Stupid Sayings

Discussion in 'Free Thoughts' started by StrangerInAStrangeLand, Aug 14, 2018.

  1. DaveC426913 Valued Senior Member

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    Einstein's GR predicted black holes before we confirmed any.

    The argument that 'we don't see any black holes' is not 'evidence that refutes GR'. We did indeed, change the theory before we had (that specific, explicit) evidence.

    Same goes for a number of predictive theories. The CMBR is another one.

    I'd say the key difference lies in theories that make testable predictions. The "God theory" does not, as far as I've seen so far, make testable predictions. And that's where the adage gets abused.
     
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  3. Jeeves Valued Senior Member

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    I didn't say the absence of proof; I said the absence of evidence. You may count a mathematically, or indirectly, supported scientific theory which explains an observed phenomenon or set of phenomena, as circumstantial or tangential or pending evidence that has not yet been tested. (I was only using the black things as a literary, not literal example, not a challenge to theoretical physics.)

    I mean the exact opposite criteria apply.
    In the mundane world, when we have no reason to believe something exists, we act as if it didn't.
    Except gods: when we have no reason to believe they exist, we act is they not only existed but had the power to invalidate the things that do exist.
     
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  5. DaveC426913 Valued Senior Member

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    Agree. This is why I called out Exchemist's contribution. It's not a stupid saying. But, like anything, it is susceptible to abuse.
     
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  7. exchemist Valued Senior Member

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    But, "I have looked high and low, asked all the experts and I don't find any evidence of black swans at all" is evidence, though not of course proof, of the hypothesis that they don't exist. So, to claim absence of evidence is not evidence of absence is a false statement, as it stands. It would need to be qualified, either by saying it is not proof of absence, or that it is not necessarily evidence of absence.
     
  8. Jeeves Valued Senior Member

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    I could live with that. In any field of endeavour.
     
  9. Gawdzilla Sama Valued Senior Member

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    I'm quite sure people know that "absence of evidence" doesn't prove absence. But until evidence comes along absence is the best evidence for absence.
     
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  10. Michael 345 New year. PRESENT is 72 years oldl Valued Senior Member

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    Means you got nufink guv
    Nufink not prove sumfink
    If nufink cud prove anyfink
    I got lots of nufink to prove I just get back frm Lunden 1756

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  11. Gawdzilla Sama Valued Senior Member

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    Are you sure you left?
     
  12. Michael 345 New year. PRESENT is 72 years oldl Valued Senior Member

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    Speaking like your still there is a side effect of Time Travel

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  13. Michael 345 New year. PRESENT is 72 years oldl Valued Senior Member

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    It's always in the last place you look

    Noooooo

    It was in the 3rd - 9th - 14th place and I found it in the 25th place I looked

    Which just happened to be the same as the 3rd - 9th - 14th place I just didn't see it

    But it was there

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  14. Gawdzilla Sama Valued Senior Member

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    When God closes a door he opens a window. (And then he shoves you out of it.)

    "I like all my cousins better than any of my relatives." (No shit, I heard that a few months ago while talking to one of my cousins.)
     
  15. sideshowbob Sorry, wrong number. Valued Senior Member

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    Sounds like an invitation to burglars.
     
  16. Gawdzilla Sama Valued Senior Member

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    Unless you live in a high rise.
     
  17. sideshowbob Sorry, wrong number. Valued Senior Member

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    Then it's an invitation to Spider-Man.
     
  18. Gawdzilla Sama Valued Senior Member

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    I have a flyswatter.
     
  19. Michael 345 New year. PRESENT is 72 years oldl Valued Senior Member

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    The one with 6 fingers each hand and webbed toes?????

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  20. Gawdzilla Sama Valued Senior Member

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    The "Good Ones". The hills have eyes around here.
     
  21. Jeeves Valued Senior Member

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    Of course it is. When you find it, you stop looking. Usually. It's happened to me that I picked up the flashlight that had been in the 3rd, 9th and 14th place I looked and then kept right on searching, with the flashlight in my hand and couldn't find it anywhere.
    Today, it was a paintbrush went missing.
    I think I'm getting old.
     
    Last edited: Oct 5, 2018
  22. Michael 345 New year. PRESENT is 72 years oldl Valued Senior Member

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    Just because you stop looking does not negate that it WAS NOT in the last place because it was there in 3rd, 9th and 14th place

    You might be confusing "It's always in the last place you find it"

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  23. Jeeves Valued Senior Member

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    Where you find it is the last place you look.
    It was there in 3rd, 9th and 14th place, as well as the 25th and last.
    The fact that that last place also figured earlier in the search, or how many times it recurred, or whether the item was in that place all long, or whether the itme flitted behind things and under stuff, seeking out alternative hiding places and going back to places where you had already searched just to fake you out (nail scissors do that, and sometimes car keys) the place where the search ends is still the last place. Of course, sometimes the item is not even in that last place, you just call off the search for sheer exhaustion, in which case the saying would be invalid. It is generally invalid in the case of the other black sock.
     

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