[AgentR11]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('babystrangeloop', 'W')hat makes Creationism so vile is that it is taught in schools. "

[Plantagenet]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('AgentR11', '.').. perhaps the max long term limit thought is an understandable position to hold....

[AgentR11]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Plantagenet', 'I')ts quite another to have someone who believes there is unlimited oil as Ray Lahood does running the US department of transportation and setting policy for the future direction of the transportation sector of the US economy.

[Plantagenet]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('AgentR11', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Plantagenet', 'I')ts quite another to have someone who believes there is unlimited oil as Ray Lahood does running the US department of transportation and setting policy for the future direction of the transportation sector of the US economy.

[AgentR11]

I know what the standard English definition of the word is.
I think its a fair bet that the Transportation Secretary knows what the standard definition of the word is.

As the standard definition is excluded by factual reality, the next reasonable assumption is to look for "terms of art"; and in this particular case, it fits, as I have described.

He means that he'll be dead, and the questioner will be dead, before the anything horribly critical happens to oil.

We might disagree with that assertion of course.

[jedrider]

The Transportation Secretary is a good industry Lackey. That is all. 'God help our country' even if Creationism is a fairytale.

[AgentR11]

You can also state this idea mathematically, as the present value of the object at a point far in the future. As you expand the time horizon, the present value approaches zero.

Now, interesting aside, anyone consider what the current ZIRP and modest real inflation do to all those present value computations that underlie business choices? What is the present value, of a barrel of oil 50 years from now, when interest rates have been held at zero while true inflation has remained positive (but not huge). Weird choices incoming, if you ask me.

[Plantagenet]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('AgentR11', 'I') think its a fair bet that the Transportation Secretary knows what the standard definition of the word is.

[AgentR11]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Plantagenet', 'O')f course the Transportation Secretary knows what the word unlimited means. Thats why his ridiculous claim that some countries have "unlimited amounts of oil" reveals him to be a scientifically illiterate dope.

[Serial_Worrier]

Don't worry be happy!

[PrestonSturges]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Plantagenet', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('PrestonSturges', '.').. far right politics.

[SeaGypsy]

I think at it's root it's something which every culture has some version of, including cultures which claim not to have. No scientist in the world claims to know how life came into existence in the first place, regardless of where or when in the universe. There are deep philosophical questions in life which should not just be dismissed outright. As the Zen Buddah says: "Always seek the truth, the whole perfect and absolute truth, never give up searching but never ever believe that you have found it."

If there is one thing I resent in standardized creationism, it's the ridicule of intelligence to expect anyone to believe the ultra-simplification and dumbing down effect of such belief.
As if there is a God there is no need to know the mechanics of how S/He built the universe or the living being that is us. The questions don't go away. There are many scientists who realize that there are some gaping holes still in theory, specifically where physics and biology meet, right here in front of us and in us. Folks who think science has all the answers don't know science.

[Keith_McClary]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Plantagenet', 'd')ef: unlimited
---An unlimited or infinite quantity
---not limited; unrestricted; unconfined
---boundless; infinite; vast.

[Keith_McClary]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('babystrangeloop', '&')quot;We’re producing more oil in this country than we ever have.'' -- President Obama

[vision-master]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Keith_McClary', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Plantagenet', 'd')ef: unlimited
---An unlimited or infinite quantity
---not limited; unrestricted; unconfined
---boundless; infinite; vast.

[babystrangeloop]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('vision-master', '
')What seems to manifest from outside ourselves, comes from within.

What which we see outside ourself, comes from within.

There is not one without the other. Which is the illusion?

[babystrangeloop]

I've decided that cornucopianism is not new. The origins can be seen in a story.
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')b]A Mad Tea Party
Lewis Carroll / ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND / Chapter VII - A Mad Tea Party / 1869

... the Hatter went on in a mournful tone, `he won't do a thing I ask! It's always six o'clock now.'

A bright idea came into Alice's head. `Is that the reason so many tea-things are put out here?' she asked.

`Yes, that's it,' said the Hatter with a sigh: `it's always tea-time, and we've no time to wash the things between whiles.'

`Then you keep moving round, I suppose?' said Alice.

`Exactly so,' said the Hatter: `as the things get used up.'

`But what happens when you come to the beginning again?' Alice ventured to ask.

`Suppose we change the subject,' the March Hare interrupted, yawning.

[vision-master]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('babystrangeloop', 'I')'ve decided that cornucopianism is not new. The origins can be seen in a story.
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')b]A Mad Tea Party
Lewis Carroll / ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND / Chapter VII - A Mad Tea Party / 1869

... the Hatter went on in a mournful tone, `he won't do a thing I ask! It's always six o'clock now.'

A bright idea came into Alice's head. `Is that the reason so many tea-things are put out here?' she asked.

`Yes, that's it,' said the Hatter with a sigh: `it's always tea-time, and we've no time to wash the things between whiles.'

`Then you keep moving round, I suppose?' said Alice.

`Exactly so,' said the Hatter: `as the things get used up.'

`But what happens when you come to the beginning again?' Alice ventured to ask.

`Suppose we change the subject,' the March Hare interrupted, yawning.

[babystrangeloop]

I suppose I used "Creationism" as a euphemism for "bad science". Should I apologize?

Once it was almost universally believed that the universe revolved around the Earth. As astronomy developed systems which depicted planets going around the Earth started to show deficiencies which made them impossible to use without making corrections. Rather than abandon the fundamental idea that the Earth was at the center modifications were made to the model of the Earth at center. A major modification was called "epicycles" that described the planets as not only going around the Earth but also being attached to invisible spheres that rotated causing effects.

Fast-forward to now and you will find that there are "epicycle apologists"
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')b]Slang for bad science

In part, due to misunderstandings about how deferent/epicycle models worked, "adding epicycles" has come to be used as a derogatory comment in modern scientific discussion. The term might be used, for example, to describe continuing to try to adjust a theory to make its predictions match the facts. According to this notion, epicycles are regarded by some as the paradigmatic example of Bad Science.[18] Part of the problem may be due to the misconception of the epicycle as an explanation of a body's motion rather than merely a description. Toomer explains as follows,

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '&')quot;Whereas we use 'hypothesis' to denote a tentative theory which is still to be verified, Ptolemy usually means by ύπόθεσις something more like 'model', 'system of explanation', often indeed referring to 'the hypotheses which we have demonstrated'."[19]

[AgentR11]

Creationism, is without a doubt, bad science. But do you even care WHY its bad science? It isn't its truth or false-ness; its the method. There is nothing experimental, repeatable, testable about creationism, it isn't properly falsifiable, it is, a horrible blob of regurgitated doctrine, wrapped in an equally worthless bag of technobabble in an attempt to appear scientific.

Creationism, if one were to toss the technobabble garbage, and teach it as what it is in truth, religious doctrine, would be a perfectly fine subject (and is a perfectly fine subject) for teaching in schools.