beecee

It is your misinterpretation and general posting that is full of bollocks. I've invalidated most of your faith based claims so far and this is another. Again scientific theories are not meant to search for any truth or reality, rather give working models of what we observe...if we should happen to hit upon any truth or reality, if it at all exists, all well and good. And no Dawkins does not disagree with me. You please yourself what you want to come up with. I have invalidated many of your faith based claims and obvious agenda driven misinterpretations, I'm always up for a few more.

What is true is the "world view" Thanls for that link Reg...Abrasive or not in his mannerisms, your silly denials and/or half denials, has convinced me to get his relevant book. Thanks again.

So? Being obtuse again? We know what gravity does, but do we know the actual reason, the truth, the reality you are pretending to hide behind. Let me attempt to educate you again. We have Newtonian and GR.....one more accurate then the other, or if you like one less wrong then the other, or if you prefer, one more correct then the other, or possibly, one closer to the truth then the other...take your pick reggy old chum! Thanks for that. I often compare Dawkins and Sagan...While I appreciate both, I see Dawkins a bit abrasive then the docile calm manners of Sagan whose books I have many of. Thanks again. No I'm an Aussie and I certainly prefer working scientists over and above the questionable antics and comments of a Philosopher.,,Aussie or not.

Actually never having read the book, I may just make an effort to get hold of it this week. Any best selling book that can create such turmoil among those of faith, must have something going for it. Tells me nothing chum.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Selfish_Gene In July 2017, The Selfish Gene was listed as the most influential science book of all time in a poll to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Royal Society science book prize. You need to do better then that chum.

Even more to the point, I suggest you stop posting such foolish posts making unreal pretentious challenges that are never going to eventuate. I don't know what Stephen said, and I am certainly not going to take your word on that. Probably as many god botherers do, taking some statement totally out of context. But hey, you can supply a link can't you?

I suggest you stop being so overly pretentious and obtuse. Again scientific theories are never meant to find any supposed truth or reality that keeps bugging you. And that includes Newtonian. Again Newtonian is a correct [not true] theory when applied with its zones of applicability.....the same with the more accurate GR This has all been explained to you by more knowledgable people then either you or I. Now I suggest you stop playing games and come up with whatever alternative to the theory of evolution you have faith in....It certainly will not be a scientific theory, I will bet on that!

Most people do come to science forums to learn. Apparently you are one of the exceptions. Let me straighten you out once again, no Newtonian was never deemed to be true, and as you have been told before, the truth or reality is not the object of the scientific discipline. Newtonian was though correct within its zone of applicability. GR of course gave us a wider more encompassing zone of applicability, and gave the same answers as Newtonian albeit with far more accuracy. It's your own misrepresention that is in question and your misinterpretation of what science is all about and the scientific method. Again the theory of the evolution of life is as close to certainty as we could hope> If of course you have any evidence to the contrary, I suggest you table it. But you won't and you havn't. "Philosophy consists very largely of one philosopher arguing that all others are jackasses. He usually proves it, and I should add that he also usually proves that he is one himself". Henry Louis Mencken. (1880-1956).

Dismissing your continued rather lengthy rhetorical preaching let me say again, that yes evolution is as certain as anyone could wish for...and only a fool would deny that....sure there are areas that lack certain detail and exact methodology, but the basis of evolution is undeniable. That obviously going on the numbers of crusades we have had on this forum and others against that fact, does erk many true believers in ID and other religious fanatics. Again that evidence is here for the sorting and perusing. The problem is of course with yourself and others [I mean you have personally castigated me for attempting to force some of our religious fanatics to put up or shut up] is that most probably the reasons for such crusades are as I say, and you seem to cunningly trying to dismiss them as per "Scientists go to extreme lengths to protect their best theories from falsification." and tie the hands of your critics behind their backs, on a science forum no less, is not going to work. If you have any doubt about any other area of science where you pretend that it is never questioned, than start a thread on that particular discipline. The facts are science is a discipline in eternal progress and advancement, unlike religion and the faith at all costs attitude. I'll leave you with two thoughts...... Science is the record of dead religions. Oscar Wilde. There is no statement so absurd that no philosopher will make it. Cicero, Marcus Tullius (106-43 BCE) Roman statesman.

Phi for all is totally right of course and reg couldn't be more wrong. The evidence supporting the fact that not only is science questioned everyday it also is in constant change as new evidence comes to light. Reg and others of that opinion need to realise that all of mainstream science was at one time also being questioned and not always in the mainstream.

In fact "critical thinking" is more a requirement of the scientific discipline then any other I suggest.

