April 28, 2011

The Great Debate – Evolution vs Creationism

By PTH

One of the many amazing stories in the Bible is the story of The Great Flood.
Before The Great Flood Noah was commanded by his God to build an ark (a large boat) and to collect a pair of all the animals on Earth. The Great Flood wiped out all the other animals, including humans, and those on Noah’s Ark repopulated the Earth after the flood subsided.

Given our present knowledge of evolution, genetics, geology, physics and archeology, few people, even practising Christians, believe the story to be literally true. However there are some people who insist that all the Bible stories are literally true. As well as the story of Noah’s Ark they also believe that:
 The Earth and all living things on it were created in six 24-hour days.
 This occurred about 10,000 years ago.
 All present day animals are descended from those on Noah’s Ark.
 The theory of evolution is incorrect because it is not consistent with the Bible stories.
These are the fundamental beliefs of Creationism. But why are the religious beliefs of Creationists of concern to scientists? Does it matter if people’s religious beliefs are in disagreement with scientific knowledge?
View More The Great Debate – Evolution vs Creationism

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April 6, 2011

Trivia 2011 Practice – answers

1. Melbourne cup winners
2. Problem Exists Between Keyboard & Chair
3. McDonald and Heard Islands
4. Offshore from Los Angeles
5. 75
6. Lion, ram, thylacine
7. Hula Hoop and Frisbee
8. Menzies & Holt
9. Because bowling at nine pins was declared illegal
10. The sorceror in Fantasia. (DISNEY spelt backwards)

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April 6, 2011

Mixed Bag April 2011 answers

1. Beth; Joe can’t be telling the truth because then Beth would be lying, and Al’s statement (which is also a lie) would mean that Beth is telling the truth. These two facts contradict each other. Therefore Joe is lying, which means that Beth is telling the truth.
2. Lara went first, then Kara, then Sara, then Mara, and then Tara.
3. Ten
4. Mr Cooper is the doctor
5. 72 days
6. Quill, quoll, quell
7. From strongest to weakest: Laura, Lance, Lenny, Lulu
8. “Twelve plus one”  or “One plus twelve”
9. (a) 7 W of the A W = 7 Wonders of the Ancient World
    (b) 1,001 A N = 1,001 Arabian Nights
    (c) 12 S of the Z = 12 Signs of the Zodiac
10. He’s lying!
“To deny the opposite of the veracity” = to deny falsehood = to affirm the truth
“I guarantee that it is untenable” = it cannot be maintained

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April 3, 2011

Sydney SkeptiCamp 2011

 

Skepticamp-2010-flame-100Sydney SkeptiCamp will be held on 30 April 2011.

What is a SkeptiCamp, I hear you ask?

Here’s what it says on the official site:

SkeptiCamps represent a new way of thinking about conferencing within the growing skeptical community. Diverging from the traditional lecture events which have dominated skepticism for decades, these ‘open events’ tear down the barriers to organizing substantive (and fun) events by building on the wildly-successful Barcamp conference model from the tech community.

In short, it’s is an opportunity for skeptics to get together and have a chat. But unlike the traditional skeptical conference, there are no official speakers. The participants do the speaking.

Instead of listening to lectures, the focus is on interaction and discussion.

The concept has enjoyed increasing popularity over the last few years, particularly in the US. And now it’s coming to Australia.

View More Sydney SkeptiCamp 2011

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April 2, 2011

Leo Igwe Tour

Leo Igwe is a tireless campaigner against entrenched superstition in his native Nigeria. His Report From Nigeria is a regular feature of The Skeptic magazine. To view one of Leo’s articles on-line, go to http://www.skeptics.com.au/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/theskeptic/2010/1.pdf and scroll to page 12.
Rebecca Watson discusses the work of Leo Igwe in her report It’s Hard to Make Child Witches Funny http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dIf0DcfhcE
Canberra Skeptics has organised an Australian tour for Leo, which will take in every State. While in Melbourne,  he will speak at a dinner at La Notte on Thursday evening 25th August and also at a public venue to be announced on  Saturday 27th (afternoon) .  For those in other states, please use our contact details in the RHS panel to enquire about Leo’s speaking dates.

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March 24, 2011

Steve Roberts on the Radio

Well-known Victorian Skeptic Dr Steve Roberts has been invited to comment on radio recently – on two separate occasions in fact.
The first sound bite below is about the world ending in 2012. (Please stop laughing).  I really don’t think Steve gets a fair go here.  What do you think?
[or download the MP3 file]
The second sound file is longer. It has to do with a psychic named Lisa bringing her  “speaking-to-dead-people” routine to Melbourne. Steve can be heard from the 19-minute point onwards.
[or download the MP3 file]

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March 19, 2011

ACA: Miracle Fruit or Fruity Marketing?


Another new miracle skin product suddenly appears on our retail shelves. Another uncritical product promotion gets a run on the ACA. There’s nothing new there, but this time ACA may have gone too far, by claiming that the product is TGA approved.
Sorry about all the acronyms in the opening splash. Just in case you’re not keeping up:
ACA = Channel Nine’s A Current Affair (It’s on between the news and Two and a Half Men.)
TGA = Therapeutic Goods Administration (Our thin line of government defense against medical quackery.)
I think we need to come up with a snappy name or acronym for that period of time between the introduction of a new miracle health product to our retail shelves, and the eventual release of data from clinical trials showing a distinct lack of the miraculous. View More ACA: Miracle Fruit or Fruity Marketing?

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