Comment on The Heroic Crusade Redux by Sean Pitman.
From http://www.detectingdesign.com/radiometricdating.html
“Radio-halos from rapidly decaying radioactive isotopes in granite seem to indicate that the granites were formed almost instantly. 
These statements are nestled within a section with numerous “howevers,†leading to some ambiguity regarding your position, so please do clarify.
I have clarified the particular statement dealing with Gentry’s theories on the instant formation of granites (which I never thought was very solid) and have included a link to the paper you cite.
However, it seems to me that Gentry’s work with “squashed” polonium halos in coal is still quite good. I’ve been unable to find or think of a reasonable rebuttal for this particular situation.
Since coal is relatively incompressible, Gentry concludes that these particles of uranium and polonium must have entered the deposit before it turned to coal. However, there is only a very small amount of lead with the uranium; if the uranium had entered hundreds of millions of years ago, then there should be much more lead. With very little evidence or obvious method of diffusion or other forms of loss the amount of lead present is consistent with an age of thousands rather than millions of years. However, it’s just hard to believe, according to conventional geological time scales, that this coal was compressed any time within the past several thousand or even hundred million years.
Some have argued that “radon 222 that results from uranium decay is an inert gas and may have escaped, resulting in little lead being deposited. This would make the observed haloes consistent with an old age for the coal.” However, the fact that these uranium haloes are “embryonic (very faint) also argues for a young age. In addition, not all of the radon would be on the surface of the particles of uranium. That which was inside or bordering on coal would likely not be able to escape. Since radon 222 has a half-life of about 4 days, it would not have much time to escape, in any event. Such haloes were also found in shale, with young U/Pb ages as well, and it may be less likely for the radon to escape from shale.”
Sean Pitman
www.DetectingDesign.com
Sean Pitman Also Commented
The Heroic Crusade Redux
@Ervin Taylor:
I notice that on the EducateTruth(sic) site, when Sean posts something, he always gets a lot of “likes†and when I post, I get a lot of “dislikes.†I wonder why that is? Is it his greater logic? Is it his more pleasant personality? On the other side, why all of the “dislikes?†Do I offend? But I already use a lot of deodorant, but perhaps it is not enough. I will try to use more in the future and see if that helps.
Perhaps you can take comfort in the fact that if the very same comments were posted at Atoday, Spectrum, Talk.Origins or Pharyngula, or any other forum inherently opposed to the Adventist message, the voting would be, and has been, dramatically reversed. Your comments would be ever so popular while mine would be voted down in mass.
Consider also that your common use of the term (sic) comes across as a form of derision… as in an effort on your part to make fun of EducateTruth (sic) and all that we stand for here at this website.
Sic—generally inside square brackets, [sic], and occasionally parentheses, (sic)—when added just after a quote or reprinted text, indicates the passage appears exactly as in the original source…
The use of sics can be seen as an appeal to ridicule, whether intentional or not, because it highlights perceived irregularities. The application of sics with the intent to disparage has been called the “benighted use” because it creates a “false sense of superiority” in its users.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sic
I suppose it’s fine to try to be humerus or even disparaging in one’s efforts to address errors in the arguments of one’s opponents. Just don’t expect such efforts to go over well with those who don’t already agree with your own perspective.
Sean Pitman
www.DetectingDesign.com
The Heroic Crusade Redux
@Ervin Taylor:
As for senility . . . . What did you say your name was?
Elvis 😉
“I’m a schizophrenic and so am….Iâ€
😉
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Thank you Ariel. Hope you are doing well these days. Miss seeing you down at Loma Linda. Hope you had a Great Thanksgiving!
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Thank you Colin. Just trying to save lives any way I can. Not everything that the government does or leaders do is “evil” BTW…
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Only someone who knows the future can make such decisions without being a monster…
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Where did I “gloss over it”?
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I fail to see where you have convincingly supported your claim that the GC leadership contributed to the harm of anyone’s personal religious liberties? – given that the GC leadership does not and could not override personal religious liberties in this country, nor substantively change the outcome of those who lost their jobs over various vaccine mandates. That’s just not how it works here in this country. Religious liberties are personally derived. Again, they simply are not based on a corporate or church position, but rely solely upon individual convictions – regardless of what the church may or may not say or do.
Yet, you say, “Who cares if it is written into law”? You should care. Everyone should care. It’s a very important law in this country. The idea that the organized church could have changed vaccine mandates simply isn’t true – particularly given the nature of certain types of jobs dealing with the most vulnerable in society (such as health care workers for example).
Beyond this, the GC Leadership did, in fact, write in support of personal religious convictions on this topic – and there are GC lawyers who have and continue to write personal letters in support of personal religious convictions (even if these personal convictions are at odds with the position of the church on a given topic). Just because the GC leadership also supports the advances of modern medicine doesn’t mean that the GC leadership cannot support individual convictions at the same time. Both are possible. This is not an inconsistency.
