RE: [asa] Radioactive decay of U-238 is imminent (just wait a few billion years)

Hi Pastor Murray- you said:

" ...any atom of Uranium-238 the decay to Thorium-234 is "imminent""

Isn't that just as wrong as if you said (which is also true):

" ...any atom of Uranium-238 the decay to Thorium-234 is going to be an extremely long wait"

...Bernie

-----Original Message-----
From: asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu [mailto:asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu] On Behalf Of Murray Hogg
Sent: Thursday, January 22, 2009 10:37 AM
To: ASA
Subject: Re: [asa] Radioactive decay of U-238 is imminent (just wait a few billion years)

Bernie,

Two remarks;

1) Of COURSE you're not sure about the example but that's because it conflicts with your inadequate grasp of how the term "imminent" is being used in this context.

What matters is that the example elucidates the usage. And arguing that the example doesn't work because the usage is wrong is, as we say in Australia, "arse end about".

What you should be asking is NOT "what does the word mean?" BUT "what does Burgy mean?". Unless, of course, your primary concern is to correct his linguistic usage rather than to understand his point.

2) I chose to make reference to a particular atom rather than multiple atoms precisely to avoid the confusion of "partial" decay. So yeah, Jesus doesn't return in parts, but neither does any particular atom so decay.

Bottom line: instead of critiquing the example because it doesn't match YOUR idea of what is meant by "imminent" - perhaps you might reflect upon it in order to come to some understanding of what OTHER people mean by the term.

Blessings,

Murray

Dehler, Bernie wrote:

> Hi Pastor Murray-

>

> That is an interesting example.

>

> I'm not sure it is correct to say that any particular atom would decay imminently, because we know some will decay soon (imminently), some much later (not imminent at all), and we are unable to predict when it will happen for a particular atom.

>

> In the case of the return of Jesus- it is all supposed to be imminent- not parts now and other parts millions of years later.

>

> ...Bernie

>

> -----Original Message-----

> From: asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu [mailto:asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu] On Behalf Of Murray Hogg

> Sent: Thursday, January 22, 2009 9:08 AM

> To: ASA

> Subject: [asa] Radioactive decay of U-238 is imminent (just wait a few billion years)

>

> John Burgeson (ASA member) wrote:

>> I take "imminent" to mean "at any time." No indication in the word as

>> to whether that time is 10 nanoseconds from now -- or 4 million years.

>

> Hi Burgy,

>

> It strikes me that a scientific example illustrating the notion of immanence would be radioactive decay.

>

> To take the most extreme instance, there is nothing inconsistent with the observation that for any atom of Uranium-238 the decay to Thorium-234 is "imminent" AND with the belief that with a half-life of about 4.5 billion years it's probably not worth sitting around waiting for it to happen!

>

> Blessings,

> Murray

>

>

>

>

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Received on Thu Jan 22 14:18:14 2009