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packsaddle

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Everything posted by packsaddle

  1. packsaddle
    If there was ever a more passive-aggressive color than grey I don't what it is, but silver is a close second. It's a politically-correct color for someone who is afraid to make a statement but didn't have one to make in the first place and feels the fear anyway in order to pretend they did. Obviously not your color, Moosetracker, you must not have had much choice. Delinquent?! H'mmmmm......OK, I'm good with that one. Edit: NJ, this is a living example of evolution. No telling where the thread will be in another week.
  2. packsaddle
    So...do you have photos? What kind of car? What color is it? Was the engine running? What was the time of day? How about the windows, were they rolled up? Was the radio on? What kind of clothes were you wearing? Were there any pine trees nearby? How about willows? Just a few of the critical questions.....
  3. packsaddle
    Peregrinator, how did things work out for that guy? Edit: I thought Pandora was Barbara Eden's mom. Edit - 2: SSScout, do you think it would make any real difference if there WAS a faith and chaplaincy forum?
  4. packsaddle
    Moosetracker, I evidently failed to answer that other question you had about Darwin's earlier life. His wife was Unitarian and he attended the Unitarian Church regularly. But I am most persuaded by the observations that are mostly presented on this website: https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/what-did-darwin-believe-article I believe they have a persuasive argument that Darwin's letters are more revealing than his books..about what he 'believed'. My personal opinion is that he was most certainly undecided early in his life and became less undecided with age - sound familiar? But I am not convi
  5. packsaddle
    Yes, a regrettable and flawed association. The interpretations were what gave that support, as you say, not the idea itself. Do you think perhaps that bad persons, who are already inclined to harmful actions, might look for a rationalization to provide support or to deflect responsibility? In the past I have argued that because the racists I grew up with often justified their racism on the basis of scripture, that in itself did not mean that religion or those particular scriptures were therefore to blame. To me what it means is that they were racists who wanted to justify their prejudice. Thei
  6. packsaddle
    Darwin was a self-avowed agnostic. Edit: "I think that generally (and more and more as I grow older), but not always, that an agnostic would be the more correct description of my state of mind.†Writing on the origin of the universe he stated, "I cannot pretend to throw the least light on such abstruse problems. The mystery of the beginning of all things is insoluble by us; and I for one must be content to remain an agnostic." Darwin
  7. packsaddle
    TAHAWK, look around and you can see plenty of examples of the grotesque things we've bred. I have never understood why we do that but the phenotypic plasticity of species is quite amazing for many organisms.
  8. packsaddle
    'Race' in the sense used by Darwin refers to a subpopulation that has identifiable phenotypic differences that do not necessarily qualify for 'species-level' designation. In taxonomy the nomenclatural term of 'variety' or 'form' is sometimes used. In the distant past (Darwin's time) the term 'race' was also used in taxonomy. In sub-disciplines of organismal biology, terms like 'associations' or other terms borrowed from human sociology are also sometimes applied but they have almost none of the meaning as used in sociology. In Darwin's case, the 'races' he referred to applied to all organisms.
  9. packsaddle
    Those chimps are already banging away in Irving and making new guidelines and policy. Stosh, ignore the atheists if that's what you perceive them as doing. There is nothing they can say that will shake true faith. If they seem to be attacking ideas you and others hold to be truth, that is their right to do that just a it is the right of the religious to proselytize to the unfaithful. As for the topic of 'evolution', one element of the process is the existence of genetic and phenotypic variation. Mutations are merely one source of this variation. They, mutations, themselves are not evolut
  10. packsaddle
    Stosh, thanks for confirming. Moosetracker, Yeah, that life's beginning thing. Science doesn't know how this happened. I am always amazed when someone refutes some fictitious "claim by science" that there is one origin or another. That critical thinking error is one in which a fact that is not in evidence is assumed so that it can be refuted. There ARE plenty of speculations, some of them interesting and possibly plausible. But they remain speculations. Yes we can demonstrate how certain conditions can cause the synthesis of complex organic or other molecules. And we can find evidence fo
  11. packsaddle
    Thanks everyone, I seriously just had to go cook something and eat it after just reading the posts so far. Pavlov lives.
