It's interesting that since about the 1860's when evolution began a new fashionable science, if it can be called that, the rate of discovery about the true nature of matter declined sharply, and since about that time, nothing major has been discovered, and we are still playing with the technology founded in electromagnetism. The world has been hybridizing those ideas established long ago.
If the modern atheist mind is so clever, how come the originality and speed of major scientific discoveries have come to a standstill?
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@ #1816340
"Well to start with you appear to have missed Quantum Mechanics and Relativity somehow".
That's not all he appears to have missed.
Regards & all,
Thomas L. Nielsen
Well, he is right. My car is basically indistinguishable from a car from the 1860s. And don’t get me started on my desktop computer, my tablet PC or my smartphone! It’s a crying shame, really, how science and technology have stagnated since the 19th century!
But seriously, what does Kan expect? That we stop to use technology based on electromagnetism because it is what, old-fashioned?
"If the modern atheist mind is so clever, how come the originality and speed of major scientific discoveries have come to a standstill?"
Quantum Computers. Gene Therapy. Nanotechnology. Virtual Holography. The first head transplant. Research at the LHC post -Higgs-Boson discovery.
Nikola Tesla - many years ago - was way ahead of his time, re. Electromagnetism.
...and yet your 'God' still can't make it past Pi = exactly 3.
NEXT!
Now this is just an outright lie.
Off the top of my head, there's whatever's going on with the LHC. Y'know, discovering the fundamental particles of the universe. Or something. I don't exactly know.
Wait... what? In no particular order and as fast as possible:
Nuclear power and radioactivity, genetics, electronics, metallurgy, fabrication technology, aerodynamics, hydrodynamics,chemistry, ballistics, energy production, internal combustion engines, turbines, medicine, nuclear medicine, surgery, and yes... even rocket science.
"If the modern atheist mind is so clever, how come the originality and speed of major scientific discoveries have come to a standstill?"
Because the internet is the same as it was in 1860.
Quantum mechanics, relativity, medical science, the standard model of particle physics, men in space and on the moon, cell phones, television, the internet, flight, buildings that will reach 1000 metres, planets outside of our solar system, nuclear power, ships that dwarf the Titanic, a clearer understanding of Earth's history...
Or was that all common in the 1860's?
"What has theology ever said that is of the smallest use to anybody? When has theology ever said anything that is demonstrably true and is not obvious? I have listened to theologians, read them, debated against them. I have never heard any of them ever say anything of the smallest use, anything that was not either platitudinously obvious or downright false. If all the achievements of scientists were wiped out tomorrow, there would be no doctors but witch doctors, no transport faster than horses, no computers, no printed books, no agriculture beyond subsistence peasant farming. If all the achievements of theologians were wiped out tomorrow, would anyone notice the smallest difference? Even the bad achievements of scientists, the bombs, and sonar-guided whaling vessels work! The achievements of theologians don’t do anything, don’t affect anything, don’t mean anything. What makes anyone think that “theology” is a subject at all?"
And that's why you guys are so antsy about CERN.
@ #1816663
Dawkins has theologians and theological apologists confused. For a start, we would know nothing about how the Bible was put together and that it is not what it claims to be were it not for discoveries made by theologians in the 18th and 19th centuries. I have a friend who is a theologian - she is an atheist. Why? Because theology is about the serious academic study of the sacred and should involve no more presupposition or foregone conclusion than does organic chemistry or any other discipline. As for Dawkins's views about platitudes and lies and the wiping out of achievements, these might has well have been said - as they have been said by others - about philosophy or sociology, art, literature or any other field of human endeavor outside the sciences. It's somewhat less than admirable; in fact, it's rather sad.
Yes, Kan is correct.
When Sherman marched through Georgia, it was all over the Internet. Robert E. Lee surrendered via an email he sent to General Grant.
Why he didn't just text him is beyond me.
@ Daspletosaurus
I agree; they are treated as such, but seldom by people who know much about both disciplines. Politicians, however, often do see science and literature as in conflict when it comes to funding education.
On reflection, I fear I have let Dawkins off a bit lightly; there are a number of achievements in science - the humors, phlogiston, a steady state universe, cold fusion, to take a few examples - which do not work.
The frequency of scientific discoveries (Architecture, Medicine, Shipbuilding, Agriculture, Botany, Archeology, maths) have always come in jumps, often related to culture connecting and, literally, comparing notes.
What Fundamentalist Christians love to do is speak of scientific discovery as something that totally begins with the telephone, electrical lights, the aeroplane and steam/combustion engine/automobile.
Because they think (wrongly) those are all uniquely American advances because God shone his light on their super specialness.
American Exceptionalism. It's total crap but they're totally dedicated to it.
*Alencon*
You ever hear of computer? Do you have any concept of the scientific advances that were necessary to allow such a thing to actually be built?
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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