Andy Schlafly #fundie

Andy Schlafly #fundie conservapedia.com

...inventors and doctors and engineers don't typically even bother learning relativity. Should I repeat that? Complain to engineering departments and medical schools if you think that should change. Nothing useful has even been designed or built using relativity. If you want to look and look and look for a counterexample then you'll be wasting your time. I'm not going to waste mine. This is my final reply on this topic for now. Do something logical, such as editing the Bible, and after benefiting from that experience we can revisit this issue in a month or so

91 comments

old comment by Anon

Mr. Schlafly needs to study radiology, clearly. And yes, not everybody learns everything. There go the first three sentences.

GPS has already been mentioned, but that's an application both _general_ and _special_ relativity. _Special_ relativity by itself is necessary to get many quantum mechanical calculations correct. Schlafly's computer, and every computer able to connect to the Internet, was "built using relativity".

This has always bothered me: how can people state that something is useless (or deny its existence) when that thing is required for them to make the statement on the Internet?

That's it for the next four sentences. For the last sentence: what does he mean by 'editing the Bible'??

old comment by Tangentc

I can think of many things that engineers used knowledge of relativity to build. Mostly these are communications equipment and software for unmanned spacecraft, but still, it was engineered.

And yes, I think one can safely say that no medical doctor has ever used a working knowledge of general or special relativity in the diagnosis nor the treatment of any ailment. Possibly because neither case of relativity has anything to do with biology. One might speculate further that this is because the human body is not a star system, and that since Einsteinian relativity has no real discernible effect on the human scale, that this is a completely pointless line of thought.

And that's not even including classical relativity, which has definitely been a fairly important concept in mechanical engineering for centuries.

old comment by Mrs. Antichrist

Hate to burst your bubble, Schlafly, but as others have mentioned, relativity does have practical applications. The abstract can help us when dealing with the concrete, even if your dinky little brain has trouble grasping that. Doctors don't learn about relativity in med school because it doesn't have any pertinence to health care; saying that relativity isn't important to a doctor and is therefore not useful is like saying that brain surgery is useless because an engineer doesn't need to learn about it. In addition, if our species ever succeeds in developing the technology needed for high-speed space travel, you can bet you ass that relativity will become important from a medical standpoint, given the theoretical changes in biological processes it could produce, such as the change in the passage of time affecting aging.

At any rate, knowledge is important in and of itself, regardless of whether or not it has a practical use. The quest for knowledge gives humanity a purpose and an ongoing goal. It makes life interesting. We're highly curious animals and, as such, our psychological well-being often depends on the ability to constantly learn new things throughout our lifetime. Even mental midgets like yourself are driven by it, although the 'knowledge' you collect tends to be utterly, miserably false (i.e., creationism).

old comment by Orion

Look Schafly, I don't pretend to understand relativity or special relativity and would do a poor job at best of explaining it. But that does not mean that it is indeed useless. Just because as a lawyer/economist by training (in training) I do not learn relativity, or germ theory or evolution does not mean that these concepts are wrong, useless or both.

Nobody learns everything and sometimes you have to place some trust in the knowledge and wisdom of others to know what is right, true and useful better than yourself.

Other people know stuff, important stuff, even though you could be intelligent you may never understand this stuff, but it is important nonetheless.

Deal with it.

old comment by WWWWolf

Andy Schlafly's collusion of Theory of Relativity and Moral Relativism has inspired me to come up with a few new laws:

1) Special Relativism: The faster the person posts on the wikis/blogs/forums (before finally thinking the idea through), the less crazy their morality seems to them personally. It still seems pretty damn crazy to outside observers.

2) General Relativism: The crazier the person's morality is, the more they disappear out of sight of the others, inside what is known as the gigantic "well of craziness". Again, they seem to be oblivious to this fact, due to their extremely flexible rhetoric that just paints their opponents with broad strokes of contempt no matter where they are.

old comment by Pule Thamex

Yes, Schlafly's correct, the Bible does need a lot of editing, its abhorrence is not horrible enough to suit present day right-wing extremism. A deranged psycho needs a Bible to more accurately reflect his lack of empathy for other humans and to be aligned with modern practices. For example, the smelly and straggly beard of the deranged psychopathic cultist is no longer de rigueur. Also, deluded death cultists need the Bible to portray more exactly their self-loathing and to highlight more definitively their unworthiness and sinfulness. To that end, a major excision needs to take place between, say, the beginning of Genesis and, shall we say, the end of Revelation, except for a few 'untos' and 'begats', and for modern assertions to be inserted in place of the excised material. This will be more in keeping with current torture methods and contemporary political spin.

Sometimes, even God needs to be dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century.

old comment by Giveitaday

...inventors and doctors and engineers don't typically even bother learning relativity.

Why would they? Relativity is a concept in Physics not Engineering or Medicine.

Moreover, Inventor is not a specific discipline and the nature of the invention is what would determine whether or not the Theories of Relativity or Special Relativity were applicable.

Should I repeat that?

Don't bother, you will just come off looking even stupider than you do now

Complain to engineering departments and medical schools if you think that should change.

I highly doubt that Relativity is required studies in engineering or medical schools.

Nothing useful has even been designed or built using relativity

Nor is that the purpose of Relativity.

If you want to look and look and look for a counterexample then you'll be wasting your time.

I wouldn't need to, nor would anyone else who understands even the basics of physics, medicine, or engineering.

I'm not going to waste mine.

Which is why you don't have the first fucking clue what you are talking about.

This is my final reply on this topic for now.

Because any further comment would only serve to magnify your already legendary ignorance.

Do something logical

Andy, you have already demonstrated you don't even know what logic is.

such as editing the Bible

Editing the unchanging and eternal "word of god"? You really are a hypocrite of the first class.

and after benefiting from that experience we can revisit this issue in a month or so

And give you time to fabricate even more bullshit rather than, I don't know, research the fucking subject?

old comment by Anon

I commented on this the first time, but I noticed something:

Schlafly got an undergrad degree in electrical engineering from Princeton in 1981.

He had to learn special relativity to pass that curriculum, and know its relevance to quantum mechanics as applied to semiconductor devices. Right now, the relevant course requirements at Princeton would be the intro physics series, particularly Physics 104: Electricity and Magnetism; Electrical Engineering 208: Semiconductor Devices; and Electrical Engineering 341: Solid-State Devices. The course numbers may have changed since 1981, but the physics is the same.

Andy Schlafly Is A Liar.

... and RationalWiki informs me that he's been schilling for anti-vaxxers. He is an evil person.

old comment by Anon-e-moose

This is rich, coming from someone who thinks Relativity is equated with Relativism; as in 'Moral'.

And if Andy Schaftafly - an engineer himself - thinks 'Nothing useful has even been designed or built using relativity', then he should complain to NASA, and the DoD/Pentagon for the billions spent in sending up into space all those extremely accurate - and ultra-expensive - clocks, commonly known as the Global Positioning System.

...y'know, Andy; the same GPS that your precious US military relies upon for doing what it's supposed to - and not just for finding it's way around in their M1s, Strikers, Humvees etc. There's the little matter of it's satellite-guided precision munitions, or doesn't this particular example count in your own little dimension, Andy...?!

And if he has any CD/DVD players/drives in his audio/video setup & computers, then how the fuck does he think they work; to say nothing of if he's invested in a Blu-Ray player? The semiconductor lasers in such are proof that Relativity works.

A Neutrino goes through a bar...!

image

Thank you, I'm here all week; also at the other casino down the strip simultaneously. Try the Quantum Cupcakes; they're to die for! Or not...! X3

Andy Schlafly #fundie conservapedia.com

91 comments

Confused?