If you think that ice floating is counter-intuitive, try watching a cannonball floating in mercury.
I believe the scientific explanation for this is that the cannonball weighs the same as a duck.
Mutate and Survive
On two occasions I have been asked, — "Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?" ... I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question. - Charles Babbage
If The Earth Were A Few Feet Closer To A Monkey...
Hi slevesque,
Sorry to keep hitting this home, as many others have responded and it's not really on topic, but there is something that I think you need to consider; creationists teach this kind of crap to kids.
However, I just wanna point out that this is a strawman. As far as I know, the argument isn't ''if we were even the least bit closer we'd burn up and the least bit farther away we'd freeze'', it's simply that earth is at the right distance for life (liquid water) and it is usually coupled with all the other factors the earth has that makes life possible here.
And yet inactive EvC member Wheely made the following statements on his website "CreationKid", an internet site intended as an educational resource for children;
quote:As always the evidence does not agree with such a story. When God created this universe he created this universe and earth in such a way to allow life. One of the things that he did to ensure that life would flourish on earth is to place this earth just far enough away from the sun.
THIS EARTH IS 93 MILLION MILES AWAY FROM THE SUN.
IF THIS EARTH WAS ANY CLOSER TO THE THE SUN, ALL LIFE WOULD BURN UP.
IF THIS EARTH WAS FURTHER AWAY FROM THE SUN ALL LIFE WOULD FREEZE.
You can go to A Creation Website For Children to see my dressing down of Wheely's silly nonsense. A number of EvC regulars give Wheely and his horrible little site a damn good Fisking and he declines to defend it very much. There is some very dishonest stuff in there and the real kicker is that Wheely is trying to pass this off as educational. This kind of deluded propaganda can only harm a child's education.
Sadly, it appears that "CreatonKid" is no longer online. What a terrible, terrible shame.
It's a bit like the old ''If evolution is true, why are there still monkeys ?''. Sure, you'll encounter it once in a while on the internet, but does anyone really think this is an actual argument you can find in creationist litterature ?
Firstly;
The very next day, Dawn Bertot writes:
So where did the Gorillas, Apes and other type of primate come from and what should they have evolved into by now
Why are they still just monkeys.
Once in a while...
You might also like to take a look at this video, with a child from a a Muslim faith-school asking Richard Dawkins why, if evolution were true... yes, you've guessed it... why are there still monkeys?
This poor girl's teacher, doubtless the person responsible for teaching the kids this embarrassing nonsense, seems completely unable to answer the question herself. She seems to think it a reasonable question. She clearly has no idea why there are still monkeys. This is a science teacher. She is supposed to be teaching kids science and instead, she is feeding them garbage. And the source of the garbage? Creationism.
This kind of thing is creationist ignorance at the front line. A lie gets told by some huckster like Hovind or Gish or Harun Yahya and it is gratefully received by its creationist audience, who proceed to parrot it. It may lose a little finesse in the process, but that doesn't stop half-informed creationists taking it upon themselves to teach it to children. As a result, the next generation of creationist kids is made that little bit more ignorant.
This is the fruit of creationism; ignorant children being taught nonsense by creationists so ignorant that they can't even get their silly creationist PRATTs straight.
Mutate and Survive
On two occasions I have been asked, — "Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?" ... I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question. - Charles Babbage