"There is something fascinating about science. One gets such wholesale returns of conjecture out of such a trifling investment of fact." ~ Mark Twain
Oh, this is a good one. Scientists are going to move the hands of the "Doomsday clock" a little closer to midnight this week.
I don't know what I can say about this. Maybe I don't have to say anything. It speaks lunacy for itself. Here's a news flash for those erstwhile scientists:
The world is going to end someday. But the only One who knows when, is God.
Lunacy is demonstrated in the fact that the scientists started the clock at seven minutes till midnight in 1947, and have changed it 17 times since then, and it is now at seven minutes till midnight.
That's right. It's back where it started.
Here's another news flash for the scientists:
Time doesn't run backwards.
I don't know what's more ridiculous. The arrogance of these scientists, who presume to know more than God, or the fact that anyone would give them any credibility.
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16 comments:
I don’t see why you’re so outraged by this article, Mark; it’s not meant to be a real clock. Just like the US’ National Threat Advisory, the Doomsday Clock is an easy-to-read indicator of the severity of a particular complex situation. They are not saying that the world will end in ‘x’ years any more than the Dept. of Homeland Security are saying there will definitely be a terrorist attack next Tuesday.
And where exactly do these ‘arrogant’ scientists claim to know more than God…?
They say it is 7 minutes to midnight so they must have some point of reference as to just how long 7 minutes translates out to, therefore, they presume to know more than God.
And I am not outraged. I am amused.
No use explaining, Liam. God trumps science even when science is only trying to articulate complex concepts in a simple way.
No use arguing, Mark.
No matter what you say to them, these guys will always believe that Scientific concepts such as these are MUCH too complex to be grasped by lunatics who hear voices in their heads, and believe that God is speaking to them...
They have a point.
We should all just listem those wise and learned Scientists who warned us about the coming Ice Age..No, wait! Global Warming, and about Eggs being bad for us... I mean GOOD for us...No, Wait... BAD for us, Uh... and about Fat killing us... I mean that we aren't eating enough fat... and about the evils of Cigarettes... No, wait! Cigarettes MIGHT help Alzhiemers patients...
Blah, blah, blah...
Mark,
very thoughtful as usual.
Scientists are not supposed to judge the severity of complex political situations. And who are these "scientists?" What are their areas of expertise? What are their names?
They've been fiddling with the "clock" for decades, twisting it back and forth like a child playing with a See 'n Say and it is totally irrelevent. It's like Blackstone's annual list of the worst dressed celebrities. Who cares?
Who cares, indeed?! It's just God's creation that we are destroying. God gave us this creation to destroy, it's ours to pollute and kill and foul with as much smoke, toxins and poisons as God has given us the genius to create.
Who cares?
"And the nations were enraged, and Your wrath came, and the time came for the dead to be judged, and the time to reward Your bond-servants the prophets and the saints and those who fear Your name, the small and the great, and to destroy those who destroy the earth."
These "scientists" are arrogant. They don't hesitate to present themselves as soothsayers. They can predict Doomsday.
Sure.
You can be certain that these all-knowing "scientists" will never have the courage to set the clock at midnight. Their goofy predictions are utterly meaningless.
This isn't about science. It's about a political agenda.
Mark, you’ve already pointed out the flaw in your own argument; time doesn’t run backwards so this clock cannot be a literal countdown to a particular date. It is an indication, a symbol of how severe they believe the situation to be.
Also if the scientists were predicting a particular date, how could that be claiming to know more than God? Are you suggesting that God doesn’t either already know, or have absolute control over, the date of the end of the world?? Or are you saying that God wouldn’t reveal such information through someone who is described first as a ‘scientist’ in place of someone who is described first as a ‘priest’ or a 'man of God'? Isn’t that also an arrogant point of view; placing limits on how God may choose to work?
Tug, no-one is saying that the concepts are too complex for you to grasp any more than a newspaper using bold-type headlines is doing so because it thinks the story is too complex for its readers. Scientists are used to being expected to properly justify their findings so even in this case, where they are expressing an opinion rather than scientific results, I expect they’ll have a memo or press release that you could get from them explaining their reasoning.
You do inadvertently make a rather important point though; headlines don’t tell the whole story when talking about complex issues. Think about a car; a car makes life easier for us because we can get places faster, it allows us to carry more than we could ourselves so a car is a good thing. However, driving a car instead of walking means we don’t get as much healthy exercise as we otherwise would. A car also burns fuel which takes money out of our pocket and puts pollution in our air so a car is a bad thing too. On the whole, whether a car is a good thing or a bad thing is a judgement we each must make.
Now continue the analogy and imagine some alien race examining cars and our use of them (and assume that the alien newspapers felt it all newsworthy,) how would the headlines read? This month; “Cars let people get places faster, makes for happier people.” Then the next month; “Are cars safe? Drivers less fit than walkers!” Then the following month; “Easy Life: Cars bring clear benefits in load-carrying capacity!” And so on.
The fact is scientists aren’t changing their minds each month they are just refining our understanding of how things affect us; building the complex picture which each of us needs to understand, at least in outline, to decide what is best for us personally. The fact that nicotine (I’m guessing here, I haven’t researched the story!) might alleviate some of the symptoms of Alzheimer’s Disease doesn’t change the fact that sucking tar into your lungs increases your chances of getting lung cancer down the line. It’s just more information to help us build a picture of what is good/bad for us.
Mark, cheer up. The world is NOT going to end... oppressed by catastrophic upheavals... but not end.
You can read more about the updating of the Doomsday Clock here on the BBC News site.
Scientists do indeed tweak their positions in light of new findings. But before they do, their current findings are presented in a manner that indicates it must be fact. That's what breeds frustration, particularly when the new findings are revealed.
you are so baldly and proudly ignorant, Mark, you leave me speechless.
Re: "Tug, no-one is saying that the concepts are too complex for you to grasp..."
Oh, I am.
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