Non Sequitur by Wiley Miller for September 19, 2011

Danaeism is just like any other religion…….totally whack!

Good ’toon Wiley….especially when facts are put on the table…

Now, why in the world would this turn political or religious?

I have no questions at this time.

Memo: To all teachersDue to scriptures from Danae conflicting with all other “known” facts, the school year will be extended. This will result in a budget reduction for your meds.

Funny, because it is true. Darn that pesky science and its theories.

Wish he would ditch the political satire, though. Political humor is rarely “haha” funny, even if I agree with it.

As long as they’re only hurting themselves I find it best to leave alone those who have “faith” instead of reality. Of course, if their blinkered fantasy land negatively impacts on my life…

They be called Holy Scripture ‘cuz they be filled wi’ holes ye have ta write aroun’.

Michele Bachmann-age 8.

All speak english, however no one understands each other.

holy script can not be questioned? if they can’t be questioned, wouldn’t protestantism never happened then? to these people, flintstones is a documentary.

I suppose this is Wiley’s shot at all people of all religious faiths everywhere. Secular humanism. Gotta love it. sigh.

It’s possible to believe that a basic text is sound but that the people in charge are not. Like the constitution and Congress.

There! Religious AND political!

And everyone has focused on the absurdity of Danae and her made-up religion. How about the second-grader who is able to perform the carbon dating and be so certain he got it right?

..when ancient man put forth that God created man in seven days they were putting forth some of the first claims of scientific discovery.That these claims were put forth in the words of God means that we must search for the truth not only in God but in all things…for God is all things.The Bible is the living ,breathing(if you can accept it as so)word of God.Nothing in it is meant to me etched in stone…er..except,maybe the Ten Commandments…or else how do you expalain the ‘NEW’ Testament?!?

He’s been my governor for 10 years and I never knew he had a sister.

You might not question revealed scripture, but you sure can question the leaders’ interpretation of it — and/or the translation of it from the ancient languages it was first written in. Danaeism is ripe for its first heresies, schisms, splintered denominations, etc..Human beings are such a frail vessel for Truth. :)

I’m surprised Danae didn’t say the years of her age considering her ego.

Last week I I asked in another cartoon how cartoonists were able to write white letters on a blackboard (“Show and Tell”)and got some interesting answers. Any other interesting answers here?

The comic is spot on when it comes to religion, but it’s a little off on the science. Carbon dating is not used to date dinosaur fossils.

I was going to say that, but yes it is.

masterskrain said, “Of course, ALL religions are based in Dogma, Hearsay, Legends, Fables, and Outright Lies, so Danaeism will fit right in!”.In all fairness, so is all of recorded human history…as far as you know, from your own direct knowledge. (How much of what you take to be “historical fact” have you, personally, witnessed? Virtually none of it.) You don’t even know your own name, except for what you’ve been told from early childhood by people you trust to be truthful, whom you believe to be your parents. You even have to trust that your senses and your mind are reliable observers of everything around you…and if you swallow a trace amount of the wrong chemicals, even that will desert you..Don’t be so quick to judge the central place of faith in human life, when you yourself have so little else to go on.

the maximum age for which carbon dating is useful is about 50,000 years. for older rocks, different methods must be used.

“These days”? ‘Getting in touch with your inner child’ has always pretty much meant ‘getting in touch with your inner narcissist’.

Who said the second grader performed the carbon dating? He could have sent it to a lab, or otherwise obtained a sample after testing. Danae’s absurdity at least appears to be the authors intended focus.

Sounds more like Creationism to me. I don’t hold with that either. Religion is just a made up thing, and the Bible was written by men, not God!

Carbon 14 dating is based upon ASSUMPTIONS, that if are true, will give an accurate dating of materials that had once been alive. This dating technique requires that the 14C/12C ratio in the atmosphere has been constant, and it HASN’T. Hence the declaration that Science can accurately date materials (by using the carbon 4 technique) that are older than a few thousand years is false. So much for the “facts.”

Dinosaurs emerged around 230 million years ago, so they’re both wrong :)300 million years ago was the tail end of the Carboniferous period, dominated by plants and glaciations, when much of the worlds coal was formed.

Not only that, but carbon dating can’t give a result greater than 50,000 years ago—not to mention that carbon dating wouldn’t work on rock anyway because rocks have no carbon! He would have used some other form of radiometric dating.

Wiley must be having an off day…

Just to be a pedantic noodge, carbon dating is no good past about 30,000 years back (depending on whose word you have faith in).

“I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians; They are so unlike your Christ” – Ghandi

Carbon dating is only useful to about 35,000 years ago.

My theory confirmed!

On the spot. On the Spot ! If you don’t believe it, just mention evolution in the Bible Belt.

This discussion about carbon dating is amusing. If the atheists and other “free thinkers” out there think that religion is endless arguing with no scientific facts in evidence, what are we to make of this endless arguing about scientific evidence? :) Maybe it just comes down to this: human beings love to argue!.And for the record, I’m personally a religious believer, and a scientist (well, a social scientist…does that count?), and I have no problem with either. They’re not in competition with each other — they’re complementary tools we use to understand ourselves and the universe we find ourselves living in. And both of them have to be based on logical reasoning, objective evidence, and faith (correctly understood), or they’re incomplete.

