# God's math **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [July 13, 2014, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gods-math/692992 "2014-07-13T13:47:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2014, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gods-math/692992/141 "2014-07-13T21:48:22Z")
> [@Treat](#): > > Thanks Bryan, see you later At this rate you’ll have no one but yourself to talk to. ---
**Author:** ![Treat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/858c86/32.png) [@Treat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treat)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2014, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gods-math/692992/142 "2014-07-13T21:49:06Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > Thanks for the chuckle. No problemo:) ---
**Author:** ![watchwolf49](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9c0ed/32.png) [@watchwolf49](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/watchwolf49)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2014, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gods-math/692992/143 "2014-07-13T21:49:38Z")
I thought the Earth and sun were formed at the same time? Was the proto-stellar nebula uniform when the sun ignited, or were the proto-planet “clumps” already in existence? The OP asked for comments on the math, I think it’s fair to say the math is found wanting. Give a million monkeys a million typewriters with a million years, one of them will type out _Hamlet_. ---
**Author:** ![Itself](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/d07c76/32.png) [@Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Itself)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2014, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gods-math/692992/144 "2014-07-13T21:50:18Z")
> [@Treat](#): > > All aboard for Fukushima:smack: I’d gladly take one Fukushima if it means we also get the smallpox, polio vaccine, Normal Borlaug’s work that saved a _billion_ people from starvation, artificial limbs, the space program, electricity, computers, and so on. But defending the societal good of science is not the point. Rather, the point is that science _works_ as an epistemology. It produces reproducable results that we can use to make more reproducable results, and it’s been fantastically, unreasonably, amazingly successful in broadening human understanding. It’s also the only thing that’s worked in that way. Just making up bullshit— for example, pretending that a stream of random arithmetic operations applied to a translation of a 2000-year-old book can reveal secret magic messages that are vitally important but tediously vague— is a waste of everyone’s time. ---
**Author:** ![Find\_Friends](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c37758/32.png) [@Find\_Friends](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Find_Friends)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2014, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gods-math/692992/145 "2014-07-13T21:51:50Z")
> [@Treat](#): > > Yeah and theres flying monkeys on the moon preparing to invade us as we speak:smack: Clever. > [@Treat](#): > > Oh ok the core formed like a hot marsh mellow then the delicious golden outer crust formed billions of years later, yeah thats it. Waste of time? certainly, thanks for watching the video, see you later Clever. Look, my irony meter always explodes when people who really have nothing of worth to say speak flippantly to people who do have something of worth to say. * * * And as an aside, your posts would be less annoying if you would learn about apostrophes and proper use of comma and periods. An occasional error may be due to haste, and can easily be ignored. What we see here goes far beyond that. ---
**Author:** ![Treat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/858c86/32.png) [@Treat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treat)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2014, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gods-math/692992/146 "2014-07-13T21:52:07Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > As an afterthought; fortunately for them, even people who think science _is sinful and evil_ can still benefit from it. The concept that science needs a free and easy exchange and ideas without pre-emptive dismissal actually gives the religious types far more freedom than they’d enjoy if religious-types were in control, because if there’s one thing religious-types hate more than atheists, it’s other religious-types who slightly disagree. You sound so uneducated, its embarrassing really, do some homework once in awhile. Over half of scientists (51%) believe in some form of deity or higher power; specifically, 33% of scientists say they believe in God, while 18% believe in a universal spirit or higher power. ---
**Author:** ![Treat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/858c86/32.png) [@Treat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treat)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2014, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gods-math/692992/147 "2014-07-13T21:53:09Z")
> [@Trans Fat Og](#): > > Clever. > > Clever. > > Look, my irony meter always explodes when people who really have nothing of worth to say speak flippantly to people who do have something of worth to say. > > * * * > > And as an aside, your posts would be less annoying if you would learn about apostrophes and proper use of comma and periods. An occasional error may be due to haste, and can easily be ignored. What we see here goes far beyond that. Awwwwwww grammar police!!! Get a life:smack: ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2014, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gods-math/692992/148 "2014-07-13T21:54:01Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > At this rate you’ll have no one but yourself to talk to. I’m mildly curious if he’s tried this pitch on other message boards and if so, what the results were. Is there an correlation between the reaction and a board’s rough position on a political or religious spectrum? Treat, if you have links to other boards where you wrote something comparable, please e-mail them to me. ---
**Author:** ![Find\_Friends](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c37758/32.png) [@Find\_Friends](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Find_Friends)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2014, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gods-math/692992/149 "2014-07-13T22:01:04Z")
> [@Treat](#): > > Awwwwwww grammar police!!! Get a life:smack: Me get a life? This time my irony meter exploded into a supernova. And it was in the other room. And it wasn’t even turned on. As I have already said, few people would even notice an occasional error, and probably no one would comment on it. But you miss a lot of subtle parts of posts when you see the world only as anal walls, don’t you? * * * I noticed that you have dodged the lack of appropriateness of talking down to people who actually have something intelligent to say. I don’t blame you for running scared on this one. ---
**Author:** ![Treat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/858c86/32.png) [@Treat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treat)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2014, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gods-math/692992/150 "2014-07-13T22:04:00Z")
> [@Itself](#): > > I’d gladly take one Fukushima if it means we also get the smallpox, polio vaccine, Normal Borlaug’s work that saved a _billion_ people from starvation, artificial limbs, the space program, electricity, computers, and so on. > > But defending the societal good of science is not the point. Rather, the point is that science _works_ as an epistemology. It produces reproducable results that we can use to make more reproducable results, and it’s been fantastically, unreasonably, amazingly successful in broadening human understanding. It’s also the only thing that’s worked in that way. Just making up bullshit— for example, pretending that a stream of random arithmetic operations applied to a translation of a 2000-year-old book can reveal secret magic messages that are vitally important but tediously vague— is a waste of everyone’s time. You fail to realize that science was started by Believers, wow, I hate ignorance like this. I never implied science in itself was good nor evil, Einstein. I tell you that your little fantasy that science is gonna save the planet is a farce. I hate say it but you are sounding like a complete idiot when you mention Normal Borlaug given the fact that he was a Christian, please stop wasting MY time and just go away quietly, please, just stop now, whew! ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2014, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gods-math/692992/151 "2014-07-13T22:05:32Z")
