I scored as a Cultural Creative. I believe that life includes meaning outside of the experimentally verifiable.
|
What is Your World View? (updated)[dead link]
created with QuizFarm.com[dead link]
Welcome!
Hello, Wdanwatts, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are a few good links for newcomers:
I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! Please sign your name on talk pages using four tildes (~~~~); this will automatically produce your name and the date. If you need help, check out Wikipedia:Questions, ask me on my talk page, or place ((helpme))
on your talk page and someone will show up shortly to answer your questions. Again, welcome! Alai 02:58, 25 Feb 2005 (UTC)
RfC = Request-for-Comment
See wikipedia:Request for Comment for instructions if you want to do it. Personally, I'm willing to keep working on it for a day or two in hopes we can get User:Joshuaschroeder to relent. The RfC page also has some options for less-severe breaches.SMesser 18:38, 15 Mar 2005 (UTC)
You said on my user page:
If you'll forgive me, please be bold and make such edits if you feel they should be made. The article is as much mine as it is yours. -- Ec5618 17:41, May 24, 2005 (UTC)
Hi, I have rewritten Scientific Creationism into a separate article. I invite you to come by and make a comment or edit. Phantym 28 June 2005 18:29 (UTC)
Apologies. I didn't see the edit to the article by our non member friend. I interpreted what he wrote above as just being his opinion stated on the talk page. Something which does happen quite frequently. Barnaby dawson 5 July 2005 18:48 (UTC)
I rewrote the passage our anonomous friend wrote to become "Mainstream scientists hold that the evidence available is sufficient to conclusively disprove the notion of a recent global flood." Barnaby dawson 5 July 2005 18:53 (UTC)
Before you go creating pages about these claims, carefully consider the following:
--Joshuaschroeder 00:19, 19 July 2005 (UTC)
I just wanted to extend my gratitude to you for your contributions to Wikipedia. While sometimes I disagree with your positions, I have found you to be the most reasonable sympathetic editor of creationist-related articles. If there were more creationists like yourself, I have no doubt that there would be very few edit wars in Wikipedia. Hats off. Joshuaschroeder 13:00, 17 August 2005 (UTC)
The distinction is a linguistic one. Science provides explanations for phenomena that occur in nature. As such it provides explanations for natural phenomena. This is in contrast to "natural explanations" which reads more like "explanations that one arrives at naturally". The sentence is meant to convey that the phenomena are the natural things. Indeed, the explanations are actually artificial because they are the product of scientific investigation. --ScienceApologist 15:17, 14 December 2005 (UTC)
Inserting "assumed" in those two places is inappropriate because it's the scientific method that is assumed, not the "natural world". The only definition available for the "natural world" is the sum of phenomena that can be discovered and explained through the scientific method. There are philosophers of science who argue that the "natural world" in this sense doesn't exist but is rather a construct, though in practice most people, including most creationists believe the natural world does exist in reality. (It's really the fideists who believe that the noetic supernatural realm is what is "real", so they reject both creationist and scientific appropriations of reality.) So science doesn't need to assume a natural world at all, it just needs to use the scientific method and then by the definition of the scientific method it studies the natural world and the natural phenomena of the natural world. --ScienceApologist 20:53, 14 December 2005 (UTC)
Moved to [7] where the experts are and/or are referenced. I'm not a dendrochronologist. Please consult with them for answers from the specialists. Jclerman 19:12, 17 December 2005 (UTC)
Since wikipedia is not a soapbox, unrelated rantings of the anonymous user have been removed (just like spamming or vandalism). --ScienceApologist 23:01, 31 March 2006 (UTC)
Really, they are a medieval invention
See Chapters and verses of the Bible. Clinkophonist 20:12, 17 April 2006 (UTC)
To test parallel universes you need to build a time machine. Such things do exist physically, but to build them generally requires the ability to harness energy on galactic scales. --ScienceApologist 02:38, 18 April 2006 (UTC)
Howdy Dan,
Thanks for the info - I'm still trying to come up with some non-debatable information that Evolutionists can't argue against... but I haven't been very successful yet. I have seen the AiG page, but I haven't been to the National Geographic page before.