Thinly veiled snark and completely wrong.

The Bible actually does NOT teach that the earth was created in 6 24 hour days. Or 6 days of 100 years each. Or anything close. It uses “day” as a designation of a time period in order to show how the creation was organized. but does NOT say how long each creative day is. We don’t always use the word “day” to mean 24 hours even now. We might say something like “in my grandfather’s day” to mean during the time my grandfather was alive. If it makes it easier for you, then instead of thinking of 6 creative “days” think of 6 creative “steps”, with each having a specific beginning and end, and stretching over hundreds of millions of years – and not all the same length.

I agree with crystalwizard . If God is all powerful She could make a day equal 10 million years or 10 minutes.

This strip and this whole line of Danae-ism is sure to ruffle lots of feathers, but the bottom line is that you are more than welcome to question scripture as long as you give it a fair hearing. Thousands of scientists over the years have actually believed in a relatively young earth that was created instantaneously by God. There are plenty of reasons to doubt this, and there are, surprisingly, plenty of reasons to BELIEVE this, but the best reason to believe it is because something does not come from nothingness, so there is ultimately a first cause, and the first cause can do it anyway it wants.

I have grown up (now 44 years) with the Creation Story fully making sense to me. But some of my favorite theologians, J. Vernon McGee among them, allow for the possibility that the universe is millions of years old. To me, both may well be true. I believe in the narrative captured by Moses at the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and I am also aware of this: Last week we got to witness a supernova in a cluster of stars 20 million light years away. That means the star has been dead and gone for 20 million years, but we are seeing the light show now. This discussion is academic and pointless, however, if we don’t address the central issue of human history.

Both sides in this strip are talking through Wiley’s hat. Carbon dating doesn’t work for inorganic objects at all, nor for organic materials more than about 60,000 years old. For rock from the time of dinosaurs, about 230 million-65 million years ago, one uses other radioactive isotopes with longer half-life, notably potassium-40, which can decay into argon. You could look it up.

In both science and real religion the essential insight is, “I could be wrong.” As in Global Warming, where all of the scientific models you hear about are indeed wrong. We are constantly finding out that it’s worse than they say, because scientists working in the current toxic political environment (especially with government funding) have had to pull back on everything they publish. What Richard Feynman called Cargo Cult Science.

I can count the number of adults who wouldn’t subscribe to that religion on one hand.

nice

There were dyno-sawers then – I wuz there.

In reality it’s a discussion of Danae’s authoritarian “Social Dominance Orientation”, psychology, neither “religion”, “politics”, nor “physical science”. She’s looking for those other authoritarians who are her right-wing “followers”. Okay, it defines politics AND religion.

oh Danae….why you wanna drive your teacher crazy so early in da season? Still, a good ‘put on’…….

I personally think the dogma of most religions is unbelievable and just plain silly…..I really don’t know why people feel the need for it…But I don’t throw it in their face..“We all have our own tastes!”, said thew old lady as she kissed the cow…

I just love this cartoon.

BTW, that’s just a typical day in a teacher’s life….teachers have to handle situations like that all the time. How good at it would you be, in a classroom full of students with multiple religions?

I find it amusing that an obvious jab at religion has been construed by some to be political commentary. Sure, they are both “taboo” topics, but just because Danae has the “pious self-righteous attitude” of a cult fanatic doesn’t mean she’s being political in any way.

Ahhh. As the page opens onscreen, I see today’s strip has already drawn 78 comments…You’re having a very good day, Wiley.And I’m sure this little scene (or something like it) is played out every day in some school, somewhere. Which is why the real crazies homeschool – so their kids aren’t exposed to dangerous facts.

Finally! Got to the end of the comments on religion, politics, and carbon dating. .personally, I wouldn’t want to date carbon. Unless he’s interesting and cute..And poor teacher. Yes. Its going to be a long school year. Chinese curse “may you live in interesting times” . Teacher is going to need a lot of aspirin.

I would just rationalize it as Danae using the wrong calendar system.

There were dinosaurs 67 years ago. Ever heard of Packard?

I know some Climate deniers that ignore facts too!

Wiley may be a little rusty on radiometric dating, and while carbon is used for more “recent” dating other isotopes of uranium, potassium, selenium, etc. are used for older dating. The principle of steady decay is the same.

95! That’s insane! You people need a life! Including me obviously…

More importantly, why is he carbon dating a fossil? Fact that it can’t go much past 60K years aside, it makes me want to walk up to him and yell “It ain’t got no carbon in it, ya moron.”

I find it curious that despite the “fact” that carbon 14 dating is useful only on organic items thousands of years in age, with a useful limit of about 50-55 thousand yrs, and Wiley has brilliantly made Danae closer at 67 years in her age estimate than the 300 million years for booger head boy she is so fond of. Oops Mr. Old earth, me thinks your fossil is no dino bone if you are dating with C14, but dont let the facts get in your way

Be nice if evolutionists admitted they didn’t have any actual “facts”.

The FACT is that science cannot PROVE anything. Neither can religion WE WEREN’T THERE AND CREATION CANNOT BE DUPLICATED IN THE LAB. It is only by FAITH that either position can be believed.

Joshua 24:15And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, CHOOSE you THIS DAY whom YE will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that [were] on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land YE dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.