December 28, 2004
REAL GRADUALISM vs. IMAGINARY:
A Rare Tsunami, and a Change in Geography: The quake created the Indian Ocean's first wave of its kind in more than a century, and it moved the entire island of Sumatra 100 feet. (Thomas H. Maugh II, December 27, 2004, LA Times)
The magnitude 9.0 earthquake that struck off Indonesia on Sunday morning moved the entire island of Sumatra about 100 feet to the southwest, pushing up a gigantic mass of water that collapsed into a tsunami and devastated shorelines around the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea.The quake was the largest since a magnitude 9.2 temblor struck Prince William Sound, Alaska, in 1964 and was one of the biggest ever recorded by scientists. It triggered the first tsunami in the Indian Ocean since 1883, civil engineer Costas Synolakis of USC said.
Sunday's temblor, which occurred off Sumatra's northwestern tip in an active geological region, ruptured an estimated 600-mile-long stretch of the Earth beneath the Indian Ocean. The quake caused one side of the fault to slide past the other, much like seismologists expect the San Andreas fault to do when the "Big One" hits California.
One of the most delicious inanities to which Darwinists resort in the attempt to demonstrate that skepticism about their faith is only religious, not rational, is the claim that other processes we've not observed are not similarly doubted: "like the separation and drift of the continents." this, of course, ignores the fact that seismic activity is incessant and continental drift routine, as with the recent unfortunate movement of Sumatra. Meanwhile, mankind eagerly awaits the first ever instance of speciation from Natural Selection... Posted by Orrin Judd at December 28, 2004 10:52 AM
the claim that other processes we've not observed are not similarly doubted: "like the separation and drift of the continents."
It also ignores the fact that for the last 30 years satellite measurements have enabled geodesists to precisely measure the magnitude, direction, and rotation of the movements of all the continental plates. There is no doubt of continental drift, though the driving mechanism is still unsure.
Posted by: jd watson at December 29, 2004 1:07 AMGiven that continental drift has caused the slow movement of all land parcels through all climates, how do you account for the existence of terrestrial life?
And how do you account for the divergence in species following the separation of land masses?
Posted by: Jeff Guinn at December 29, 2004 7:12 AMJeff:
how would it be any different if there was just one huge landmass? Are you saying life doesn't diverge within a continent and drift was a necessary part od the design?
Posted by: oj at December 29, 2004 8:12 AMHe almost is, and he's right, too.
Speciation occurs at the margins (not merely geographical margins, though).
There's a reason there are hundreds of rare and endangered species in Hawaii and only one in Minnesota.
Posted by: Harry Eagar at December 29, 2004 2:54 PMOJ:
No, I'm challenging you to come up with an alternate theory that explains how it is that each land mass is populated with environmentally specific organisms, despite each parcel of terra firma having been gradually exposed to every climate the planet has to offer.
And I am saying that Natural History would have been very, very different had very random, very material forces not broken up Pangea (or whatever the name is) and shoved the bits all over the place.
You can call it design if you wish, but I doubt very many people around the Indian ocean would agree.
Unless your designer is possessed of a singular malevolence.
Posted by: Jeff Guinn at December 29, 2004 3:16 PMOkay, I take it you have absolutely no alternative theory to offer.
Alternative to what?
Posted by: oj at December 30, 2004 7:58 AMIn Minnesota, people look and act very similar.
Can't say that about Hawaii.
Posted by: Randall Voth at December 30, 2004 8:37 AMGiven that continental drift has caused the slow movement of all land parcels through all climates, how do you account for the existence of terrestrial life?
Posted by: Jeff Guinn at December 30, 2004 5:45 PMGod Created terrestrial life.
Posted by: oj at December 30, 2004 6:03 PMThat's as may be.
Without changing, though, terrestrial life wouldn't exist.
Explain the change mechanism.
Posted by: Jeff Guinn at December 30, 2004 8:44 PMGod.
Posted by: oj at December 30, 2004 11:03 PMOh. On Account of Because with a capital-G.
You dodged the question, since a mechanism is a material thing, we live in a material world, and Oaob evinced his will in a material manner.
You have access to the same material evidence everyone else does. How Oaob materially manifest his will?
Posted by: Jeff Guinn at December 31, 2004 6:44 AMNo we don't.
Posted by: oj at December 31, 2004 8:07 AMHow did Oaob materially manifest his will?
Posted by: Jeff Guinn at December 31, 2004 1:29 PMHe didn't. He communicated information, just like in your recursive processes.
Posted by: oj at December 31, 2004 1:59 PM