The Polonium Halo Hoax, or how Dr. Gentry Easily Bluffed the Religious Community! (hell, genesis)

[rifleman]

I was recently verbally accosted at a swap meet when I approached the table selling religious T-Shirts. Some of those sayings and cute little quips were insulting to atheists, and entirely at their expense, and so I applied a bit of polite but inescapable logic.

One of the T-Shirts referenced the fairy-tale Genesis account of an Insta-Poofed earth, and I refuted it for all the now-proven reasons.

The "T-Shirter" (as I call him) became extrememy agitated, and noisily and loudly so (in hopes, no doubt, of humiliating me into shape... me? HaHaHa!).

He then pulled his latest irrefutable proof of a Young Earth, saying to (well.. actually.... yelling at...) me:

"You guys can't even refute the Palonium Halo Effect, that absolutely proves the earth's young. Hey! This stuff (note from rifleman: suddenly it's not "just a theory..." when it's in support of their version of things....) was done by a credible scientist."


So.. What exactly have Christian apologists been taught to say here as regards Polonium Halos? Have any of you, out of sheer interest, ever bothered to read up in further detail on this phenomenon, plus it's supporting and refuting evidence?

Let me know. I'm all ears. Opinionated ears, yep, but still... ears nonetheless!

[Mercury Cougar]

It's a hell of a thing.

[pamelaBeurman]

Well, in the alleged words of P.T.Barnum, "there's a sucker born every minute".

[PanTerra]

That's what happens when you get your science education from apologetics ministries.

[orogenicman]

Originally Posted by rifleman

I was recently verbally accosted at a swap meet when I approached the table selling religious T-Shirts. Some of those sayings and cute little quips were insulting to atheists, and entirely at their expense, and so I applied a bit of polite but inescapable logic.

One of the T-Shirts referenced the fairy-tale Genesis account of an Insta-Poofed earth, and I refuted it for all the now-proven reasons.

The "T-Shirter" (as I call him) became extrememy agitated, and noisily and loudly so (in hopes, no doubt, of humiliating me into shape... me? HaHaHa!).

He then pulled his latest irrefutable proof of a Young Earth, saying to (well.. actually.... yelling at...) me:

"You guys can't even refute the Palonium Halo Effect, that absolutely proves the earth's young. Hey! This stuff (note from rifleman: suddenly it's not "just a theory..." when it's in support of their version of things....) was done by a credible scientist."


So.. What exactly have Christian apologists been taught to say here as regards Polonium Halos? Have any of you, out of sheer interest, ever bothered to read up in further detail on this phenomenon, plus it's supporting and refuting evidence?

Let me know. I'm all ears. Opinionated ears, yep, but still... ears nonetheless!

Credible? What credibility he might once have had went right out the window when he posited that nonsense for evry scientist on the panet to see. Good thing science is self-correcting, eh?

[TheoGeek]

Originally Posted by rifleman

I was recently verbally accosted at a swap meet when I approached the table selling religious T-Shirts. Some of those sayings and cute little quips were insulting to atheists, and entirely at their expense, and so I applied a bit of polite but inescapable logic.

One of the T-Shirts referenced the fairy-tale Genesis account of an Insta-Poofed earth, and I refuted it for all the now-proven reasons.

The "T-Shirter" (as I call him) became extrememy agitated, and noisily and loudly so (in hopes, no doubt, of humiliating me into shape... me? HaHaHa!).

He then pulled his latest irrefutable proof of a Young Earth, saying to (well.. actually.... yelling at...) me:

"You guys can't even refute the Palonium Halo Effect, that absolutely proves the earth's young. Hey! This stuff (note from rifleman: suddenly it's not "just a theory..." when it's in support of their version of things....) was done by a credible scientist."


So.. What exactly have Christian apologists been taught to say here as regards Polonium Halos? Have any of you, out of sheer interest, ever bothered to read up in further detail on this phenomenon, plus it's supporting and refuting evidence?

Let me know. I'm all ears. Opinionated ears, yep, but still... ears nonetheless!

Never heard of the palonium halo effect.

[rifleman]

[quote=TheoGeek;22152337]Never heard of the palonium halo effect. Moderator cut: deleted
Well, ,sparky, this is my thread, and the topic Is The Palonium Halo Effect and it's credibility as proof of Genesis. Moderator cut: delete
The Palonium Halo Effect of nuclear tracking of disintegrating interactive halo effects in igneous rock, was some loon's idea of proof of a near-instant Creation Event, which would therefore also have included a sort-of proof of the instant YEC Genesis of life as Christians define and choose to accept it.

Trouble is, even though the progenitor of the Palonium Halo "theory" is an acredited nuc. physicist, that alone doesn't qualify his wack-a-loon idea, esp. since he's NOT an accredited geologist, is radically out of his league in the details and scientific methodologies. As well, he uses some so-called facts-in-evidence that rather sadly for him, arose in about 1912, about when Rutherford (another name you probably have no knowlege of...) was just defining the structure of the basic atom, and also of it's means of decay and it's typical decay by-products.

Rutherford's just the physicist who determined, back in about 1910 or so, and structurally correct btw, the general layout and electro-mechanical balance of atoms and their isotopes, and the concept of stable nuclear decay rates (and hence, the ability to use a decaying isotope as a "clock", with high accuracy...)

Here: learn sum-thin' fur a change!

Ernest Rutherford - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sigh; the apologists' strident anti-science arguments that arise here are so obviously based on knowing nothing (by their own admission!)

[i]Total and abject scientific illiteracy raises like a Phoenix here. It's positively overwhelming!) And yet, thus armed with such un-knowledge, the TheoPhane'oGeeks press on, oblivious to their own vacuous storehouse of, well.... nuttin! Their arguments continue to be SOoooo compelling!

Meantime, back to my question: any honest and knowledgable Christians here care to elaborate on my thread's question about Palonium Halos as proof of a YEC world?

(You two other guys.... Shooo! Go do some diligent homework first, n'Kay?)

[PanTerra]

This argument may have fallen out of favor among the YEC, as the lay-person may just have been ill-equipped to understand well enough to vehemently support it. And then if they were, the resultant digging into the details of Gentry's work regarding his sample locations, turned his claims upside down, so to speak.

[Mathguy]

Perhaps choose your wording better? It seems like you are trying to discredit the entire religious community because of a small segement of young earthers.

If that is indeed your goal then your logic is just slightly better than the YC crowd.

[Theophane]

Lay-people can be fooled with scientific-sounding gobbledygook. (Church of $cientology!) It all depends on how malicious and dishonest the scientist in question may be, or if he is a scientist at all.