Yes, most certainly, despite your fanatical denial. Total rubbish. The evolution of the universe is observed in our view of distant star systems in our galaxy at different stages of evolution of such systems. We have no reason to believe ours would be any different. All the elements that make up you and I, were forged in the belly of stars. The evolution of life is as close to being certain as any reasonable thinking person could hope for.

https://www.technology.org/2018/10/06/parker-solar-probe-changed-the-game-before-it-even-launched/ On Oct. 3, 2018, Parker Solar Probe performed the first significant celestial maneuver of its seven-year mission. As the orbits of the spacecraft and Venus converged toward the same point, Parker Solar Probe slipped in front of the planet, allowing Venus’ gravity — relatively small by celestial standards — to twist its path and change its speed. This maneuver, called a gravity assist, reduced Parker’s speed relative to the Sun by 10 percent — amounting to 7,000 miles per hour — drawing the closest point of its orbit, called perihelion, nearer to the star by 4 million miles. Performed six more times over the course of the seven-year mission, these gravity assists will eventually bring Parker Solar Probe’s closest approach to a record 3.83 million miles from the Sun’s surface — about a seventh the distance of the current record-holder, Helios 2, which achieved a pass of 27 million miles from the Sun in 1976. Even before its closest approach, Parker Solar Probe is expected to overtake this record and become the closest human-made object to the Sun in late October 2018. more at link.........................

No, not really........https://www.technology.org/2018/10/08/new-image-shows-the-rugged-landscape-of-comet-67p/ Comet 67P Rugged Landscape Shown on a New Image Posted Yesterday In March of 2004, the European Space Agency’s Rosetta spacecraft blasted off from French Guiana aboard an Ariane 5 rocket. After ten years, by November of 2014, the spacecraft rendezvoused with its target – Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (67P/C-G). Over the more than two years that followed, the spacecraft remained in orbit of this comet, gathering information on its surface, interior, and gas and dust environment. And on September 30th, 2016, Rosetta came closer than ever to the surface of 67P/C-G and concluded its mission with a controlled impact onto the surface. Since that time, scientists have still been processing all the data the spacecraft collected during its mission. This included some awe-inspiring photographs of the comet’s surface that were obtained shortly after the spacecraft made its rendezvous with 67P/C-G. more at link..........................

https://www.ligo.caltech.edu/news/ligo20180910 Jocelyn Bell Burnell Receives Breakthrough Prize News Release • September 10, 2018 The LIGO Lab and LIGO Scientific Collaboration are heartily congratulating Jocelyn Bell Burnell for becoming just the fourth recipient of the Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics, a $3 million dollar prize bestowed to a scientist or group of scientists deemed to have made significant discoveries in or contributions to science. Burnell is being recognized for her astute observation of odd repeating ‘blips’ in radio telescope data gathered while she was a graduate student at Cambridge University in 1967. Initially, many believed these signals were man-made, but Burnell tenaciously followed up on the anomaly, proving that they were not of this Earth. The blips were later attributed to a then only-theorized exotic star called a radio pulsar. Pulsars are rotating neutron stars that emit a narrow beam of radio waves like a lighthouse. If the Earth is in the beam's path, we detect a radio pulse each time it sweeps across the Earth as the star itself rotates. Dr. Edward Witten, the chair of the selection committee said, in a statement released by the Breakthrough Prize Committee: “Jocelyn Bell Burnell’s discovery of pulsars will always stand as one of the great surprises in the history of astronomy. Until that moment, no one had any real idea how neutron stars could be observed, if indeed they existed. Suddenly it turned out that nature has provided an incredibly precise way to observe these objects, something that has led to many later advances.” Indeed, astronomers have continued to search for and study neutron stars in the cosmos, as they are excellent laboratories for studying general relativity and other extreme environs in the Universe. Coincidentally, at around the same time as Bell’s discovery, LIGO’s Rai Weiss, then MIT professor, was thinking about how astronomers could detect (also then only theoretical) gravitational waves, predicted to emanate from dense, massive objects like neutron stars. In fact, LIGO was specifically designed to detect gravitational waves from just the sort of objects that Bell Burnell discovered. Such a long-awaited event was finally observed last year, when LIGO and Virgo detected two colliding neutron stars. This discovery led to a paradigm shift in our understanding of the origins of heavy elements in the periodic table. LIGO continues to search for gravitational-wave ‘blips’ from neutron stars to complement the observations that Burnell made in radio signals. Without Burnell’s careful observation and persistence in alerting her thesis supervisor about the strange signals these mysterious objects and their treasure-trove of information about the Universe could have remained unknown to science for many years. Burnell is also being recognized for her “lifetime of inspiring scientific leadership”, according to the Breakthrough Prize committee. True to form, Burnell has decided to donate her entire $3 million prize to the United Kingdom’s Institute of Physics, to fund scholarships for students from groups underrepresented in science who want to study physics.