The discussion concerning Horse Evolution is going on at the Evidence of evolution talk page...
Thanks, EChronicle 16:12, 27 April 2006 (UTC)
We're trying to coordinate improvements to the abiogenesis article at Wikipedia, I'm trying to gather interested parties at:
http://www.evcforum.net/cgi-bin/dm.cgi?action=msg&f=14&t=1358&m=1
--Percy
An edit of yours to Creation-evolution controversy says that there are no more flat Earth supporters... Unfortunetly (teehee) this is not true. Evidence of a flat Earth has spawned the Flat Earth Society, a society of people believing in the Flat Earth. I hope you don't mind if I revert. GofG ||| Contribs 19:03, 30 May 2006 (UTC)
The term "phenomenon" is generally meant to mean an observation of a noumenon. Since all observations are noumena, there is no such thing as a "supernatural phenomenon". There are only "supernatural explanations" for phenomenon.
Technically speaking, there is no such thing as a "natural phenomenon" either.
--ScienceApologist 17:16, 7 June 2006 (UTC)
What are the odds that the T-Rex collagen-like material found recently will be tested? Dan Watts 20:39, 12 June 2006 (UTC)
While a global flood is certainly catastrophic, it is not the sum total of what catastrophism entails as a paradigmatic enterprise. --ScienceApologist 14:36, 30 June 2006 (UTC)
I read the sentence to mean that people can (and do) reconcile religious belief with evolution even while there are specific religious beliefs that contradict evolution. --ScienceApologist 20:43, 18 July 2006 (UTC)
The reference conversion script I used got confused because you had used ((ref|fn_1)) to reference the note, but hadn't used ((note|fn_1)) in the 'notes' section where you actually defined the source. In any event, that format is out of date anyway. Marking it as 'citation needed' was an oversight on my part, and I've done the reference conversion properly this time. Sorry about that! Cynical 18:28, 16 October 2006 (UTC)
See the use of curves and statistics in Talk:Radiocarbon_dating#About_calibration Jclerman 19:11, 31 October 2006 (UTC)
I said relatively ueless: There's a full spectrum between them, so they're only really useful at early teaching stages. It's the equivilent of looking at assembler computer code and an Operating system: You could look at both, but there's a full spectrum between them, and the operating system is, in the end, just a complicated final product of all the code. Adam Cuerden talk 23:19, 4 November 2006 (UTC)
I apologise: I should have tried to explain, but the problem is that it is, admittedly, a rather complex thing to deal with. I'm going to try here.
This small-scale statistical analysis, ignoring what's going on in the rest of the organism [Ive moved a section that came before this down to the end - just run with it], is what the paper you linked refers to as the "Special theory of Evolution". The key things to remember is that it's far more than the change of just ONE feature at a time. It's the comparison of randomly-created collections of all the features with other randomly-created collections of all the features. The fact that one feature tends to be considered at a time is because that makes the experiment *a lot easier*. In other words, even this limited "special theory of evolution" is far more powerful than the paper gives it credit for.
The paper gives the general theory of evolution as "all organisms descended from a single source". First off, it should be noted that this wasn't always thought to be true: early theories often pondered multiple lineages, often cutting off worm-like animals from the rest of the animals. This theory came about after the discovery that all known organisms used DNA to encode proteins in highly similar ways, and this common language - with a few "dialects" - led to the belief that all organisms came from the same source, after this protein-coding was prepared, and that the minor differences evolved later.
So far, we're on fairly reasonable terms. The "general theory" does indeed come from further observations of broad-scale similarities like the Universal Genetic Code that the "special theory" does not bring up.
