BigBallinStalin wrote:e.g. universalcairo's response here:
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=110240&start=3135#p4254037That's not even an argument against the one presented, and he's rehashing the same argument (repetition won't help one's case).
Oh, thanks, I missed that. You're right that it is all rehash, but I don't intend to lose by attrition.
universalchiro wrote:A. You weren't there.
As I pointed out earlier, I've never witnessed a murder but people are put in prison for it every day. Does this mean I'm taking their guilt for granted on faith? Certainly not.
universalchrio wrote:B. It's not observable.
What isn't observable, the creation of the universe? Well, yeah, obviously. That doesn't mean that we can't look at the universe and speculate as to how it was created.
universalchrio wrote:C. Radiometric dating/Radioactive Isotopic dating seems well and dandy, but with a closer look, there are some serious flaws with this dating system.
Oh boy. Here we go. OK...I'm going to breeze through this again, hang on. Petrified wood can be formed quickly, yeah, all right, that has nothing to do with radiometric dating. Next up, manmade coal. Scientists could definitely tell the difference between those two. The last few times you cited this the article at no point said that it was indistinguishable with regular coal. Unless you have a source that says otherwise this is bunk. Chicken shit can be made into oil? OK, I'm not going to even question the veracity this one. Never heard about it, but whatever. Once again though, where does it say that scientists can't tell the difference between the two?
Anyways, what does any of this have to do with radiometric dating? Radiometric dating is useful for objects that have locked all of their materials up in what is effectively a time capsule. It works well on rocks because nothing can get inside of a rock. Anything with a halflife degrades at a known rate, and by measuring how much the material has broken down we can work backwards to determine when the rock was formed. The key here is that it only works if no outside material can be added. This isn't true of oil or coal, as one is a liquid and the other is porous. I imagine the petrified wood could be radiometrically dated, and I'm sure it has.
universalchrio wrote:Why do you take this great leap of faith that the "Constant Rate of Decay" has always been constant? Why? Because it's faith based.
By this standard everything is faith based. I'm taking for granted that my memories are accurate. I'm taking for granted that my senses are showing me an accurate picture of reality. I'm taking for granted that objects continue to exist when I'm not looking at them. Saying that these are faith based assumptions in the same way that a belief in God is a faith based assumption makes the term entirely meaningless.
universalchrio wrote:Look at the Grand Canyon: If each layer took millions or even thousands of years to form, there would be massive commingling of layers. But that is not what we see. There are distinct layers.
That isn't at all what we'd expect to see. If the layers "mingled" that would suggest that they didn't form at different periods of time. Where have you heard this? And what does this have to do with the age of the universe? The Grand Canyon isn't exactly the lynchpin of anyone's argument.
universalchrio wrote:Darwinian Evolution of changing of kinds, is not observable, nor testable.
Darwinian Evolution as opposed to what? Do you refer to physics as Newtonian Physics?
And, once again, could you define the word kind for me? I can't have a discussion about a word that I don't know the meaning of. Do you know the meaning of it?