tom sarbeck
@toms
Active 3 years, 6 months ago-
tom sarbeck posted an update in the group
Science — the kind that requires evidence and reason. 8 years, 8 months agoRIP the Standard Model–the Big Bang with Its Many Untested and Untestable Hypotheses
“It’s a mystery to me how comets work at all.”
–Donald Brownlee, principal investigator of NASA’s Stardust MissionNothing in the observed Universe has surprised astronomers and astrophysicists more than comets. Their “dirty snowball” hypothesis, for decades the…[Read more]
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tom sarbeck replied to the topic When are thought experiments valid…and when not? in the forum Science 8 years, 8 months ago
@Simon — what if you’re facing East-West? Then, the rotation of the Earth must have some kind of effect.
Do the forces acting on (pulling on) the bullet differ?
Have more fun(?). Shoot straight up and explain the effect of the Coriolis force.
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tom sarbeck replied to the topic How cold will it be tomorrow? in the forum Small Talk 8 years, 8 months ago
@Simon – I did NOT say it’s wrong to ask a question. I did say to ask about the questioner.
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tom sarbeck posted an update 8 years, 8 months ago
@Simon – And also about the context.
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tom sarbeck posted an update 8 years, 9 months ago
@tomsarbeck: I’m 86 and cantankerous enough to want to know the reason(s) people want friendship with me. When I get a friend request I read some of the requestor’s posts and then decide.
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tom sarbeck replied to the topic The Power of Prayer in the forum Atheism 8 years, 9 months ago
Simon, this atheist gets along just fine w/o feeling a need to believe a god exists because the god he’d been told existed was a pluperfect, slave-driving, tightwad bastard.
Tightwad? Yes. The Catholic god wanted me to have children but refused to contribute to their upkeep.
Another benefit. I get to challenge xians to produce evidence. I’m a…[Read more]
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tom sarbeck posted an update in the group
Science — the kind that requires evidence and reason. 8 years, 9 months agoHow did astronomy become a religion?
A short answer is that during the USA/USSR Cold War, a few astronomers became addicted to taxpayer money. Their addiction repeated that of dam builders in the early 1900s, and of highway builders in the 1950s. A lesson is that starting taxpayer subsidies is difficult; stopping them is more difficult.
A longer…[Read more] -
tom sarbeck replied to the topic Marriage for immigration purposes in the forum Advice 8 years, 9 months ago
David, those who don’t want to live in the USA have something to teach us, if our ruling class will let it in.
I’m thinking of the northern European countries: Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden -
tom sarbeck posted an update 8 years, 9 months ago
How many words will Michael Shermer require to describe that “significant difference”?
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tom sarbeck posted an update in the group
Atheist Humor 8 years, 9 months ago“Give me that Big Bang religion, etc.
It was good enough for Carl Sagan and it’s good enough for me.”
(Sung to the tune of you know what.) -
tom sarbeck posted an update in the group
Atheist Humor 8 years, 9 months agoIf I have to flee a hurricane I will take ice cream. If I get blown out to sea I will float.
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tom sarbeck posted an update in the group
Atheist Humor 8 years, 9 months agoWhere in pluperfect hell–does anyone remember that from “God’s Little Acre”?–is the humor?
I’m German and don’t have any. In 1914 someone told a German joke. In 1939 someone told another.
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tom sarbeck posted an update in the group
Science — the kind that requires evidence and reason. 8 years, 10 months ago[T]he singularity was the seed of the Big Bang.
So said a well-educated guy.The evidence for a singularity is as real as the evidence for a god.
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tom sarbeck posted an update 8 years, 10 months ago
@Belle; “I’ve had horrible things done to me under the pretense of religion too Dang. The people who hurt you are responsible for that regardless of what they believe or don’t believe.”
I’m seeing a lot of wisdom in your words, Belle. Thank you. I recalled first the years of almost unrelenting Catholic school indoctrination, which I now see as…[Read more]
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tom sarbeck replied to the topic Sunday School August 20th 2017 in the forum
Sunday School 8 years, 10 months ago@Reg; “I found it very difficult to get a straight answer from Dr. Bob. Obfuscation is the word that comes to mind.”
Reg, Dr. Bob obfuscates well. A nickel says that like many Catholics he has post-traumatic stress (PTS).
I know PTS well. It is not a disorder. It’s analogous to the immune defense. The immune defense protects the body from…[Read more]
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tom sarbeck replied to the topic Sunday School August 20th 2017 in the forum
Sunday School 8 years, 10 months ago@Simon; “Dr Bob falls into this category – he’s got his shit together.”
I disagree, Simon. Dr. Bob is intelligent and has built defenses too strong for most of us to penetrate. His defenses serve him well; they cause him to ignore serious challenges.
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tom sarbeck replied to the topic You can believe in evolution. You can believe in human rights. Not both. in the forum Politics 8 years, 10 months ago
@Simon, @notsimple: The Civil War freed approx 2.3 million slaves. it killed approx 750 thousand combatants.
Was it moral? -
tom sarbeck replied to the topic This is war in the forum Politics 8 years, 11 months ago
Of course we are getting closer, Belle; we are homo sapiens.
No one promised us eternal domination. -
tom sarbeck replied to the topic This is war in the forum Politics 8 years, 11 months ago
@Belle:
I said it before on TA and everyone told me I was crazy…..we are headed for WW3.
They were wrong; you weren’t crazy. We are always headed for WW3 AND we are always headed for peace. We will reach one of them.
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tom sarbeck replied to the topic EU? in the forum
Science — the kind that requires evidence and reason. 8 years, 11 months agoWhen someone tells me that their idea, … is not open for debate I am immediately suspicious. It is not debate that they want to stifle, it is dissent.
…calls to not allow debate (in a Forum that demands evidence and reason in its title!) smacks of quackery rather than dissent.
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Thanks, Tom – you always seem to give me a healthy skepticism for ‘scientific announcements’.
Strega, when government departments have done what Congress funded them to do, Congress cuts their budgets and they have to reduce their payrolls. This time it’s NASA’s turn.