John Cuthber

The reasons for the conflict also include the fact that religion tells lies like this. https://richarddawkins.net/2014/11/catholic-bishops-in-kenya-oppose-tetanus-vaccine-because-its-population-control-in-disguise/

Non Christian, you know- like the thread title.

Ok, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangladesh#Biodiversity_and_climate "Most parts of Bangladesh are less than 12 m (39.4 ft) above sea level, " which would require that Bangladesh didn't exist before about 600 years ago if it gains 2 cm a year.. But it did (albeit under another name). So when you ask "What would it take to change your mind?" one answer might be "​For a start, stuff that isn't a obviously nonsensical as that." Why did you believe that? Was it just because it suited you? Are you unable to check things like that?

Let us know if there's any independent verification of that event.

He may well be your leader, but if that's the case then you are already sure that He exists- in which case the documentation would add nothing. There's little doubt that someone must have been the leader of the Christians- or they wouldn't exist. What's not clear is that he is anything special. A note from that time saying, for example, what colour hair he had wouldn't add anything. As a great scholar once said "Why is he different? You Jews produce "messiahs" by the sackful!" (well, it's from "Jesus Christ Superstar rather than a scholar, but the point stands.) There are a few scholars to whom the documentation would matter, there might even be a million of them, but 4 billion is jut silly. If you use words in that way, you end up being incomprehensible. Do you feel that helps?

There are not 4 billion of you, just one. When you talk about Jesus you are talking about a specific character. If there is evidence of someone with that name, it does not prove that the character you mean existed. It may be evidence that there was someone called Jesus who was said to be the son of God, but that doesn't mean that those saying it were right does it? No, I might wonder what the far side of the moon is like, but I don't care. It makes no difference to me. On the other hand, I might wonder what the weather will be like on Monday, and I do care about that . I'd rather it was bright and sunny so I can read on the bus to work. Did you not notice that those dictionary definitions didn't say the same thing?

Do you think that grain contains chitin or are you planning to eat the insects that are in there too?

How can we be sure what's nonsense? Do the experiments and make the measurements. That's what has been done with (among lots of other things) man made global warming. So we know that it's real. Which is why denying it (not questioning it- that's not the same thing) is regarded as nonsense. Now, how did you come to ask that on a science web site? Did you really not know that the way to find out what is nonsense is to do an experiment or make some measurements?

I love to see "way out" theories too. That's not crackpottery. Crackpots are the ones who refuse to debate, ignore evidence and are unable to support their "beliefs" in any way. It's true that much of what is currently believed to be true will be shown to be wrong (or, at least, not the whole story). That's not the same as saying "the moon is made of cheese- that's why rockets never went there!" And there is no shame in science distinguishing between off-the-wall, but plausible, theories and utter nonsense. labelling the latter as "crackpot" may not be helpful- but it's not going to do science per se any harm because the crackpots have nothing to do with science.

wondered =/= cares. There were certainly lots of people called Jesus. So, at that level, there's no question that Jesus was a real person. There's a reasonable chance that one of those people as crucified. That still makes them "a Jesus " rather than "the Jesus" Seriously, who are the people to whom it would actually make a difference if, as I said, someone comes up with a verified contemporary Chinese account of a man called Jesus at that time who had a big following and was crucified.?

Fundamentally, asking "what is the resistance of a capacitor?" is like asking "what is the flavour of a table?". It's a category error. You can measure the ratio of a voltage to a current, you can call it an impedance or a reactance if you like, but it's still not a resistance. An ideal capacitor does not have a defined resistance.

Well, that consensus didn't pop up out of nowhere. It arose because it's what the actual evidence supports. in short, the consensus is probably right. Is it unreasonable to give short shrift to those who continue to ignore the evidence or, equivalently, to allow a little more leeway for those who are actually correct? The point of the forum is to advance understanding and knowledge. if you are steadfastly refusing to do that, should you expect an easy ride?

"Why the Prevalence of Crackpots in Physics?" have you seen the "religion" sub-forum?

Really? Who? Those people who already believe that Christ existed and was the Son of God will not change their opinion or actions just because someone finds a document that supports the idea that someone had that name and was killed at about the right time. I (and many like me) don't believe that there was a Son of God and some paperwork showing that someone with the right name was killed at the right time. So The world is full of lots of people who will not change their opinions or behaviour on the basis of the proof that Christ actually existed- because his existence proves nothing about God. Like I said: who cares?

To be fair, asking for non-Christian contemporary eye-witness reports is a biassed question. Anyone who was there at the time + saw a miracle would almost certainly believe in Christ's divinity precisely because they saw a miracle. So the only group of people who you are going to believe (because they are not Christians who might be biassed) are those who didn't see anything. If there really was a miracle, and a witness, they would be written off as "one of the gospel saint disciples and so untrustworthy". But I'd still like to know why anyone cares if there was a man, by that name (or, at least, something fairly similar), who lived as a preacher and was executed. Who cares.

How much does it matter? Imagine someone comes up with a verified contemporary Chinese account of a man called Jesus at that time who had a big following and was crucified. So what? There were lots of wannabee prophets at the time, the charismatic ones got successful. The Romans were not shy of crucifixion. Jesus wasn't a rare name. It says nothing about him being the son of God or anything like that.

http://www.royalmail.com/personal/sending-parcels

Never mind what would happen. At the moment, they are full. So at the moment, if you were not utterly and ludicrously wrong, balloons wouldn't float. Yet they do. And even if you have forgotten this "Also, you have not explained how a balloon on a string can generate electricity by rising unless that energy is taken from the potential energy of the balloon. If energy is taken from it as it rises then it must have less potential energy when it's high up." I haven't. So answer it.

Is eating a process?

So, if I inflate a balloon with carbon dioxide in a sealed room, it should rise. Do you know that the rules of this forum require that you respond to reasonable questions? So, once again. why is there a difference between a heavy gas and a light gas? They both push the atmosphere up (or compress the air in the room) equally well. If that was the cause of lift they would both float equally well. Also, you have not explained how a balloon on a string can generate electricity by rising unless that energy is taken from the potential energy of the balloon. If energy is taken from it as it rises then it must have less potential energy when it's high up.

In a way, we already do this, it's called eating meat.

Things like that were the reason I started using VBA to process stuff in Excel.

If I wanted a comparator in an analogue computer I would, with no great originality, use a comparator. It's been a while since anyone said anything to do with the topic. I wonder if Dark Falz is happy with the way the thread went.

And, since he's not copy + pasting anything, that is about as relevant as my tip on keeping flowers looking fresh.

Not much. What has HTML table handling got to do with nested if functions in Excel?