Blog visits note, 10: On wrapping up two [hopefully . . .] extended visits

As usual, when I have been blog visiting and things get hot [as they have over at Barbados Free Press, with a thread that now stretches to 197 posts] , the rate of posting at this blog goes down. And of course, the exchange on thermodynamics in this blog, has now extended beyond seven dozen comments, which did not help matters over the past week.

Now, I have wrapped up the latter, and hopefully the former is winding down.

A few notes:

1] Now of course thermodynamics and related stuff are horrendously complex and Mathematical subjects, but they are central to the issues that have circulated in recent years on whether Science is in effect applied materialism, i.e atheism in a lab coat. (In fact, by making an unwarranted philosophical imposition, many atheism advocates have been able to pass off their philosophy as "Science." As a trained scientist who knows a little thermodynamics -- which happens to be relevant to the question of whether we may reasonably infer to design as the cause of certain key observed things in our world, e.g life -- I have therefore paused over the past several years and have looked at the issue. My findings are summarised and reported here, hopefully not too abstrusely.)

2] Over at the thermodynamics thread in this blog, the discussion has unmistakably gone back full circle, without making clear progress -- spirals progress, circles don't. I have therefore closed off the now rather long thread -- almost 4/5 Mbyte! -- and I have updated my above linked reference page on the design inference as a scientific matter to incorporate not only the thought experiment on nanobots and micro-jets, but also related stuff on the underlying statistical thermodynamics.

3] Points from an earlier exchange on the probability form of the argument from fine-tuning of the cosmos, have also been added, under the list of typical observed objections and responses. I have also incorporated a link to Robin Collins' interesting work on that issue.

4] Over at Barbados Free Press, the March 30 thread on how Barbados Muslims won't kill anyone "unjustly" " still refuses to die out, after 197 comments so far. Unfortunately, it continues to be marred by commentary that resorts to attacking the man.

5] However, the arguments made by these commenters plainly reveal that the same sort of claims and arguments I have previously met in dealing with skeptics in the North, are filtering into our region. In short, in an increasingly global and Internet linked age, we have to be prepared to handle issues that we would never have dereamed of previously.

6] Noteworthy in this regard is Rumpel's attempt on May 6th to use an obscure 1922 speech by Adolf Hitler in which he claimed to be a Christian. (Of course Rumpel never came back to my exposing the next day, how that notorious liar distorted the NT to make his claim, or the sharp response of the leading Churchmen of Germany in 1934 through the Barmen Declaration that -- once Hitler had risen to power -- formally and even creedally called Nazism and its intended tame "German Christian" church in effect an apostasy and messianic idolatry.)

7] Similarly, a well-known Bajan journalist, Ian Bourne, intervened on May 9th. What is interesting about that intervention, is the [im]moral equivalency and even turnaround accusation comparison he tries to make: "There are “terrorists” in all faiths, ok? Did not Buddhist monks in Vietnam treat themselves as their own hostage? Then burn that victim? Ariel Sharon & Moishe Dayan victimised Palestinians constantly and only Yasir Arafat stood his ground!" (Not having time to follow up yet another rabbit trail in details, I simply noted to him today that he would profit by looking at some balancing information, here. But it should be plain that Mr Arafat has been a career terrorist and mass murderer who has done far more harm to his own people than good. Second, the Jewish claims to some of the land of Palestine are at least as good as the Arab claims, and the Arabs have no proper right to claim a right to all of it or to threaten and set out to murder and massacre to have their way in the teeth of attempts to reach a compromise position over the past ninety years. So, while Mr Sharon and Mr Dayan are doubtless not without their own faults and sins, Mr Arafat is not in any way even morally comparable to them, much less can he fairly be viewed as the hero of the situation! )

I close with a question: What is this patrtrn telling us about the typical level of public understanding ans addressing of issues in our region, including on the opinion shapers and leaders? END

PS: A reader in the UK communicates a very interesting link to a site, on the 1967 Six-Day War, here. Well worth bookmarking and following up. I am finding the key quotes page here very interesting though quite sobering and very sad.