However, from this point, the article moves back into much shakier ground. It says that speciation can only occur through loss of information: However, by duplicating part or all of a chromosome, you end up with two copies of one or more genes, and mutations and/or further crossing over providing them with additional alleles can add more information.
For instance, let's say that a chromosome has a gene with one allele to let you see green light, and another to let you see red. (G and R in these chromosomes - the other letters and numbers are other genes, labelled in upper and lower case so you can tell parts of them apart (Forgive the appearance of these - Each chromosome is supposed to be a vertical column)
A creature with both these alleles has normal vision, a creature with just one has red-green colour blindness.
By crossing over working properly, you can only remix parts of the chromosomes
But it could also make a mistake, and copy over too much of one of them:
The chromosome on the left now has more information. (The unlucky organism inheriting the chromosome on the right will probably not survive to birth)
As for the claim that evolutionary theory can't be tested without appeal to the theory itself to interpret the results. This is not entirely true: Tiktaalik was discovered by using the theory to predict what age of rocks it ought to appear in, then going there and searching for it. The fact that it was found serves as a passed test for the theory.
...Um, yes. And then the article ends without really making any further claims. Well, ask about anything else you're wondering about, or anything I didn't make clear.
APPENDIX: "Special Theory of Evolution"
The first thing to realise is that a lot of things are dealt with in classes in a very simple form because they rapidly get too complex to do by hand. For instance, this is a typical Punnet square for a dominant allele A and recessive allele a at one locus, with two hybrids crossing (I'm afraid that Wikipedia doesn't explain the concept very well, but...:
× | A | a |
---|---|---|
A | AA | Aa |
a | Aa | aa |
In this simple case, an offspring that inherits aa will be noticably different than Aa or AA, because a is recessive. A typical example is brown and blue eyes: Brown eyes are dominant, so the offspring of a parent with one brown eyed (A) and one blue-eyed (a) gene with another parent with the same genotype will, on average, have 1/4th blue-eyed children, and both of them will have Brown eyes.
I'm going to presume you know about this - I'll clarify if you don't.
However, for each additional heterozygous gene you add to the same parent, the number of possible recombinations increases by a factor of 2. For instance, doing the cross AaBbCcDdEe x AaBbCcDdEe (each letter, upper or lower case, representing a different gene), you have to compare every possible combination of the two alleles for each gene of the first parent parent with every combination of each gene's alleles for the other parent. For each of the five genes, each parent has two alleles, so the number of combinations is 2^5. This represents the possible combinations of genes that can be passed to each sperm or egg - I suspect I'm not explaining this well at this hour. Ask if it's unclear, and, if needed, I'll even draw out this Punnet square. Anyway, since you're comparing all of the father's 2^5 possible ways of combining his five heterozygous genes with the mother's 2^5 ways of combining her five heterozygous genes, you end up with 25 * 25 = 210 = 1,024 boxes to fill in to represent the possible offspring. This gets impractical for school use.
Hence, it's easier to look at relatively small changes when explaining evolution.
Which brings us to the article you linked me.
If two alleles of a gene offer no selective advantage, then, as you may suspect, only random chance will determine what the ratio of one is to another. It tends to vary, and, on the long scale with small populations, random chance will eventually cause one trait to be selected for, simply because, by chance, none of the other allele got passed on that generation. This is not evolution, but is useful to understand as a sort of "null case". There is maths that can be used for this and the next few sections, but I'll leave them out for now unless you ask.
However, the change of traits can also be influenced by a selective effect, which biases the possibility of passing an allele on against or in favour of it. All this, of course, happens at once for all alleles: Any individual animal will have a mixture of the "best" alleles for some genes, "middling" alleles for others, and "poor" for a few more. But the animals with the best combinations of genes in that generation will tend to survive until they can reproduce more often (or, in the case of sexual selection-related and fertility-related traiits, tend to reproduce more if they do survive) So, the amimals with a "better" set of genes for their circumstances will tend to survive.
