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Abrupt Climatic Change Coming Soon?

Posted by michael on from the move-to-florida dept.

rRaAnNiI writes "Just read an extremely interesting article about the possibility of having a 'little ice age' quite soon - within a decade. The frightening thing is that it makes a lot of sense to me. Does anyone know how to build an igloo?"

4 of 672 comments (clear)

  1. Re:History Lesson by Graspee_Leemoor · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    "What is this mysterious light that you speak of?"

    Study the ancient texts young Padawan. The library is open from 8pm to 4am.

    graspee

  2. Re:Does anyone know how to build an igloo? by ostrich2 · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    -40C? Is that as cold as -40F?

  3. Er, no it hasnt't. by Planesdragon · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    "God" means three things.

    Either it's the Allmighty Supreme Being, or its a non-infinite creature of far-beyond-human power, or it's "a thing deserving of worship."

    God, used as a name and always capitalized, always means the first thing. The grammatical usage of the second two meanings are identical.

    'course, there's a heck of a lot of argument as to what God / the gods are like (/what is and is not a god), so it's not good to use in an argument with people who might disagree with you.

    (So you're right, just not for the reason you said. ;) )

    1. Re:Er, no it hasnt't. by Planesdragon · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      "God", used singularly as a name (like "John") is a name, and means a particular being. An appeal to "God" is an unambiguous claim, just like an appeal to "the pope." (There is only one in the sphere of human knowledge, and no question that this being is the same being for all.)

      'A God' or "one of your gods" means a finite being worthy of worship. This grammatical usage is almost never used.

      'your God' means that thing that you worshiped, and is often only used when confronting someone with hypocricy in their own religion.

      God, the name, is not ambiguous. "Do it that way because God says so" is a very clear statement--follow the prior-stated proceeding becasue the Supreme Infinite Being says so.

      The reasont that appeals to God (or 'the gods') are not used in scientific (or merely rational) discourse outside of intra-religion dialogues is that the true nature of God (or the gods) is a rather extreme variable. He might be kind and loving and just--or She might be vengfeful and cruel and vindictive. We know that there's only one supreme all-mighty force, we just don't know (in a scientific "we know the Earth is roundish" way) what He's like.

      (Within religion, of course, we do--but that has sadly become a subset of standard dialogue, not a common assumption.)

      The third usage, 'your god' or 'that thing you worship' is not used in a common discussion because it's rude.

      To say it again: don't make an appeal to God, but don't do it becuase it's beyond the scope of defined terms for most discussions, not because there's any real doubt that the Supreme Being isn't the same one that someone else is thinking of.