Friends – Activity – Tom Sarbeck

tom sarbeck posted an update in the group Science — the kind that requires evidence and reason. 8 years, 10 months ago

“Faith is the great cop-out, the great excuse to evade the need to think and evaluate evidence. Faith is belief in spite of, even perhaps because of, the lack of evidence.”
— Richard Dawkins. (Thanks. Reg.)

Yeah, and even some atheists have not yet kicked the faith habit.

Imagine, if you can, a particle too tiny for you to see. And then imagi…[Read more]
tom sarbeck replied to the topic Jerusalem in the forum Politics 8 years, 11 months ago

Strega, I too thank you for the BBC article.

Between the centuries of xian oppressions and the genocide attempted by Germany, the world owed the Jewish people a homeland. I don’t know if the world gave justice to the Palestinians.

Trump is an ignorant bully, incapable of thought.
tom sarbeck replied to the topic Me Three in the forum Politics 8 years, 11 months ago

@Belle – “and now I have a half uncle making me feel like the best person alive.“

Be very careful, Belle, or leave immediately. People with anti-social personality disorder (formerly in DSM as psycho- or sociopaths) are skilled at making their next victims feel like the best persons alive. An earlier warning sign is their predatory sta…[Read more]
tom sarbeck replied to the topic Me Three in the forum Politics 8 years, 11 months ago

Belle Rose, I see a shitload of personal powerlessness in your Me Three opening post.
tom sarbeck posted an update in the group Science — the kind that requires evidence and reason. 9 years ago

RIP 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 Mission

Nothing in the observed Universe has surprised astronomers and astrophysicists more than comets. Their “dirty snowball” hypothesis, for decades the…[Read more]
- Strega replied 9 years ago
  
  Thanks, Tom – you always seem to give me a healthy skepticism for ‘scientific announcements’.
  - Tom Sarbeck replied 9 years ago
    
    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.
tom sarbeck replied to the topic When are thought experiments valid…and when not? in the forum Science 9 years 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.
tom sarbeck replied to the topic How cold will it be tomorrow? in the forum Small Talk 9 years ago

@Simon – I did NOT say it’s wrong to ask a question. I did say to ask about the questioner.
tom sarbeck posted an update 9 years ago

@Simon – And also about the context.
tom sarbeck posted an update 9 years, 1 month 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.
tom sarbeck replied to the topic The Power of Prayer in the forum Atheism 9 years, 1 month 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]
tom sarbeck posted an update in the group Science — the kind that requires evidence and reason. 9 years, 1 month ago

How 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 9 years, 1 month 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 9 years, 1 month ago

How many words will Michael Shermer require to describe that “significant difference”?
tom sarbeck posted an update in the group Atheist Humor 9 years, 1 month 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 9 years, 1 month ago

If I have to flee a hurricane I will take ice cream. If I get blown out to sea I will float.
tom sarbeck posted an update in the group Atheist Humor 9 years, 1 month ago

Where 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.
tom sarbeck posted an update in the group Science — the kind that requires evidence and reason. 9 years, 2 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.
tom sarbeck posted an update 9 years, 2 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]
tom sarbeck replied to the topic Sunday School August 20th 2017 in the forum Sunday School 9 years, 2 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]
tom sarbeck replied to the topic Sunday School August 20th 2017 in the forum Sunday School 9 years, 2 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

@tomsarbeck