Again, though, it's FAR easier to do the analysis if you concentrate on one or a small number of the genes, and, as genes sort reasonably randomly, (*) if you have large numbers of offspring so that the combinations of the other genes are essentially random background noise as far as statistical analysis is concerned, the effect on survival can be compared for a paricular genotype or phenotype using statistical tricks.
(*) Somewhat of a simplification, but not overly so. If a gene happens to be RIGHT NEXT to another gene on a chromosome, the two will tend to sort together, as crossing over, the reshuffling mechanism used by the chromosomes, won't tend to affect it. But crossing over is quite extensive, so it holds true for most genes and over timescales of reasonable length.
However, my example of crossing over errors preventing red-green colour blindness (which is not polyploidy, but an enlargement to an existing chromosome) is thought to have happened on the human "X" chromosome. This is the simplest mechanism of adding information, and is known to have happened in many cases. Adam Cuerden talk 14:58, 7 November 2006 (UTC)
Thank you for joining us at the radiocarbon dating forum. I felt surrounded and outnumbered. I just want a fair shake for our side inserted into the article. It seems like that's a pretty tough sell. 200.121.111.113 13:33, 16 January 2007 (UTC)
Hello, I am quite new to Wikipedia and started editing small bits and pieces in some of the ID- and creation-related articles. The majority side is reverting my edits. Some reverts are justified (I am still learning), some reverts were only partial. But in general, I find that NPOV view is not as popular as main stream POV. Do you want to have a look? For example A Scientific Dissent From Darwinism. Any comments, either here or on my talk page? Thanks. Northfox 12:23, 7 June 2007 (UTC)
Pretty much, the only solid advice that I can give you is to have a reference for what you put in. It may still get deleted, but usually it won't. Dan Watts 17:31, 7 June 2007 (UTC)
thanks for the advice. Irony is that I deleted some things the previous editors didn't have references for. And someone put it in again.Northfox 04:17, 8 June 2007 (UTC)
You can try putting a [citation needed] tag on the unreferenced edits, and wait some time (a day or two) with an associated remark on the talk page about the impending doom of the unreferenced statement. Dan Watts 23:33, 8 June 2007 (UTC)
Thanks for experimenting with the page Creation science on Wikipedia. Your recent edit appears to have added incorrect information, and has been reverted or removed. All information in the encyclopedia must be verifiable in a reliable published source. If you believe the information you added was correct, please cite references or sources or discuss the changes on the article's talk page before making them. Please use the sandbox for any other tests you want to do. Take a look at the welcome page if you would like to learn more about contributing to our encyclopedia. Thank you. HrafnTalkStalk 18:34, 8 May 2008 (UTC)
I'm willing to consult the source but am not sure what the claim is exactly that needs verification. Could you provide a diff or point to the specific discussion where pertinent questions were raised? Thanks.Professor marginalia (talk) 23:58, 11 June 2008 (UTC)
This was a wonderfully understated comment. Thanks for the laugh!--Sjö (talk) 14:19, 11 August 2008 (UTC)
[8] Great point! I can't stand the overuse of the adjective "scientific". It's everywhere Chemical Ace (talk) 13:39, 1 October 2014 (UTC)
Hi Dan. Just to say that I've finally gotten around to putting the information I got back from the lead author of that diamond paper onto the radiocarbon dating talkpage. Apologies for the delay - mostly my fault I'm afraid. Anyway, I don't entirely follow what the chap says, but it definitely sounds like a technical exercise. Cheers, --PLUMBAGO 14:56, 15 August 2008 (UTC)
Hi! Evolution of the horse and some other articles (Equidae, Equus (genus), etc.) are getting some much needed attention. Care to join us? --Una Smith (talk) 05:29, 20 January 2009 (UTC)
Hello Wdanwatts!
