Podcast Episode 152: Modern Flat Earth Thought, Part 3 (Young-Earth Creationists Debunking Flat Earth)

Wow! Young-Earth Christians
Still get some science correct:
A flat Earth is wrong.

Finally out, the second episode for November 2016 just before December hits, is another flat Earth episode. In this one, I make a positive case for Earth being round rather than a negative case for it not being flat. It’s rare that I do these kinds of episodes, but I thought this one in particular would be interesting because I use a young-Earth creationism website to make the argument. As young-Earth creationists tend to reject a lot of modern science, I thought this an interesting pairing. Lots of different lines of evidence are made, including eclipses, ships at sea, parallax, and star visibility.

There are three additional short segments in this episode, the first being logical fallacies (where I went through, very briefly, the three that were talked about in the episode; this was completely unscripted, unlike normal), second being an announcement about why the episode was late (depressed about the US election, then got sick and you may be able to hear a stuffy nose in the episode), and third being feedback: No, I’m not going to debate a flat-Earth proponent.

And, no episode would be complete without microphone issues. I have a new computer I was using and it sounds like when I started doing the three smaller segments, every time I would pause the recording and then re-start, there was some static. Fun times.

Flat Earth Graphic

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Podcast Episode 140: Doomsmonth— September 2015

Doomsmonth: September.
What could it bring that hasn’t
Yet been wrought on Earth?

Are we all gonna die this month? You’ll need to listen to the episode to find out. I’ve heard lots of rumors floating around about various things causing our doom, and in this episode, I go through five of them and assess their validity and background.

The logical fallacies segment presents two logical fallacies: Correlation ≠ causation, and cherry picking. Otherwise there’s a bit of feedback from both Gavin and Graham, and that’s it for this nearly 40-minute episode.

Podcast Episode 137 – Why Earth Is Old, Without Radiometric Dating

Finding age of Earth
Does not require just Rad-
ioactiv’ty.

The next episode! It was actually recorded three weeks ago, but I was so busy with New Horizons that I never got time to edit and then post it. So, here we go, the different ways scientists got minimum ages for Earth – without using radioactivity as a technique.

Plus two feedbacks! For a half-hour fun-pack!

Podcast Episode 98: Interview with Michael Heiser on Ancient Aliens and Zecharia Sitchin, Part 2

Sitchin’s Planet X
From the view of an ancient
Languages scholar.

For the second episode of 2014, I give you the second part of a two-part series of one interview with Michael Heiser, a scholar and expert in ancient languages. Michael is about a once-a-year guest on Coast to Coast AM and he talks about evidence people claim from text about ancient aliens and related material.

In pretty much every Coast interview, George Noory brings up the fact that Michael isn’t a “fan” of Sitchin’s work (I emphasize his work because that’s what should be addressed, not the person but the claims). To this effect, Dr. Heiser has created the website Sitchin Is Wrong that explains in detail the faulty scholarship behind Zecharia Sitchin’s claims. In this roughly 35-minute interview part, we don’t get into specifics, but we instead address methodology and overall problems. I think it shows very well that the techniques I’ve discussed on this podcast and in this blog for astronomy also apply to a field about as far removed as you can get — that of ancient languages and texts.

Dr. Heiser has many websites, so I’ll just point you to his main website for now. All the others are linked in the shownotes.

With my Australia trip now in its last 10 days, I’m still still alive, and looking around for food to bring back. TimTams for sure. Also got some nice Huon Pine stuff from Tasmania.

Podcast Episode 97: Interview with Michael Heiser on Ancient Aliens and Zecharia Sitchin, Part 1

Ancient Aliens
From the view of an ancient
Languages scholar.

For the first of 2014, I give you the first part of a two-part series of one interview with Michael Heiser, a scholar and expert in ancient languages. How does that have anything to do with pseudoastronomy? Glad you asked: Listen to the episode! But briefly, Michael is about a once-a-year guest on Coast to Coast AM and he talks about evidence people claim from text about ancient aliens and related material. Especially Zecharia Sitchin … but that’ll have to wait for Part 2.

Dr. Heiser has many websites, so I’ll just point you to his main website for now. All the others are linked in the shownotes.

And with my Australia trip almost half over, I’m still alive, though I have photos of (1) jellyfish, (2) vegemite, and (3) high winds on Mt. Wellington … three things for the album of Things in Australia that Will Kill You but I Survived.