Heartland

@ markfiend - nice one!

LouLou wrote:@ markfiend - nice one!

I can't claim credit for it. But thanks on PZ's behalf

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2006 ... _reply.php

Actually, I did a great deal of reading on this (and other religious and occult topics) in my teens. I can't name you a book because it was over 20 years ago. Best rest assured, I have read on the subject.

As for your articles, they sound like the Monty Python sketch "how do you know she's a witch?".

Statements like

We know that the ocean is influenced by the moon, but we have not taken into consideration the fact that the same proportion of water and salt that occurs in the ocean also occurs in the human body -- the same proportion. Seventy percent of the human body consists of water, and the proportion of salt contained in that water is the same as is contained in the Arabian Sea. If the water in the ocean is affected by the moon, then how could the water inside the human body remain unaffected?

Could you make you go "wow, that's a point", until you realise that

a. the gravitational affect of the person standing next to you has more effect on your body water than the moon does.

b. the water of the ocean is affected by different gravitational pulls due its large size

and best of all

c. The Earth's oceans hold more than 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 times more water than your body does.


We're never going to agree, so a discussion on this is pointless - it is, literally, arguing religion. Good luck with your beliefs, I hope they bring you happiness.

Okay, what tha fuck has happened here!?

@markfiend: pure, pure awesome

( IMHO of course )

nodubmanshouts wrote:Because people DO get hurt in the process.

They also do get hurt during a football match.

At its very, very best, Astrology is fraud - monetary or otherwise.

So is football.

And its worst, it encourages people to make decisions which can negatively change their lives.

Football does that, too. Think about doping or gambling.

And its very, very worst, wars and executions have been been made over astrological predictions.

Now think about football hooliganism.

Anything can be dangerous in the hands of idiots.

And I'm not one. I've tried yoga and I've tried astrology and I've tried horseriding and I've tried belly dancing and plenty of other things, none of them I could consider a waste of time because they made me a more experienced person who can see the world from different angles.

I also tried General Chatting in Heartland, but THAT WAS a pointless waste of time.

Ah, astrology might kill but only football can break your heart...

_emma_ - I've never had the pleasure of having a logical discussion with you before, and clearly this time is no exception.

Were you serious about any of those comments?

bin this, some sane person... please

nodubmanshouts wrote:a. the gravitational affect of the person standing next to you has more effect on your body water than the moon does.

This amused me, here are the calculations (yes I'm bored):

Gravitational force exerted on person of 80kg by the moon:
2.744x10^-17 N

Gravitational force exerted on person of 80kg by another 80kg person standing 0.5m away:
1.708x10^-6 N

So someone standing next to you exerts more gravitational force than the moon.. specifically, about 50000000000 times more force.

James Blast wrote:Okay, what tha fuck has happened here!?

S'got a bit uncivil, yeah?

I tried to inject some humour into the, eh, 'discussion' by plugging 'football' into nodubmanshouts' comment, because I think you can pretty much choose any random topic that absorbs a lot of people's attention and elicits passionate defences of its legitimacy. _emma_ and a couple of other people picked up on that, and fiendy's contribution was hilarious while still being non-confrontational.

No one should have to defend a belief such as this here. We all have our opinions on it, and whilst it may not be scientifically verifiable, the same could be said for many other things people hold dear.

HL is no place to be having this sort of antagonistic exchange. If it's got James out of sorts, you know it's over the top.

cuppa?

I'm keeping mouth shut, lest I accidently point out the earth is round, and get accussed of being antagonistic and offending the flat earth people

nodubmanshouts wrote:_emma_ - I've never had the pleasure of having a logical discussion with you before, and clearly this time is no exception.

Were you serious about any of those comments?

Which comments? Yours, mine, or the others'? I was serious about mine and can take responsibility for whatever I wrote, as for the rest I don't know.

Yours... I'll just summarize... the major difference football and astrology, within this context, is that football does not pretend to give you answers about your life. Astrology does. That difference puts a big fundamental difference on the two activities.

nodubmanshouts wrote:the major difference football and astrology, within this context, is that football does not pretend to give you answers about your life. Astrology does.

That's most definitely true, and that's exactly why I prefer astrology, because any activity that does not try (or pretend, as you see it) to give me answers about my life seems a waste of time to me.
What I do with the (pretended or not) answers is a different story, but I love to seek them, from various sources, and compare them.

Geez, why am I still taking part in this discussion leading me nowhere? Must be the Leo in me.

_emma_ wrote:Geez, why am I still taking part in this discussion leading me nowhere? Must be the Leo in me.

Just have to have the last word, don't you?

James Blast wrote:cuppa?

Cracking idea!

Indeed!

markfiend wrote:

James Blast wrote:cuppa?

Cracking idea!

got any biccies? i have been too good this week