Yesterday I added a link (www.cybis.se/forfun/dendro) to my own web pages on dendrochronology to the "external links" of the Wikipedia "dendrochronology" page.
Today I found that you had removed my edit with the explanation "Some self-published ideas."
My pages describe a lot of the methods used for dendrochronology. There are also tools available for an almost nominal fee
(compared to competing packages) for those who want to experiment or use the tools in their daily work. My programs are used by professional dendrochronologists
all over the world. Some years ago the programs were free, but that way I did not get any contacts with the users, so I started
to charge somewhat for them. (Money to live from comes from other sources - I am a professional programmer.)
My site is referenced from one of the most respected sites of dendrochronology, "The ultimate tree ring web pages".
I do not think that I am using Wikipedia as an announcement platform by adding the link to my pages. My pages
are very informative on dendrochronology.
I have worked actively with dendrochronology since 1995, I have my tree ring data published in the International
Tree Ring Database (ITRDB).
Now, I really wonder what you meant with "Some self-published ideas."?
I've not changed your "undo" back to my version, as I suppose that would only result in you changing it back.
With best regards/Lars-Ake
Larsake (talk) 12:35, 23 February 2009 (UTC)
------
WP:NOR states it succintly. Even if you were Nobel-prize-winning in the subject, you can not put stuff in the Wikipedia that you did. (I would like to put some research in myself.) Dan Watts (talk) 04:00, 24 February 2009 (UTC)
------
The bulk of information at my dendro site (www.cybis.se/forfun/dendro) is by no way original research. May be you ended up in my attached "Hollstein pages" which is original research and certainly controversial though it is all done with very conventional methods. The weak point in that material is the Hollstein data behind it all which may be corrupt. - My main dendro pages teaches well established methods. Anyhow it was given as an external link and not as a real part of Wikipedia.
Larsake (talk) 16:58, 26 February 2009 (UTC)
Unless a source discusses both radioactive decay and either YEC or something synonymous with it, you really can't use it. I see you're discussing OR just above. OR includes using sources to make a point not in the source. Dougweller (talk) 17:55, 24 September 2010 (UTC)
I think that a source discussing accelerated nuclear decay (natural reactor) IS germaine to the discussion of nuclear decay rates. Dan Watts (talk) 19:42, 24 September 2010 (UTC)
((Wikiproject Young Earth Creationism invite))
Please don't edit war to add a non-notable list to the Creation Research Society article, find a reliable third party source for info you want to add, demonstrating its notability and preferably showing how the minority views have been received. Thanks, dave souza, talk 11:42, 7 December 2010 (UTC)
You currently appear to be engaged in an edit war according to the reverts you have made on Creation Research Society. Users who edit disruptively or refuse to collaborate with others may be blocked if they continue. In particular the three-revert rule states that making more than three reversions on a single page within a 24-hour period is almost always grounds for an immediate block. If you find yourself in an editing dispute, use the talk page to discuss controversial changes. Work towards wording and content that gains consensus among editors. If unsuccessful, then do not edit war even if you believe you are right. Post a request for help at an appropriate noticeboard or seek dispute resolution. In some cases it may be appropriate to request temporary page protection. If edit warring continues, you may be blocked from editing without further notice. HrafnTalkStalk(P) 14:49, 7 December 2010 (UTC)
Just to let you know that any sources from creationists are automatically rejected on WP because of biased editors like Hrafn. They will cite all kinds of WP policy, but it simply comes down to the fact that creationism is labeled pseudoscience. If you persist in trying to use sources by creationists the editors will gang up on you and possibly get you banned from WP. All articles about any topic related to creationism on WP are biased against it. The best that can be done is find sources by non-creationists that reflect more accurately what creationism is and introduce them into the article. AshforkAZ (talk) 17:41, 25 April 2011 (UTC)
Your recent edits seem to have the appearance of edit warring after a review of the reverts you have made on Creation–evolution controversy. Users are expected to collaborate and discuss with others and avoid editing disruptively.