  12. packsaddle
    Moose, it isn't necessary for you to be able to "talk turkey" on these subjects. What is necessary is a genuine, honest desire to have an objective and honest discussion and to try to understand. Science is available to anyone. It does take some work and probably time, depending on what aspects interest you. But people have to want to do that 'heavy lifting'. Most don't, or so it seems. Edit: This is one reason I like undergraduate students. They are still (OK, you're going to laugh) 'innocent' in some ways. Stop laughing. I am ok with the fact that you want to discuss these things. 'Rus
  13. packsaddle
    Out of class briefly and I can tell you...this whole discussion does not give me great confidence in our scientific literacy if this forum is representative of the general public. If you have a room with an entomologist, a bryologist, a palynologist, ,a malacologist, a phycologist, a herpetologist, an ornithologist, a microbiologist, ....you get the idea...and ask them to define 'species', you'll get a number of responses that exceeds the number of scientists in the room. If you leave them alone the discussion will go on longer than this thread. Most of you would misunderstand much of the di
  14. packsaddle
    About those frogs: in case anyone wanted to know, they're not mutations at all and this is fairly well understood. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ribeiroia_ondatrae And this is just the tip of a much larger topic area involving parasite ecology. Yes, wikipedia...for the primary literature go to the citations. Edit: The earth IS flat. As evidence I invite any of you to merely get a map of the world and unfold or unroll it onto a table. See? Flat.
  15. packsaddle
    Dobzhansky answered your question best. By the way, life 'began' billions of years ago. It has continued and still continues to this time. Our gametes are very much alive and human.
  16. packsaddle
    Sam's Club. I have no idea why.
  17. packsaddle
    Moosetracker, I do live in that belt and there are many legislators who regularly try to change the science standards (only for biology) to require faith-based ideas to be taught alongside science. Thus far they have failed, largely due to the monumental embarrassment they suffered in the Dover, Pa decision. I once attended one of the legislative meetings in which one of these individuals asked, "What IS science anyway?" and another noted that as far as he was concerned the Bible was all the textbook anyone needed. This was a committee specifically chosen to provide oversight over the quality
  18. packsaddle
    If someone manages to get the pin for a debit card (only 4 digits for many cards) they can clean out the account and there is only the best wishes of the bank to protect you from this fraud. With a credit card, even with the worst bank you are only going to be liable for the first $50 of the loss at most. Moreover, many credit cards also have a guarantee regarding the purchase and if the vendor doesn't follow through after running the card, you can file a claim and do a charge-back. Not necessarily so with a debit card. With a check, a signature can be forged, as noted, but unless it is a per
  19. packsaddle
    Well I don't know of any biologist who has made such a claim in the first place. Moreover, I don't know of any such lab simulations of it, either. I HAVE seen some entertaining fantasies like those in the movies though.
  20. packsaddle
    Moose, you're obsessing! Go to the forum at this link: http://scouter.com/index.php/forum/44-welcome-to-scouter-forum/ Now look at the middle title: "Forum Support and Announcements" Now scan across to the right for the cluster of info: Protected Forum By Stosh 23 Apr 2015 OK, now stop obsessing. Edit: NJ and I were posting at the same time. I'll leave this one anyway.
  21. packsaddle
    And lock it, I did. Stosh was not involved in that particular situation. Since the member who created the OP did not object and has not requested it to be opened, I left it locked. As far as i can tell, NJ has it right.
  22. packsaddle
    I actually think National is correct on this and I agree with DuctTape. That said, it is not a 'prohibition' but merely discouragement...'caveat emptor' of sorts, we're responsible for our own decisions. I have never had a problem with debit cards. This is because I never, ever use them.
  23. packsaddle
    And I agree.
  24. packsaddle
    Well, Sentinel, Stosh, would you mind telling the rest of us which one it is? Assuming it IS the one I locked, I had good reason. I'm willing to release it if you guys want me to. I think the parties who were involved got the point...I hope. Edit: OK, it's not the one I terminated. And it is 'Protected', not locked, the "Forum Support and Announcements". You need a password to get into it. Looks like the administrators created it and have limited the access. I have no idea what that has to do with Stosh, if anything.
  25. packsaddle
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