BPSDB, Pseudoscience, Quantum mechanics

Shorter Sal Cordova

17 Comments

BPSDBSal Cordova, famous for calling Charles Darwin a puppy-killer, has attempted to reply to Tyler DiPietro’s demonstration that he, Cordova, is blitheringly ignorant of quantum physics. (Such ignorance would not be a crime, of course, except that Cordova is hell-bent on using quantum physics to prop up his “Advanced Creation Science.” See here, here, here, here and here if you’re morbidly curious.) Cordova’s latest reply compresses down rather nicely; once you do him the favor of cutting out the prevarications and the contradictions, the result resembles the following.

Stringing words I don’t understand together in a row is just as good as a logical argument, thank you very much, and if the laws of physics impose any limits on the “Ultimate Observer”, well then Jesus will come down and make everything better.

Click away if you want the gory details. . . .

17 thoughts on “Shorter Sal Cordova”

  1. I’m always nervous about stepping into subjects in which I’m a non-specialist, but such a thing doesn’t seem to bother Sal one bit. It’s amusing that the guy thinks he can, with at best freshmen level knowledge of the subject matter, reach profound results that somehow elude the broader physics community. Not only that, but overturn out knowledge of the vast majority of other sciences, since he seems intent on establishing the notion of a “young cosmos”.

    Thanks for the complementary pharyngulation, btw, I appreciate it.

  2. Nice summary. Tyler, don’t give Sal too much credit. He has less than high school understanding of most of the science on which he pontificates, and is rather sleezy, slimy, and pretentiously proud of that.

    While most IDCH victims I would classify as “ignorant”, Sal is just a disgusting piece of spooge. There are no depths to which he will not sink.

  6. He stepped into the blog, white text on a black background like it always was, black like the backs of eyelids when sleep won’t come. He was about to put his fedora on the hat-rack when he saw a dame, waiting in the comment thread.

    “BLAKE, I AM TOTALLY A FANGIRL. KISS ME YOU FOOL!” she said.

    “You. . . been having problems with the spam filter?” he asked.

    She just smiled, her special NSFW smile. A puff of smoke worked its way towards the ceiling, teasing him with the possibility of becoming a golden spiral.

    Another voice intruded, a rough-edged voice from the Sicilian quarter of the skeptical blogosphere. “How come you never give me no comments like that, JanieBelle?”

    Dames are always about to pull a switch on ya, he thought.

  9. She just smiled, her special NSFW smile.

    Heh, heh, for some reason that line cracked me up…sounds kind of nerdishly dirty. (-;~

    Happy 2008, Blake.

  10. In all seriousness, I’ve probably tried to post like fifty comments here, and always some weird “you have to register” error comes up.

    I don’t know what’s different now.

  12. I wish I could vouch for the above double negative on the basis of personal experience, but I can confirm that my censorious school district would block me from reading JanieBelle’s site. Ideas, it seems, are dangerous.

    On a more serious note, Blake, we should think about that book idea again. Cordova is one of the more egregious offenders, and it should be possible to explain his mendacity to people in the pews without using eigenvalue equations. He and O’Leary merit an entire chapter, dontcha think?

  13. JanieBelle:

    That’s odd. . . it might be an Akismet issue. If it happens again, shoot me a line at bstacey(AT)alum.removethis.mit.andthis.edu.

    Scott:

    I need to get my act together and write that “Evolution Sunday” essay I’ve had kicking around since, well, last Evolution Sunday. It’s a sort of “this is what I’d hoped those preachers would preach about” thing: instead of them fumbling with rhapsodies about how big and wonderful the Universe is, what we science folk need is their denunciation of Intelligent Design on moral and ethical grounds. And yes, Cordova and O’Leary make that case pretty darn easy to establish!

  14. Blake

    Okely Dokely.

    Also, odd that you brought up the “kicking around” thing just now, as the first interaction that you and I had (on PZ’s blog) involved a post idea, and I have been kicking it around since then (over a year ago now). I’ve been thinking it would be good for Evolution Sunday.

    Scott,

    I think there is a case to made that there was actually a triple negative in there. :)

    I’m sorry that my blog is blocked for you: your school district is not the first censorial bunch of butt monkeys people to find me and/or my ideas dangerous. (That distinction belongs to Uncommon Descent and involved a dispute with O’Leary, topically enough.)

    Kisses

  16. Argh. What I actually need above all else is time!

    Next week and the week after that, I have to help run a seminar, for which I have to prepare some reading material beforehand (I’ll get to teach a mini-class on complex-systems modeling in Python). I also need to get some technical behind-the-scenes work done on EUREKA Science Journal Watch. Generally speaking, I’m behind on more obligations than I can comfortably imagine at any one moment.

    At least my part in the Science Blogging Anthology is wrapped up!

    Collect away, if you know where to look; that sort of thing will doubtless be useful, but when I’d be able to use it I haven’t the foggiest idea.

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