something i dont fully understand but here it is anyway.
posted on September 6th, 2007, 2:00 pm
Dr. Lazarus
posted on September 6th, 2007, 3:23 pm
Last edited by Dr. Lazarus on September 6th, 2007, 3:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Perhaps one day we'll discover that evolution does not present the whole picture of how intelligent human life arrived, but that time has not come yet (needless to say the answer does not come from the absurd genesis account which requires even more rapid evolution after the fall from grace). As Richard Dawkins said in his TV series Enemies of Reason, "we should have an open mind, but not a mind so open that our brains fall out".
It became clear that this guy is a nutter when he started talking about "hominoids" such as bigfoot and yhettis that still exist (I could have sworn he said that
). Not to mention the fact that he bases the entire thing on the ideas of the ancient Sumerians. Is there really any evidence that we were genetically engineered by a race called the "Nibiru" orbiting the tenth planet? I think not. We must always have evidence. We do not simply believe any story that floats past our front window just because it provides us with "answers". It is better to have no answers than the wrong ones. Further, it would be very bad to "get the right answers for the wrong reasons" (although that does not apply here).
He says a lot and explains very little. If a person says something it is imperative that he backs it up. THis sort of stuff is targeted at people with little science education, because they don't know the methods of research. This guy says that he "researched" it thoroughly but tells us nothing about how he did that. Besides the highly questionable beliefs of the Sumerians, what evidence does he present? What data did he collect? How did he analyse the data? Was his study peer-reviewed? Has he been backed by experts in Astronomy and genetics?
One of the tell-tale signs of a scam is when they announce their "findings" via the media, who will lap up any story for ratings. Recently a company called D-wave systems did this. They by-passed the established peer review system and held a "conference" using the media to say they had built a quantum computer, something which is decades away. They do this because they would never get past first base in a proper peer review. Another way con-artists do this is by publishing a book, rather than a paper in an academic journal. In other words, it's all to make money. Books like this make millions even though the content is worthess. In my country books like that outsell real science books by almost an order of magnitude. I have to wonder what this says about our society.
By the way Mutant Hippie, I don't mean to rain on your parade or anything else, if that's what I've done.
Actually the fact that you said you don't fully understand it is a good sign. If something seems to not make sense, then either: 1/ the instructor is very poor at explanation, or 2/ it actually doesn't make sense! I suspect that here it is the latter.
It became clear that this guy is a nutter when he started talking about "hominoids" such as bigfoot and yhettis that still exist (I could have sworn he said that
). Not to mention the fact that he bases the entire thing on the ideas of the ancient Sumerians. Is there really any evidence that we were genetically engineered by a race called the "Nibiru" orbiting the tenth planet? I think not. We must always have evidence. We do not simply believe any story that floats past our front window just because it provides us with "answers". It is better to have no answers than the wrong ones. Further, it would be very bad to "get the right answers for the wrong reasons" (although that does not apply here).He says a lot and explains very little. If a person says something it is imperative that he backs it up. THis sort of stuff is targeted at people with little science education, because they don't know the methods of research. This guy says that he "researched" it thoroughly but tells us nothing about how he did that. Besides the highly questionable beliefs of the Sumerians, what evidence does he present? What data did he collect? How did he analyse the data? Was his study peer-reviewed? Has he been backed by experts in Astronomy and genetics?
One of the tell-tale signs of a scam is when they announce their "findings" via the media, who will lap up any story for ratings. Recently a company called D-wave systems did this. They by-passed the established peer review system and held a "conference" using the media to say they had built a quantum computer, something which is decades away. They do this because they would never get past first base in a proper peer review. Another way con-artists do this is by publishing a book, rather than a paper in an academic journal. In other words, it's all to make money. Books like this make millions even though the content is worthess. In my country books like that outsell real science books by almost an order of magnitude. I have to wonder what this says about our society.
By the way Mutant Hippie, I don't mean to rain on your parade or anything else, if that's what I've done.
Actually the fact that you said you don't fully understand it is a good sign. If something seems to not make sense, then either: 1/ the instructor is very poor at explanation, or 2/ it actually doesn't make sense! I suspect that here it is the latter.posted on September 6th, 2007, 9:34 pm
^^ excellent explanation of why the guy in the video is talking rubbish 
That’s probable one of the best structured posts and well explain i have read in a long time and summed everything up that i was thinking too, thought wouldn't have had the time to write in as much detail or as clearly.
That’s probable one of the best structured posts and well explain i have read in a long time and summed everything up that i was thinking too, thought wouldn't have had the time to write in as much detail or as clearly. 
posted on September 7th, 2007, 3:03 am
Just to state one small thing... besides saying that the whole thing is complete garbage... is that it seems it is just another guy trying to attempt to justify (like the redundancy?) why humans should be considered special.
Makes me very sad
Makes me very sad
Dr. Lazarus
posted on September 7th, 2007, 2:45 pm
Religions often do the same thing. In christianity we are made in the image of God, no less. Of course, this is just metaphorical, but the decisions about which bits are literal and which bits are metaphorical/symbolic are entirely arbitrary. In my old religion these things were decided by 12 men sitting around a table. In the catholic church the appeal is to papal authority, not divine wisdom (God seems oddly silent anyway so I'm not surprised).
