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Philosophy, News
Philosophy, News 
Entries in News (5)
Saturday
27May
Of Birds and Eggs
May 27, 2006 at 02:58AM Apparently a team of especially smart people has solved the age old chicken and egg controversy. According to them, it was the egg that came first.
The philosophical problem that is more important, and especially important to evolutionary theorists (although much harder for them to answer), is “how can an animal exist without the mechanism that brought about its existence being existent first?” They may say that a chicken was a mutation of a slightly different animal, perhaps a reptile, but what came first, the first egg laying animal, or the first egg?
Consider what the answer might be to this more meaningful version of the question. The same evolutionary theory that this team appeals to says that an animal of a kind (in this case the egg laying kind) must be existent before the act of egg laying first occurs. After all, evolutionists say that mechanisms of reproduction also come about through mutation. I will leave the question of who the first egg laying animal mated with, and whether the first egg laying animal was a chicken, to you.
Maybe these guys knew what the real question was, couldn’t answer it or the further questions it led to, and proceeded to make the news by answering a question that, while much easier to answer, no one was really asking.
But my question is this: If these findings resulted from reasoning that centred around evolutionary theory, what was the point of including a chicken farmer on the team? Did he provide dinner? To come to their conclusion, all they needed was an 8th grade science text book, unwavering belief in evolution, a childish understanding of philosophy, and the knowledge that chickens lay eggs. I hope they didn’t need the chicken farmer to tell them that chickens lay eggs.
Related Tags: evolution, news, philosophy
Update: Magic Statistics posts on this story as well as some chicken statistics here.
I wonder who this philosopher was, because he should have told his genetisist friend that this is not an adequate explanation. I will put the fact that their theory rests on certain unproven assumptions aside, and center on the fact that the fundamental problem remains unsolved. It is insulting to our intelligence that these so-called experts are pretending this question is actually about chickens and eggs.…a team made up of a geneticist, philosopher and chicken farmer claim to have found an answer. It was the egg.
Put simply, the reason is down to the fact that genetic material does not change during an animal’s life.
Therefore the first bird that evolved into what we would call a chicken, probably in prehistoric times, must have first existed as an embryo inside an egg. [read more]
The philosophical problem that is more important, and especially important to evolutionary theorists (although much harder for them to answer), is “how can an animal exist without the mechanism that brought about its existence being existent first?” They may say that a chicken was a mutation of a slightly different animal, perhaps a reptile, but what came first, the first egg laying animal, or the first egg?
Consider what the answer might be to this more meaningful version of the question. The same evolutionary theory that this team appeals to says that an animal of a kind (in this case the egg laying kind) must be existent before the act of egg laying first occurs. After all, evolutionists say that mechanisms of reproduction also come about through mutation. I will leave the question of who the first egg laying animal mated with, and whether the first egg laying animal was a chicken, to you.
Maybe these guys knew what the real question was, couldn’t answer it or the further questions it led to, and proceeded to make the news by answering a question that, while much easier to answer, no one was really asking.
But my question is this: If these findings resulted from reasoning that centred around evolutionary theory, what was the point of including a chicken farmer on the team? Did he provide dinner? To come to their conclusion, all they needed was an 8th grade science text book, unwavering belief in evolution, a childish understanding of philosophy, and the knowledge that chickens lay eggs. I hope they didn’t need the chicken farmer to tell them that chickens lay eggs.
Related Tags: evolution, news, philosophy
Update: Magic Statistics posts on this story as well as some chicken statistics here.
Friday
19May
Leave the Girl Alone!
May 19, 2006 at 01:30PM Once again, CNN shows that it has no problem participating in garbage tabloid reporting. One of its top stories is that Britney Spears almost dropped her child when she stumbled on her pant leg.
Now, I’m all for not giving celebrities special treatment, and I also have very little sympathy for celebrities who are hounded by the media. After all, their paychecks are based more on their fame than they are on their skill or craft.
But there is something mean spirited about trailing a 24 year old first time mother just to catch her in the smallest parenting mistake. Do parents not remember their own parenting blunders? Or should we make it headline news when a young mother gets the orientation of her carseat wrong, or stumbles and nearly drops her child? I say, child protective services would be pretty busy if these were big issues.
Please let this young mother be a mother, and CNN, shame on you. I hope you’re not really the most trusted name in news.
Related Tags: Britney Spears, news, CNN
Now, I’m all for not giving celebrities special treatment, and I also have very little sympathy for celebrities who are hounded by the media. After all, their paychecks are based more on their fame than they are on their skill or craft.
But there is something mean spirited about trailing a 24 year old first time mother just to catch her in the smallest parenting mistake. Do parents not remember their own parenting blunders? Or should we make it headline news when a young mother gets the orientation of her carseat wrong, or stumbles and nearly drops her child? I say, child protective services would be pretty busy if these were big issues.
Please let this young mother be a mother, and CNN, shame on you. I hope you’re not really the most trusted name in news.
