Wednesday, February 07, 2007

Planet Earth Calling Dr Walt Brown

As I am presently working up a "final" refutation of Autodynamics I thought it would be a good idea to look around for similar examples of woolly thinking, poor science or downright fabrications. It turns out the web is full of such nuts, who knew?

One in particular stands out for having many of the best qualities a crank should have, including (but not limited to) a preconceived opinion of what the answer should be based on some non-scientific reasoning, in this case a religious belief. Second a whole roster of pretty impressive qualifications, non of which have anything to do with the topic under study, here the guy is an engineer (aren't they always?) but somehow thinks that this qualifies him to discuss the intricacies of stellar evolution or even biological evolution. Dur, well stars are just like big light bulbs right?

Step forward Dr Walt Brown of the Center for Scientific Creation, successful engineer, lousy astronomer/geologist/biologist/thermodynamicist. His website which can be found here, is so painfully wrong, twists facts so badly, uses data so out of date, that it nearly makes my eyes bleed, that and the crap colour scheme. I'm sorry but all those qualifications and income from a bunch of wingnut funds should have got something prettier to look at. If you hadn't guessed from the name, its mainly aimed at "proving" that the Earth and the Universe is 6000 years old, eurgh, I mean for Gods sake, we have archaeological evidence of cities from further back than this, even before getting onto the f*%£ing dinosaurs. To be fair I don't think this site is designed to convince anyone, merely to quiet the questions raised by the already brainwashed, no one with any kind of ability for rational thought could really be taken in. It does however seem a frighteningly small step between this and a demand that this crap be taught in science lessons for "balance".

The only thing that niggles me and prevents me from going into full ass kicking mode is that someone else has done it, probably better than I could. Sigh. Check out the story over here at the angry astronomer. Oh and also at pharyngula. I leave a full dissection of all the Dr Walts rubbish as an exercise for the reader, its not really difficult to see where the problems are, but should anyone have any questions feel free to ask away.

5 comments:

IbaDaiRon said...

Ugh...I fell asleep after tea and spent the night on the hot carpet and now I'm feeling older than God. (Speaking of which, was "Dur" supposed to be "Drrrrr" or a reference to "Guldur"? ;)

I have a theory that the world is actually only a little over 45 years old. I personally can remember nothing before that time and have, after a series of bizarre incidents involving an unwise amount of green tea ice cream following an anchovy pizza feeding frenzy and a vision of dancing houris (in various stages of dishabille), become convinced that any evidence of the world's prior existence have been manufactured by a less than beneficent diety in order to confound us and test our faith!

(cough coughwankerycough cough)

Liars and ADiots and IDiots...oh my!

(Looking forward to that final refutation!)

Anonymous said...

Dear Sir:
How droll that you would so slam Dr. Brown on his science and methods - the man has been a scientist his entire adult life, and here you are ...
I notice that you do not actually refute anything Dr. Brown has written, merely smear him as unscientific and prejudiced. (may I ask if you have actually read his work?) In your words I see much the same as you accuse Dr. Brown of. (unscientific, dogmatic, blind to facts, etc.)
In your field, as described, you deal with things unprovable directly, relying much on previous interpretative work to even find a spot to stand on. Although this may be good careerism, I do not see how it has a scientific basis superior to anything Dr. Brown has written.
If you had read Dr. Brown's credentials without preconceptions, you might have formed a different opinion, unless you feel that all that has gone on before you arrived is mere preliminary.
I read recently that man is a very religious creature, who when he rejects the concept of God tends to throw his devotion and zealous energy into some other dogma with a passion equal to any Pentacostal or Wahabbist.
If I might offer one bit of useful advice, you might consider opening your mind to the fact that we are all pretty much alike, and when you point a finger at another person, there are usually three pointing back at you at the same time.
I am pretty sure you could do better than the sneer and smear you pointed at Dr. Brown. Depending on what is important to you (truth or proving you are superior) I'd recommend taking another look at or ignoring the "opposition" altogether.
Best wishes,
Peter Davis
iampdavis2 at comcast.net

Anonymous said...

Be careful son.

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