Podcast Blogs Video Forums
 
 

The Skeptics' Guide To The Universe - Podcast 4 - 6/15/2005

<<< Back to Podcast Archive

The Skeptics' Guide To The Universe

The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe is produced by SGU Productions, LLC - dedicated to promoting critical thinking, reason, and the public understanding of science through online and other media. The first episode of the SGU podcast went online on May 4th, 2005. It soon became a popular science/skeptical podcast, and remains one of the most popular science podcasts on iTunes.

SGU Podcasting Awards: SGU on XM: You can listen to the SGU on America's Talk XM 166 every Saturday night from 8-9pm Eastern.

Podcast 4 - June 15, 2005

Update on Kansas Evolution Debate, Science or Fiction, Alternative Theories of Matter



Segment:   News Items     
Kansas School Board Follow-Up     The more moderate members of the Kansas School Board are now lashing out against the more conservative members calling them "Dupes" and a more conservative member calls the moderates, "ill-informed".
Earth-like planet discovered     Last week, Host, Steven Novella, crafted a fake news story of astronomers discovering the first earth-like planet around a neighboring star. Imagine his surprise when a few days later the following news item was reported. Where’s that million dollars, James Randi!

Segment:   Science or Fiction     [ Click Here to Show the Answers ]
Item #1     South Korean doctors have successfully revived a dog who was preserved in cryogenic stasis for eleven days.
Item #2     Israeli Scientists grow a palm tree from a 2000 year old seed.
Item #3     In perhaps the first application of nanotechnology in medicine, scientist have attached cancer-fighting drugs to nanoparticles that target tumor cells.

Segment:   This week's topic     
Alternative Theories of Matter    

This is both scary and funny. Some religious faithful are now devising other alternate scientific theories to fit their Judeo-Christian worldview. See their new Theory of Matter:

http://www.commonsensescience.org/

...The atomistic view is not universally accepted, but is opposed by the Judeo-Christian and Muslim worldview with its underlying assumptions, the chief of these being the Law of Cause and Effect. This law is rejected both by ancient and modern atomists who insist, wrongly, that elementary particles are subject to the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, that they emit light spontaneously and move randomly, that life arose by chance and evolved into its current forms by chance processes. At the turn of the century, new discoveries in physics came so fast that scientists were unable to explain the experimental data solely on the basis of classical physics and the established laws of physics. So, around 1920, when atomists were able to explain newly discovered characteristics of light and matter by the use of mathematical equations (instead of physical models consistent with proven laws), modern science adopted the atomistic world view.

...Atomism is incompatible with Judeo-Christian and Muslim principles because atomism views matter as independent of God, either because it exists from eternity and denies creation by an Intelligent Designer, or because its motions and events are independent of control by a Sovereign Being.

Contradictions in Modern Physics

The modern theory of matter rests upon such supporting theories as the Standard Model of Elementary Particles, Quantum Mechanics, and the Special Theory of Relativity. After decades of work by thousands of physicists, the theory has "grown" until it can explain a very large body of physical phenomena. This has made the theory very successful; but the theory is not adequate or true because:

1. It is only a mathematical model consisting of equations and does not usually specify physical structure for elementary particles. Modern science has no idea what holds an electron together and simply assumes it hangs together on its own. On the other hand, CSS has developed a proper model of elementary particles and published (in a refereed journal of physics) an explanation for a balance of forces on the electron. 1. It frequently contradicts itself.

But the electron, proton, and neutron all have measured amounts of spin (angular momentum) and magnetic moment. These features can only exist because the particles have a finite, non-zero size. So, a self-contradiction of the common theory is evident: On one hand, the particles are said to be point-like; on the other hand, they are known to have a finite size (needed to have a spin, magnetic moment and the distribution of charge referenced in the next paragraph). This inconsistency in modern science is incompatible with a Judeo-Christian world view of consistency where expediency is rejected and contradictions are never allowed.

1. It provides no mechanism for such fundamental processes as the exchange of energy. The foundation of a rational theory is cause and effect. In a rational theory, everything happens for a reason and not just by chance. 1. It has to rely upon numerous assumptions.

Since the quantum electron has no physical structure, and no mechanism exists for exchanging energy or transmitting forces, then it is necessary to assume fundamental properties for the electron and proton: The quantum theory assumes that electrons and protons have intrinsic properties of spin, magnetic moment, stability, and inertial mass. The theory makes no attempt to derive them or relate them, but chooses such models that cannot relate its features: a point model is chosen for some occasions, and a wave model is chosen on others. The theory is unable to say if the essence of an electron is a particle or a wave; the theory can only say that an elementary particle is consistently inconsistent!


Segment:   Skeptical Website of the Week     
JunkScience.com     http://junkscience.com: All the junk that's fit to debunk.
 
 
Home About Resources Media Store Contact Site Map Credits Privacy Policy Terms of Use ©2011 SGU PRODUCTIONS, LLC