Penn

"The most basic question is not what is best, but who shall decide what is best."
- Thomas Sowell

Writer on science, evidence, and public understanding.

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[Penn @pennx0]

1. Calling it "Darwinism" is common within apologetics. The purpose is to make 150 years of scientific work sound like a personal belief system tied to one man. That couldn't be further from the truth, the science stands on it's own.
2. You are misusing the word "theory", which again is common within apologetics. In science, a theory isn't a guess, it's an explanation that's been tested extensively and backed by a large body of evidence.
3. People don't "believe" in theories the way you'd believe in a religious claim. A theory is a working model of our best current understanding, and it is open to revision if better evidence turns up.
4. Saying "I don't know" is the most fundamental part of science, it's what drives the whole process. Evolution by natural selection is about as established as science gets, with some areas still being worked out.
5. As a side point, plenty of Christians don't see any conflict between their faith and evolution. Young-earth creationism is a minority position even within Christianity.

[Penn @pennx0]

@luisbaram What Darwin thought about the truth of evolutionary theory has no bearing on whether it's actually true.
If he denounced it all on his death bed, the idea stands - or falls - entirely on its own.

[Penn @pennx0]

Your first point is a non sequitur. The fact that 'public mandate' is not legally defined does not mean it has no definition. It has a political definition rather than a legal one.
Your second point is technically true but misses my point. Millions of people across the country would have voted for Reform because Farage leads it, knowing a Reform win makes him PM.
On your third point, I never claimed a public mandate itself is constitutional, I said both routes to power are constitutional, one just has a lot less public input behind it.

[Penn @pennx0]

A mandate isn't the same thing as Commons confidence. Commons confidence is the legal basis for who holds power.
A mandate is about how much public backing that power actually has.
The comparison was about strength of public mandate.
Farage leading Reform to a general election win means millions of people voted for him specifically, knowing it could make him PM.
Burnham becoming PM would be decided by Labour members in a leadership contest, then by MPs.
Both are constitutional. One just has a lot less public input behind it.

[Penn @pennx0]

Thanks for the reply. Agreed, there is a lot of arrogance among atheist communities.

Regarding your soundbite, as you put it, selection and variation steer the evolutionary process. Mutation is one important source of that variation.

I've seen books similar to the one you're suggesting. I haven't found them convincing myself.
Pointing to things a theory hasn't explained isn't a falsification of the theory. Every scientific theory has explanatory gaps. The question is whether the gaps are better filled by a different explanation, or just by more work within the existing framework.

In any case, I didn't intend to debate evolution - unless you want to of course. I was just interested in your reasoning for changing your mind.

[Penn @pennx0]

@matthewburger @Rainmaker1973 Complex order just means a structured pattern forming from simpler parts without anyone arranging it by hand. If you mean something narrower, what's your definition?

[Penn @pennx0]

@luisbaram @Yellow_Dog1959 What changed your mind?

[Penn @pennx0]

@ScienceMagazine I for one welcome our new cow overlords.

[Penn @pennx0]

Researchers have built the first global map of the underground fungal networks that most land plants depend on. Around 70% of plant species team up with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, which send hairlike filaments called hyphae into roots and out through the surrounding soil, pulling in phosphorus and water in exchange for carbon the plant makes through photosynthesis. By one estimate, a teaspoon of soil can contain up to 10 meters of these filaments.

To map this at global scale, researchers combined more than 16,000 soil samples collected worldwide with robotic imaging of over 300,000 individual hyphae in the lab, then trained machine-learning models to estimate fungal density across the rest of the planet's land surface. The total comes to about 110 quadrillion kilometers of hyphae in the top 15 centimeters of soil, holding around 300 megatons of carbon in the fungi's own tissue.

That network also pulls roughly 4 billion tons of CO2 into soil every year, about 11% of human-caused emissions. Wild grasslands hold about 40% of the world's fungal biomass. Farmland carries about half that density, since tilling soil breaks up the hyphae.

https://t.co/iNCqh2aYxI

[Penn @pennx0]

@matthewburger @Rainmaker1973 Evolution is already well established. This experiment has nothing to do with proving it.
It simply shows that complex order can emerge naturally.

[Gad Saad @GadSaad]

Non-taxable wealth.

[Penn @pennx0]

@Rainmaker1973 "Cities are no more artificial than the hives of bees."
- John Gray

[Reconecta @Ni_subo_ni_bajo]

IMPRESIONANTE!!
Un hombre fotografió el Sol diariamente durante tres años desde el mismo lugar y a la misma hora.
Luego combinó todas las imágenes para revelar el movimiento del Sol en el cielo a lo largo del año.

[Penn @pennx0]

@stevesl6447 @SandyofSuffolk Labour's mandate belongs to Labour and to Starmer. It doesn't transfer to anyone who wins a local by-election.
And Labour members have already voted against him in a leadership contest.

[Penn @pennx0]

@wideawake_media "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."

[Penn @pennx0]

@stevesl6447 @SandyofSuffolk Yes, but in that example Reform would have won a general election with Farage as leader, giving them a national mandate. Burnham has only won a local by-election.

[Penn @pennx0]

@MorganBarrettX They know what they're doing.

[Penn @pennx0]

@john4brexit Forcing the BBC into everyone's news feed will have the opposite effect, it's already an organisation people deliberately avoid if they want truth and balance.

[Penn @pennx0]

@YikeYuke @realrikkidoolan I agree, I can see both arguments there. I made this point the other day.
https://t.co/ipzoS44p1U

[Penn @pennx0]

@thecoastguy Whether people provide their ID to access social media, or decide instead to stay off social media altogether, it’s a win for the government.

[Penn @pennx0]

@actualitychecks @realrikkidoolan That was an impressive run though. I think Linux is the way to go now.