--On Wed, 09 Sep 1998 20:02:17 Glenn R. Morton wrote:
>>Janet, snip
>this is the perfect argumentum ad hominem.
If so I stand rebuked and am properly contrite. >>I feel sorry for you because you have read the discussion and dismiss our>arguments against Petersen without even bothering to discuss our>objections. It is a childish way of arguing, kinda like the child that>always says 'why' to whatever is said. If you were serious about knowing or>discussing the data you would start by refuting our objections. The fact>that you haven't been forthright enough to even acknowledge them and simply>ask for more (like the child who says 'why') shows that you are not really>interested in truth.
You are quite right. I did not read those discussions very carefully because I did not like the tone of writing. Your background and experience are most impressive. I wish you have examined Petersen's thesis more carefully. Your charge that I am a young earth creationist is only partly right. I have wavered back and forth, but after reading Chapter 12 in Petersen's book I am no longer of that persuasion. Did you happen to read that far? No? Then let me review the case. I presume you are familiar with the polonium haloes that Robert Gentry has found in granitic mica. Their obvious implication is that granite formed suddenly, as a solid, essentially at the moment of creation, and not gradually from a melt as uniformitarians would insist (presumably). But Petersen's findings suggest an alternative interpretation which, frankly, I prefer. Namely, as the readers of this LIST now understand, he shows from the loessian nodules that, under extraordinary conditions, ponderable matter can enter our "plane" of existence, effectively from out of nowhere, along a fourth dimension of space. This opens the possibility that, upon an occasion, a fine dust containing polonium (among other things perhaps) materialized within the granite, which on decaying gave rise to the haloes. It is interesting to note that one must conclude that any such polonium was in effect created by that unusual event. If it had previously existed somewhere then presumably it would have already decayed--even as all the rest of primordial polonium has long since decayed. I anticipate that you will scoff at this suggestion, but may I ask how you account for the polonium haloes in granitic mica?
-----== Sent via Deja News, The Discussion Network ==-----http://www.dejanews.com/ Easy access to 50,000+ discussion forums