With an open mind and no prejudice? Bingo! Yes quite true, science as yet, does not know everything, but it also is critical of "short circuiting" and unscientific myths like a "god of the gaps" to replace that which as yet we dont know or understand.

Hi Laurie: Not sure what you are trying to say, but the comment of mine you quoted was meant for any science in general. And as yet I havn't seen anyone raise numerology...something who's validity I class as analogous with Astrology...pseudoscience in other words. And while certainly there is much as yet we are ignorant of, [DM being one of them] I'm not sure we can class them yet as being beyond the realms of our models. Some things simply take more time and ingenuity then others. The visible universe is also around 95 billion L/years in diameter which is a sizable chunk albeit still only small portion of the universe as a whole. At this stage with the lack of success in searching for WIMPS in the necessary quantity, I see the research into SIMPs as worthwhile and whatever new line of research can be learnt from gravitational waves and further study of the CMBR.

Actually about 40 kms outside of a little town called Parkes 360 kms west of Sydney. [It has been shut down now] Parkes, home of course to the Parkes Radio Telescope

or infamous!

It still appears that at this stage, the general opinion/s is that DM exists. http://chandra.harvard.edu/xray_astro/dark_matter/index3.html That hasn't changed. The gist of the OP article was "that diversifying the experimental effort and incorporating astronomical surveys and gravitational-wave observations is our best hope of making progress on the dark-matter problem". Let's add another competitor to the equation. I just found the following article.....https://phys.org/news/2017-12-machos-dead-wimps-no-showsay-simps.html SIMPs or Strongly Interactive Massive Particles. Some pertinent extracts from the article......"Murayama says that recent observations of a nearby galactic pile-up could be evidence for the existence of SIMPs, and he anticipates that future particle physics experiments will discover one of them". "Yet so-called massive compact halo objects - MACHOs - eluded discovery, and earlier this year a survey of the Andromeda galaxy by the Subaru Telescope basically ruled out any significant undiscovered population of black holes. The researchers searched for black holes left over from the very early universe, so-called primordial black holes, by looking for sudden brightenings produced when they pass in front of background stars and act like a weak lens. They found exactly one" -and finally the real difference with this new hypothesis" SIMPs interact with themselves, but not others" a couple of papers on the subject....... https://arxiv.org/pdf/1803.07518.pdf Mar 20, 2018 "We consider dark matter as Strongly Interacting Massive Particles (SIMPs) in a hidden sector, thermally decoupled from the Standard Model heat bath. Due to its strong interactions, the number-changing processes of the SIMP lead to its thermalization at temperature TD different from the visible sector temperature T, and subsequent decoupling as the Universe expands. We study the evolution of the dark SIMP abundance in detail and find that a hidden SIMP provides for a consistent framework for self-interacting dark matter. Thermalization and decoupling of a composite SIMP can be treated within the domain of validity of chiral perturbation theory unlike the simplest realizations of the SIMP, where the SIMP is in thermal equilibrium with the Standard Model" and............................... https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.115.021301 ABSTRACT A recent proposal is that dark matter could be a thermal relic of 3→2scatterings in a strongly coupled hidden sector. We present explicit classes of strongly coupled gauge theories that admit this behavior. These are QCD-like theories of dynamical chiral symmetry breaking, where the pions play the role of dark matter. The number-changing 3→2 process, which sets the dark matter relic abundance, arises from the Wess-Zumino-Witten term. The theories give an explicit relationship between the 3→2 annihilation rate and the 2→2 self-scattering rate, which alters predictions for structure formation. This is a simple calculable realization of the strongly interacting massive-particle mechanism. ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Whatever their nature, they appear to be going to be elusive little buggers to pinpoint. Perhaps the recent validation of gravitational waves, or more research into the CMBR as per the gist of the OP may help to facilitate eventual success in this field.

I've even on one occasion slept in a hole. So yeah, they exist and are real.

And space? Perhaps your interpretaion of "nothing" is in question.

Of course a hole exists. Just as space exists, and a magnetic field. Something need not be physical to exist.

I can vouch for the existence of holes as I have had the misfortune of falling into a couple after a few beers!

Yeah, I actually picked up something was wrong after reading the above, word for word with what he said here in two other places...He must be getting around! He actually PMed me on the matter.