| Subject: Another anecdote |
Author:
Biff
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Date Posted: 10/19/04 12:05pm
In reply to:
Duane
's message, "The difference between my story and yours..." on 10/ 4/04 2:39pm
>The difference is that to make your point, you had to
>construct a highly unlikely hypothetical situation,
>and then try to guess (incorrectly) how a scientist
>would react to it.
I felt Wade's script made the point. However, I understand your criticism, Duane. Perhaps this more accurately reflects how "mainstream science" deals with the problem of complexity:
Archeologist 1: Professor, we've just made an amazing discovery inside the cave!
Archeologist 2: What? Please explain.
1: We've found elaborate pictures on the walls. Hieroglyphics, Professor. There are designs and pictures depicting fishing boats and battles. We've analyzed the paint and found it contains a complex mixture of native elements creating an elaborate spectrum of colors.
2: That is indeed fascinating. Who would have thought that such elaborate and complex images could have occured by chance.
1: Wait, Professor. You don't think that this could indicate that there was once human inhabitants of this island?
2: (Laughs) Of course not, young man. We've never seen any evidence of human life on this island before now. There's no reason to think that there could have been.
1: But the complexity of the pictures, the composition of the paint...
2: I know how it might look. But the elements present in the paint, you said they were all native to this island?
1: Well, yes.
2: And every day at high tide there is ocean water randomly crashing into that cave, is there not?
1: Yes.
2: So the more likely explaination is that these plants and stones fell into the ocean, were moved by the tides into the cave where the moving water disolved the stones over time, mixing them with the plant material and water to form a natural dye, which was splashed onto the walls in random patterns that appear to our eyes to be complex images.
1: You really believe that's more likely than an intelligent source?
2: Of course! Tell me, if those designs were made by humans rather than nature, where did these people come from? Who were they? What happened to them? Why would they leave no evidence of their existence?
1: Well, myself and the others have different ideas about who they might have been. But I think that those pictures ARE evidence of their exdistence.
2: So you can't even agree on who these people were, but you continue to believe that they were here? As serious scientists, we can only believe what we can observe here and now. Have you seen anyone here who might have painted those pictures?
1: Well no, but if we accept that it is possible, then we can begin to look for who might have made it.
2: But if you begin to look them you are assuming that someone did. A far-reaching assumption that we already know to be incorrect. If you persist in this assumption you'll make this project a laughing-stock of the scientific community. Don't be a fool! Now take my jacket, will you. This heat is dreadful.
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