[OT] Plato's Pub and Philosophical Society

[CEO TROLL]

DAMN!!! I am not needed on this thread.

[Fyron]

QR:

I was arguing against the implied triviality of religious texts.

This would be another example of people putting words in my mouth. My Posts did not imply any such triviality.

Jack:

Having now double checked at my school's library, I find "most" is a sever exaggeration - however, it is used. Earth in Upheaval by Immanuel Velikovsky on page 215 says "Coal is found in layers that are ascribed to various ages mainly on the basis of fissils found in them" and in Dating the Past Fredrick E Zeuner says "Many forms of life existed for comparitively short persiod only and therefore afford valuable data for the correlation of strata in distant places" on page 307.

I never said that there were not scientists that get things wrong. But- esp. in the modern day- the vast majority of scientists do not do what you said they do, they date things in the most correct and accurate manner available to us.

Oh, and Fyron, when you contradict someone outright, it is common courtesy to include a source.

My contradiction needed no sources, actually. I could have spent time finding them, but they would not have contributed anything to my post in this case that my own words did not contribute. Extra verification would have been overkill, as it is a basic fact, not an obtuse one.

[ March 13, 2003, 23:45: Message edited by: Imperator Fyron ]

[Krsqk]

From what I understand of radioisotope dating, it rarely comes out with the correct date on samples of known age. We assume it works on samples of unknown age. There are dozens of examples of horrendously inaccurate dates published in scientific journals. Even parts from the Mt. St. Helens ordeal have been dated in the low millions.

Without question, regardless of the original denotation and connotation, myth has a negative meaning now. It is indelibly linked with "fairy tale" in the minds of English speakers. Maybe we should develop a new word here and try to get it into the OED.

[Fyron]

From what I understand of radioisotope dating, it rarely comes out with the correct date on samples of known age. We assume it works on samples of unknown age. There are dozens of examples of horrendously inaccurate dates published in scientific journals. Even parts from the Mt. St. Helens ordeal have been dated in the low millions.

The thing about that is a few million years of innaccuracy don't matter for dating things that are hundreds of millions of years old.

Radioisotope dating is not supposed to be relatively accurate for "newer" objects, only for "older" ones. It is never meant as an absolute indicator. People that use it as such are indeed using it incorrectly.

Without question, regardless of the original denotation and connotation, myth has a negative meaning now. It is indelibly linked with "fairy tale" in the minds of English speakers. Maybe we should develop a new word here and try to get it into the OED.

Only to people that think that the dictionary definition is the absolute authority. Dictionary definitions often do not address complex terms very well, and also tend to use (sometimes wrong) connotations as denotations. They also often completely miss some uses of more complex terms (most often literary terms- such as mythology).

[Chronon]

This would be another example of people putting words in my mouth. My Posts did not imply any such triviality.

Please bear in mind that any communication relies on both the sender and receiver to work. You may not have intented triviality when you used the term mythology, but we have seen here that it has those connotations for many readers.

So, I really don't think anyone is putting words in your mouth; they were simply interpreted differently than you intended. Please try not to take it personally; I think about 90% of all communication has this problem. In my pessimistic moments (like when I'm listening to the latest news on Iraq for example) I wonder if it is possible for us to truly communicate with one another, or if we're all just wasting our breath.

[Fyron]

The problem is that some of these "interpretations" are wildly different from what the Posts actually say, even with accurate connotations taken into account.

[Chronon]

Originally posted by Imperator Fyron:
The problem is that some of these "interpretations" are wildly different from what the Posts actually say, even with accurate connotations taken into account.

My point was more specifically about our mythology discussion, where it was more about an interpretation than a misreading. But, I won't deny that sometimes Posts are misread as well.

I guess what I was trying to say (perhaps not directly enough) is that if you really want to convince someone of your point of view, taking the reader to task is usually counter-productive. Why not simply rephrase you argument, and try again?

[ March 14, 2003, 16:37: Message edited by: Chronon ]