Related Tags: Britney Spears, news, CNN
in News
News Wednesday
17May
Barry, If You're Gonna Take Steroids...
May 17, 2006 at 12:54AM …then at least get the rest of your house in order. What you, and pretty much all the folks who are under suspicion for using steroids, don’t seem to get is that people will only believe you insofar as you show to them that you have good character. You could at least pretend to be a decent person.
But Barry, why should I believe you? Sure, you haven’t tested positive, but you did cheat on your wife, you’re so self-centered as to be delusional, you refer to yourself in the third person, and you have a nasty habit of alienating your teammates. And I’m supposed to believe you? If my own brother had, like you, mysteriously doubled his muscle mass while in his thirties, and he had also acted like you, I would not believe that he hadn’t used steroids. Would you?
Sorry, Barry. I am not trying to bring you down, here. I just have no reason to believe you, and yet you have provided a whole schwak of reasons not to. In fact, almost nobody believes you anymore. But don’t cry! It’s not all bad. You refer to yourself in the third person, which should make it easy to whine to the one person who still listens to you.
And when you hit 714, I’ll probably think about just how great Babe Ruth must have been. After all, you were a great hitter, but unlike him you got to do all that cheating.
Related Tags: Barry Bonds, Steroids
But Barry, why should I believe you? Sure, you haven’t tested positive, but you did cheat on your wife, you’re so self-centered as to be delusional, you refer to yourself in the third person, and you have a nasty habit of alienating your teammates. And I’m supposed to believe you? If my own brother had, like you, mysteriously doubled his muscle mass while in his thirties, and he had also acted like you, I would not believe that he hadn’t used steroids. Would you?
Sorry, Barry. I am not trying to bring you down, here. I just have no reason to believe you, and yet you have provided a whole schwak of reasons not to. In fact, almost nobody believes you anymore. But don’t cry! It’s not all bad. You refer to yourself in the third person, which should make it easy to whine to the one person who still listens to you.
And when you hit 714, I’ll probably think about just how great Babe Ruth must have been. After all, you were a great hitter, but unlike him you got to do all that cheating.
Related Tags: Barry Bonds, Steroids
Saturday
22Apr
You Won't See a Glazier Doing This
April 22, 2006 at 02:06PM If I want news about human stupidity, I go to CNN. They definitely have a unique concept of what makes a story newsworthy, but every once in awhile I want something on the lighter side, and this is what I found there today.
Mr. Honniball doesn’t seem to understand that one of the great benefits of clothing is that while it may get dirty, your body can remain clean. Apparently he was still paid for his work, except for a $200 deduction that his customer used to buy new locks. Genius.
Related Tags: News, Glass
Although I am not working as a glazier at the moment, I do plan on doing glass work again in the future. Please be reassured that I will not be doing glass work in the buff, ever. Sharp glass and nudity just don’t mix, in my humble opinion. Furthermore, Worker’s Compensation won’t even let us wear shorts, so I imagine that full nudity is at least against the spirit of the WCB rules even if it hasn’t been explicitly stated in them.A carpenter who keeps his clothes clean by working in the nude was arrested after a client returned home early and found him building bookcases in the buff.
Percy Honniball, 50, was charged with misdemeanor indecent exposure this week for the October incident.
He told officers he stripped before crawling under the client’s house to do electrical work because he didn’t want to soil his clothes, police said.
Honniball said Thursday that working in the nude gave him a better range of motion and that a skilled craftsman can work clothing — and injury — free.
[Read more.]
Mr. Honniball doesn’t seem to understand that one of the great benefits of clothing is that while it may get dirty, your body can remain clean. Apparently he was still paid for his work, except for a $200 deduction that his customer used to buy new locks. Genius.
Related Tags: News, Glass
Tuesday
21Mar
Tolerance: change or die!
March 21, 2006 at 09:02PM The Afghan judge overseeing the trial of Abdul Rahman, an Afghan Christian who is charged with rejecting Islam, is apparently showing tolerance toward the accused. Here is a quote from BBC News:
Here we see that tolerance has finally come to Afghanistan. All that had to be done to get it there was change the meaning of the word.
With all the military presence in Afghanistan, won’t someone dig deep and find it in themselves to show some Afghan tolerance to that trial judge? Isn’t it their duty?
“We will invite him again [to renounce Christianity] because the religion of Islam is one of tolerance,” trial judge Ansarullah Mawlazezadah told the BBC on Sunday. “We will ask him if he has changed his mind. If so, we will forgive him.”As a further act of tolerance, the man’s mental state will be evaluated before sentencing. If convicted he will face the death penalty.
Here we see that tolerance has finally come to Afghanistan. All that had to be done to get it there was change the meaning of the word.
With all the military presence in Afghanistan, won’t someone dig deep and find it in themselves to show some Afghan tolerance to that trial judge? Isn’t it their duty?