From: Glenn Morton (glenn.morton@btinternet.com)
Date: Sat Nov 30 2002 - 16:43:47 EST
Josh wrote:
>If we humans ever encountered a situation like the one in Contact, Glenn
>would be the only one to say "the signal doesn't mean anything" to the
>original prime sequence they found.
Josh, if you are going to critize me, fine, but get your facts right. You
quote me as saying 'the signal doesn't mean anything'. That is a false
quote. I would suggest that you either find where I said that or withdraw
your false claim. I have searched through my sent e-mail and can't find any
such statment that I made. YOu are guilty of making up quotes and putting
them into my mouth. Is that the way you do your apologetics? I think you
owe me an apology for making up things about what I said.
What I said was that such a message would certaintly get our interest.
But the only way to know if such a signal is aliens is to rule out natural
causes and or communicate with them. To correct Josh's blatant
misrepresentation I responded to what Vernon had said.
Vernon wrote:
>
>(And with some justification, for the probability of this event happening
>naturally is of the order of 3x10^-12).*
I replied:
I absolutely agree with you that such a message will get our attention. But
low probability is not at all an indication of intentional design. Consider
the probability of any given hand in a card game.
and
Vernon wrote:
For while the information conveyed by the sequence of
>primes would mean little in itself it would surely prompt the receptor to
>look more closely at any other signals emanating from the same source -
>surely the only logical way forward.
I replied:
Absolutely agree. But it doesn't prove design, only gets our interest.
Josh, please do your research and get your facts correct before you decide
to criticize. I am not beyond criticism as the old timers on this list
know, but I do hate to have criticism which isn't factually true.
glenn
see http://www.glenn.morton.btinternet.co.uk/dmd.htm
for lots of creation/evolution information
anthropology/geology/paleontology/theology\
personal stories of struggle
>
(yes there were further
>messages giving
>more meaning to the initial contact, but I'd believe the first set
>of prime
>numbers)
>
>
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