Please be particularly aware, the three-revert rule states that:
If you find yourself in an editing dispute, use the article's talk page to discuss the changes; work towards a version that represents consensus among editors. You can post a request for help at an appropriate noticeboard or seek dispute resolution. In some cases it may be appropriate to request temporary page protection. If you engage in an edit war, you may be blocked from editing without further notice. Noformation Talk 20:41, 27 September 2011 (UTC)
WDANWATTS. Are you an expert? An expert of religion? An expert of science? In the name of which or what do you correct this page dedicated to religion and science? Please present yourself. User: http://www.upiasia.com/Blogosphere/Christian/20100306/buddhism_and_quantum_physics/ — Preceding unsigned comment added by 93.104.107.252 (talk) 10:30, 15 November 2011 (UTC)
WDWatts. This is not an answer. My question was: Are you an expert of religion? Please answer to this question. Do you have the permission to correct this page?
Hey the newbie who has been involved in what seems to be some sort of edit war with you and some other editors has been warned about it. please look into the talk page of the article if he posts there for a discussion.
I'm a biologist too and will chip in if later, but now am focusing on vandal patrol for a while.
PS: do remember WP:BITE and explain stuff to the clueless newbies, as it might prevent them trying to edit war. Decruft (talk) 13:34, 3 February 2012 (UTC)
FYI: you were mentioned here. If you'd like to take the Miller/Urey discussion offline for a bit, go ahead and drop me an email. GaramondLethe 03:58, 24 September 2012 (UTC)
There is currently a discussion at Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/Incidents regarding an issue with which you may have been involved. The thread is Slow-motion edit war at Young Earth creationism. Thank you. --Guy Macon (talk) 18:59, 5 April 2014 (UTC)
Years ago, it seems, you had some interest in the dendrochronology page. I recently went there and did extensive edits. First, I would appreciate if you might skim the edits, and current form of the article, and make any scientific, technical, or hard editorial suggestions there, in Talk. I will try to be responsive to your suggestions. See the long outline of the changes, in Talk, for particulars. Second, if any philosophical questions arise in the reading, perhaps ask them here, and you and I can engage. Third, after a perusal of your page, I wonder if you might refer me to sources that take issue with the broad validity of dendrochronology; I wish to better understand questions and objections (though if you could sift for only the highest quality of these, I would appreciate it, because I have limited time, and decades of real academic, scientific experience to bring to bear on the best that you can provide). Fourth, you may wish to have a look at an Al Mohler teaching on age of the earth, and if finding and reviewing, this might provide a bit of fodder for further discussion here. The extent of further discussion up to you, but response to the first 2-3 of these requests would be greatly appreciated. (A retired prof.) 71.239.87.100 (talk) 17:13, 11 November 2014 (UTC)
The TALK at Creation-Evolution Controversy [about Outside the United States] seems inactive and I did not see the content having a conclusion. Just for the records (from my OCD interests), do you feel there was a conclusion and if so what was it ? RSVP Markbassett (talk) 16:03, 30 December 2014 (UTC)
Hello, Wdanwatts. Voting in the 2018 Arbitration Committee elections is now open until 23.59 on Sunday, 3 December. All users who registered an account before Sunday, 28 October 2018, made at least 150 mainspace edits before Thursday, 1 November 2018 and are not currently blocked are eligible to vote. Users with alternate accounts may only vote once.
The Arbitration Committee is the panel of editors responsible for conducting the Wikipedia arbitration process. It has the authority to impose binding solutions to disputes between editors, primarily for serious conduct disputes the community has been unable to resolve. This includes the authority to impose site bans, topic bans, editing restrictions, and other measures needed to maintain our editing environment. The arbitration policy describes the Committee's roles and responsibilities in greater detail.
If you wish to participate in the 2018 election, please review the candidates and submit your choices on the voting page. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 18:42, 19 November 2018 (UTC)