On Sun, 09 Dec 2007 12:52:40 -0800, Darren New wrote:

> Jim Henderson wrote:
>> I think we could probably agree that a watch is unlikely to happen as
>> the evolution of something geologic,
> 
> Any particular item is unlikely to happen at all. I don't think it's
> that far-fetched to believe in something that keeps time based on
> sunrise, sunset, or tides.

But something that keeps time accurately that you can wear on your 
wrist?  Surely there aren't forests where those sorts of things grow on 
trees. :-)

> If you ran across a tidepool of water that was just at the right height
> to empty out just as the tide came back in, would it be miraculous?

Arguably, if the limit of my experience was that that couldn't happen, I 
might think so if that was in my nature.  It isn't, so *I* wouldn't, but 
I can see why some people might.

>> It seems to me that a lot of the religious people I know believe we've
>> advanced science to the point that there is no more to discover or
>> understand - and if we don't know "it" now, we will never know it.
> 
> I don't think it's that exactly. But of course people have been
> predicting the end of science since the greeks.

Yeah, it probably isn't exactly it, I think it's probably not something 
those of deep religious faith put a lot of thought into.  I know some who 
do, of course, but I think a larger percentage believe that all that can 
be known is known, in spite of evidence to the contrary.

Or perhaps it's not that all that can be known is known, but that all we 
need to know for now is known.

>> That certainly could explain the decline in math/science in the US...
> 
> But has it really? I read all kinds of conflicting reports. It's not
> like the US doesn't still invent buttloads of cool technology.

I think the number of inventions are (a) mostly by people not products of 
the current education system, and (b) are mostly by a small percentage of 
people.  I don't think there's any serious disagreement in the US that 
math and science scores are down in schools.

Jim

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