It's understandable that we often want to feel special, but this flies in the face of reality. In the universe context we are tiny specks of dust on a smallish planet orbiting an average sized star in a 100 billion star galaxy. According to astronomers there may be 100 billion galaxies in the universe. The cosmos is also much better suited to cosmological phenomena than "life" (however you define that). Even if a black hole doesn't stray too close and devour a solar system, it's liable to be bombarded by meteors or encounter some other disaster.
The universe is hostile to life, and we exist due to good fortune, not divine manipulation. Of course, maybe it was God's purpose that we be the proverbial woodlouse under the rock in a forest of fungi (that didn't quite come out right so forgive me
). On the other hand, judging by the staggeringly huge scale of the universe, if God has a plan, it's a mighty big one. God would therefore be much grander than the weak version in the bible. It would also indicate that we play a very minor role in the cosmos, especially considering that God has ignored us. Because these questions are cosmological, it may be possible to answer them. Some astrophysical discovery may reveal truth about our role in the universe. This is quite an exciting idea: science have a power that we didn't think possible, to provide answers to fundamental questions.
There's also nothing ruling out our dicovering "higher beings" or "gods". It just depends on your defintions, as does everything. To a primitive society, "gods" may be aliens conducting a duckblind mission in cloaking suits (that seems oddly familiar somehow). If someone is powerful, and undetectable, he is a "god". And, as long as the being is "finite", we can in principle use science to learn how to detect him (I happen to believe that an infinite God is logically absurd, and creates paradoxes). So again, science may one day provide answers. Even if it doesn't, it's still wrong to speculate based on the beliefs of a confused ancient society just as the guy in the video did.
It's understandable that we often want to feel special, but this flies in the face of reality. In the universe context we are tiny specks of dust on a smallish planet orbiting an average sized star in a 100 billion star galaxy. According to astronomers there may be 100 billion galaxies in the universe. The cosmos is also much better suited to cosmological phenomena than "life" (however you define that). Even if a black hole doesn't stray too close and devour a solar system, it's liable to be bombarded by meteors or encounter some other disaster.
The universe is hostile to life, and we exist due to good fortune, not divine manipulation. Of course, maybe it was God's purpose that we be the proverbial woodlouse under the rock in a forest of fungi (that didn't quite come out right so forgive me
). On the other hand, judging by the staggeringly huge scale of the universe, if God has a plan, it's a mighty big one. God would therefore be much grander than the weak version in the bible. It would also indicate that we play a very minor role in the cosmos, especially considering that God has ignored us. Because these questions are cosmological, it may be possible to answer them. Some astrophysical discovery may reveal truth about our role in the universe. This is quite an exciting idea: science have a power that we didn't think possible, to provide answers to fundamental questions.There's also nothing ruling out our dicovering "higher beings" or "gods". It just depends on your defintions, as does everything. To a primitive society, "gods" may be aliens conducting a duckblind mission in cloaking suits (that seems oddly familiar somehow). If someone is powerful, and undetectable, he is a "god". And, as long as the being is "finite", we can in principle use science to learn how to detect him (I happen to believe that an infinite God is logically absurd, and creates paradoxes). So again, science may one day provide answers. Even if it doesn't, it's still wrong to speculate based on the beliefs of a confused ancient society just as the guy in the video did.
posted on September 7th, 2007, 7:53 pm
To go on with that... I don't ever remember reading any of that garblygook about aliens and the like in the "texts" I have seen (translations of course), but I guess that doesn't necessarily mean that suddenly the Sumerians became fanatical alien worshippers....
Dr. Lazarus
posted on September 7th, 2007, 8:49 pm
Maybe it's in the bible, not explicitly stated but implicit in the wording. Perhaps Adam was a 'Nibiru', or whatever. He preceded the Sumerians according to Christian theology, and he was made in God's image afterall... 
posted on September 7th, 2007, 9:30 pm
Well,the only thing i want to tell is.........This is one hell of a bedtime story! 
the one thing i liked about is ..that the sommerians have a picture of our solar system with the planets in it.
Well thats pretty strange because ,yo people started to think in the middle ages that the world was flat.
that is one strong argument .but the rest....mmmmm...i doubt it!
the one thing i liked about is ..that the sommerians have a picture of our solar system with the planets in it.
Well thats pretty strange because ,yo people started to think in the middle ages that the world was flat.
that is one strong argument .but the rest....mmmmm...i doubt it!
posted on September 7th, 2007, 9:31 pm
posted on September 7th, 2007, 9:32 pm
posted on September 7th, 2007, 9:34 pm
euuhh...please forgive me but the link is in dutch language.....but on the net are plenty of english language as well ..sorry!!!
Dr. Lazarus
posted on September 7th, 2007, 10:01 pm
posted on September 7th, 2007, 10:26 pm
posted on September 7th, 2007, 10:27 pm
posted on September 8th, 2007, 3:34 am
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