to reduce the repulsion, a Helium nucleus is emitted” (“Three Types of Radioactive Decay”, thinkquest.org).) Helium-4 is “produced” as it escapes from within the earth to the atmosphere. It is hypothesized that a small amount of helium-4 is lost as it is heated and escapes the atmosphere altogether. However, the “most probable mechanism for helium loss is photoionization of helium by the polar wind and its escape along open lines of the Earth’s magnetic field” (Matson). Polar wind accounts for an escape of helium-4 that is nearly identical to the estimated production. Similarly, helium-4 may escape from the atmosphere through a “direct interaction of the solar wind [...] during the short periods of lower magnetic-field intensity while the field is reversing. Sheldon and Kern (1972) estimated that 20 geomagnetic-field reversals over the past 3.5 million years would have assured a balance between helium production and loss” (Matson).
CONCLUSION: What’s missing from creationevidence.org’s argument (aka what is implied by their argument) is that if helium-4 is being produced at the rate that it is, the amount of helium-4 observed in the atmosphere indicates a young earth. As has been shown, however, there are several mechanisms that account for the loss of helium-4 in the atmosphere. “Thus,” Matson states, “the helium balance calculations provided by creationist Melvin Cook [...] cannot provide a reliable minimum estimate of the earth’s age. [The creationists' argument from helium-4 production] is a fatal oversimplification of a complex problem” (Matson).
For those of you skeptics and scientists in the Madison, Wisconsin, area:
There is a new meetup.com group for Madison Skeptics. Anyone interested in skepticism or scientiic advocacy should join the group and add yourself to the mailing list. There is a meeting THIS SUNDAY, December 14th, at the Panera Bread restaurant at 3416 University Ave in Madison. I will be there, along with my two-month old son and probably my fiance. There is also a meetup scheduled for December 27th, although I will be out of town and unable to attend. Come out and enjoy some Panera bread and lively skepticism with other skeptics from the Madison area.
Dr. Steven Novella, neurologist at Yale and president of the New England Skeptical Society (and host of the Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe, blogger at Neurologica, blogger at Skepticblog, and blogger at The Rogue’s Gallery) has put together an excellent blog about the battle against creation science as a part of his multi-part blog on the Skeptical Battlegrounds. It is an excellent read that I highly recommend.
“I respect faith, but doubt is what gets you an education.”
-Wilson Mizner
Education has kept me very busy lately. Faith never does.
“Science is simply common sense at its best - that is, rigidly accurate in observation, and merciless to fallacy in logic.”
-Thomas Henry Huxley (aka “Darwin’s Bulldog”)
I am planning to write a few posts soon on logical fallacies. They will be forthcoming sometime after I finish the “‘Evidence for Creation’ Debunked” posts.
“The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd; indeed in view of the silliness of the majority of mankind, a widespread belief is more likely to be foolish than sensible.”
-Bertrand Russell
This is a perfect response to the logical fallacy of argumentum ad populum (appeal to the people). Just because a lot of people think that God exists doesn’t mean that he does. It is not evidence for God’s existence; it is evidence of the popularity of that belief and nothing more.
“Education has failed in a very serious way to convey the most important lesson science can teach: skepticism”
-Dr. David Suzuki
Science education has proved worthless in this country at teaching skepticism. Indeed, despite my own coming from one of the best public school systems in the country I, too, found myself believing in pseudosciences until recent years.