> [@watchwolf49](#): > > I thought the Earth and sun were formed at the same time? Was the proto-stellar nebula uniform when the sun ignited, or were the proto-planet “clumps” already in existence? I suppose the issue can be debated, though it’ll end up hinging on how one defines the sun and the Earth, i.e. at what point either can be said to be unambiguously in existence. I’m okay with saying the Earth started to take on a form that we might generally recognize only after the solar system started to take on some semblance of organization which implies the sun was in place at the center of it. The wiki page on the topic describes this settling process rather blandly as “Giant impacts occur”, i.e. the protoplanets were getting themselves sorted out, setting up territories, as it were, and proto-Earth took a hit that created proto-Moon. > [@Treat](#): > > You sound so uneducated, its embarrassing really, do some homework once in awhile. Over half of scientists (51%) believe in some form of deity or higher power; specifically, 33% of scientists say they believe in God, while 18% believe in a universal spirit or higher power. I’m not embarrassed at all about anything I’ve said in this thread. Notably, scientists believe in God/higher power at a rate lower than the general population and, more significantly, they don’t look to God/higher power for revelations in order to advance science. ---
**Author:** ![watchwolf49](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9c0ed/32.png) [@watchwolf49](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/watchwolf49)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2014, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gods-math/692992/152 "2014-07-13T22:05:51Z")
Those aren’t very Christian things to say, **Treat**. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2014, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gods-math/692992/153 "2014-07-13T22:08:15Z")
> [@Treat](#): > > I tell you that your little fantasy that science is gonna save the planet is a farce. It’s far more likely to do so than religion, given that science actually works. ---
**Author:** ![Treat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/858c86/32.png) [@Treat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treat)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2014, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gods-math/692992/154 "2014-07-13T22:09:39Z")
> [@Trans Fat Og](#): > > Me get a life? This time my irony meter exploded into a supernova. And it was in the other room. And it wasn’t even turned on. > > As I have already said, few people would even notice an occasional error, and probably no one would comment on it. But you miss a lot of subtle parts of posts when you see the world only as anal walls, don’t you? > > * * * > > I noticed that you have dodged the lack of appropriateness of talking down to people who actually have something intelligent to say. I don’t blame you for running scared on this one. You mad? Give it up man, I type so fast, plus I have four conversations going on. You just came on here to criticize, talk about a loser. Make an intelligent post or go get a life. If you do post something worth while then I will validate your need for an appropriate response. Lol ---
**Author:** ![zoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zoid/32/336_2.png) [@zoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoid)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2014, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gods-math/692992/155 "2014-07-13T22:11:00Z")
Unfortunately intelligent posts have zero impact on you **Treat** ---
**Author:** ![Itself](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/d07c76/32.png) [@Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Itself)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2014, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gods-math/692992/156 "2014-07-13T22:11:03Z")
> [@Treat](#): > > You fail to realize that science was started by Believers, wow, I hate ignorance like this. I never implied science in itself was good nor evil, Einstein. I tell you that your little fantasy that science is gonna save the planet is a farce. I hate say it but you are sounding like a complete idiot when you mention Normal Borlaug given the fact that he was a Christian, please stop wasting MY time and just go away quietly, please, just stop now, whew! This is too silly to respond to, so let me ask another question: What do you hope to get out of this thread? I’ve seen countless threads like this, on this message board and others, and I’ve never seen one in which the OP manages to convince anyone of anything. Are you trying to feed a persecution complex and bask in the scorn of skeptics, or do you have anything useful to do? ---
**Author:** ![Treat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/858c86/32.png) [@Treat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treat)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2014, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gods-math/692992/157 "2014-07-13T22:12:03Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > It’s far more likely to do so than religion, given that science actually works. Oh you’re so convincing, wow, power stuff man. tell about how great the shape of the planet is, will ya? will ya please? I wanna hear more:smack: ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2014, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gods-math/692992/158 "2014-07-13T22:13:47Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > It’s far more likely to do so than religion, given that science actually works. _Is_ there a religion that promises to save the Earth, i.e. put it into a state where all can live in peace and harmony and prosperity or whatever? I was kind of under the impression that religion was little more than a coping mechanism for miseries on Earth and (in western faiths, anyway) the promise that things get better after you die and leave Earth behind. ---
**Author:** ![Treat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/858c86/32.png) [@Treat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treat)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2014, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gods-math/692992/159 "2014-07-13T22:14:24Z")
> [@Itself](#): > > This is too silly to respond to, so let me ask another question: What do you hope to get out of this thread? I’ve seen countless threads like this, on this message board and others, and I’ve never seen one in which the OP manages to convince anyone of anything. Are you trying to feed a persecution complex and bask in the scorn of skeptics, or do you have anything useful to do? It just practice, ya know, war games. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2014, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gods-math/692992/160 "2014-07-13T22:15:51Z")
> [@Treat](#): > > You just came on here to criticize Do you mean your views can’t stand up to critical analysis? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gods-math/692992.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gods-math/692992.md?page=9)