Comparitive delusions

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OK, how do you know there is such a thing? How do you know the few bits and pieces of skulls you take so seriously aren't either of an ape or a diseased human, or even just a human? How do you really KNOWWWWWWW?????

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Education.Let me put it another way, with an example.I am much more educated and experienced than the average person about several subjects. This allows me to do effortlessly what other people, who haven't the interest and therefore haven't devoted many hours of their life studying the subject, can't even dream of doing.I can be driving through some part of the country and just briefly look at some horses out in a field and I can usually tell, from quite a distance sometimes, what breed of horse they are, and if they are a pure bred horse at all.Many people I have been with when I do this are quite amazed, but for me it is second nature and plain as day.Can't you see that this is what the scientists like roxrcool are doing when they look at geological formations?I you really want to know nd understand the answer to the above question for yourself, you have to be willing to put in some work to educate yourself.Nobody can learn it for you. YOU have to do it YOURSELF.This message has been edited by schrafinator, 03-24-2006 07:07 PMThis message has been edited by schrafinator, 03-24-2006 07:08 PM

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Or dazzling propaganda.

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If you never do the work to educate yourself, you will never know if it is propaganda, will you?

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Real science starts when you can test your hypothesis and you cannot do that with the ancient past.

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So, do you reject all forensic investigations, then?

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That's actually a very good analogy, Schraf.

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Joe Public looks at a particular cliffside and sees rocks of different colours. A trained geologist looks at the same cliffside and sees history, because by the time you graduate with a degree in geology you've been on so many field trips that it's virtually instinctive to look and evaluate and essentially read the formation like a book. So a trained geologist sees, say, a cross-stratified siltstone formed in a stormy coastal environment interbedded with fossil-rich mudstone, and can think about the how and why and therefores that a layman is simply ignorant about.

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Thanks.Another one is taste.After years and years of tasting lots and lots of olive oil, for example, I can taste very distinctive differences in oils. I can often tell what country and region the oil likely came from, and also what variety of olive was used.According to Faith, all that I can do is impossible, and is likely just propaganda.

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I read through the Grand Canyon thread from time to time and that's probably about all I would do on a technical thread about the subject you are proposing. Partly this is because I wouldn't have anything to contribute scientifically

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But isn't it a great opportunity to learn?

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but it's also partly because I've been losing interest in the debate here lately, it's become tedious and unrewarding and I'm worn out with it. Sorry, that's just the way it is right now.

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Yeah.Learning is work, isn't it?I disagree that it's unrewarding, though.