Friday, July 25, 2008

Jet Survives Hole In Fuselage


We interrupt this ongoing dialog on atheism and science to bring you this late-breaking news bulletin. A plane has landed with a big hole in the fuselage.

“One hour into the flight there was a big bang, then the plane started going down,” passenger Marina Scaffidi, 39, from Melbourne, told The Associated Press by phone from the airport."

Investigators, scientists among them, will demand an answer to the question, what caused the "big bang"?

Because big bangs are always caused by something.

5 comments:

The A-Team said...

LOL. You don't even know what Big Bang Theory is.

BallBounces said...

Thanks for the post -- you made my day!

BallBounces said...

a-team - were all the human beings who lived prior to the advent of the scientific method foolish and superstitious for believing in love, or can some things, fundamental things, be known apart from direct science verification?

The A-Team said...

Glad to here that my recognition that you don't even know what it is that you're criticizing made your day. I suggest you research where the name "Big Bang" came from. When you do, you might discover that scientists aren't claiming that a literal bang took place...which makes this post a faulty metaphor.

I already answered your question about love in a prior post. I never claimed people in the past were foolish for not understanding the science behind love at a time when they lacked the tools necessary to accurately study the human brain. That's not superstitious either. Superstition is accepting magical thinking that runs contrary to evidence. But if you're asking whether observable, empirical evidence requires a guy in a white lab coat in a laboratory, the answer is no. We were perfectly capable of observing the emotion of love without understanding the exact processes of how the brain functions, just like we can conclude that migrains exist today despite being unable to determine the exact physiological cause of the migrain. Love is observable in nature; god is not. Though, it's worth stating that like god, there are cultural components to love that can also be observed. Love in, say, the middle ages was quite different than that of modern western culture.

BallBounces said...

I'll file your response under the heading, "Science is not the only way to know something".

I'm going to do an All You Need Is Love follow-up in the next week or two (DV).

And I would like to respond more to the mathematics thing too, if I get a chance.

So, please stay tuned.

I'm in Skowhegan, Maine tonite. Don't ask why.

"... nothing intellectually compelling or challenging.. bald assertions coupled to superstition... woefully pathetic"