Gooch's dad

Just read about it on Yahoo, and was quite shocked.

He really was one of the great scientists of the last 100 years.

Coragyps

The man got me really interested in past life on our Earth. He'll be missed.

jhallum

Didn't take long at all on this thread:

<a href="http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/686494/posts?page=40#40" target="_blank">Only about 5 posts. Some Christians they are.</a>

Jimmy Higgins

Nah, it'll be him recanting his evilutionist faith and saying he was angry at society.

tgamble

I see they still haven't given up the lie that "PE was used to explain why there are no transitional fossils" Anyone who's registered there should post his "Evolution as fact and theory essay." not that they are likely to care.

sigh. why oculdn't it be Gish or Morris?

dimossi

In memory of Stephen Jay Gould -- memorable quotes:

"Nothing is more dangerous than a dogmatic worldview--nothing more constraining, more blinding to innovation, more destructive of openness to novelty." [Stephen Jay Gould, "Dinosaur in a Haystack"]

"The most important scientific revolutions all include, as their only common feature, the dethronement of human arrogance from one pedestal after another of previous convictions about our centrality in the cosmos." [Stephen Jay Gould, "Dinosaur in a Haystack"]

"No rational order of divine intelligence unites species. The natural ties are genealogical along contingent pathways of history." [Stephen Jay Gould, "Dinosaur in a Haystack"]

"The fundamentalists, by 'knowing' the answers before they start (examining evolution), and then forcing nature into the straitjacket of their discredited preconceptions, lie outside the domain of science---or of any honest intellectual inquiry." [Stephen Jay Gould, "Bully for Brontosaurus," 1990, quoted in "2000 Years of Disbelief, Famous People with the Courage to Doubt", by James A. Haught, Prometheus Books, 1996]

"Skepticism's bad rap arises from the impression that, however necessary the activity, it can only be regarded as a negative removal of false claims. Not so... Proper debunking is done in the interest of an alternate model of explanation, not as a nihilistic exercise. The alternate model is rationality itself, tied to moral decency--the most powerful joint instrument for good that our planet has ever known." [Stephen Jay Gould, from Michael Shermer, "Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition & Other Confusions of Our Time, p. xii)]

"Good and kind people outnumber all others by thousands to one. The tragedy of human history lies in the enormous potential for destruction in rare acts of evil, not in the high frequency of evil people. Complex systems can only be built step by step, whereas destruction requires but an instant. Thus, in what I like to call the Great Asymmetry, every spectacular incident of evil will be balanced by 10,000 acts of kindness, too often unnoted and invisible as the "ordinary" efforts of a vast majority." [Stephen Jay Gould]

"Human consciousness arose but a minute before midnight on the geological clock. Yet we mayflies try to bend an ancient world to our purposes, ignorant perhaps of the messages buried in its long history. Let us hope that we are still in the early morning of our April day." [Stephen Jay Gould]

"We are glorious accidents of an unpredictable process with no drive to complexity, not the expected results of evolutionary principles that yearn to produce a creature capable of understanding the mode of its own necessary construction." [Stephen Jay Gould]

"We pass through this world but once." [Stephen Jay Gould]

MOJO-JOJO

Here is a TYPICAL righteous, nitwit response! Only one thing he says is accurate (I highlighted it...):

"In this case, the story carries the presumption that all will be well for people like Gould who made a mockery of the truth if they admit they were wrong after the fact. Sorry, Mr. Gould, it's little late for that. The only thing that enables anyone to escape hell is the blood of Jesus, and their full faith and confidence that Jesus' sacrifice on the cross was sufficient for the forgiveness of their sins.

People that die with the arrogant in-your-face anti Jesus disposition expecting to get a pass when they see the Lord after they die, lamely admitting then that they got it wrong, after spending a lifetime blowing smoke confusing the issue and driving people away from a saving faith in Christ Jesus our Lord, according the the Bible, won't be in a very strong position, to say the least. [oh my.....]

If people like Gould make it in, and get a major mercy pass at the judgement, that is good news for all of us [Bullshit!!...you'll be pissing in your righteous pants, and whining to God like you're whining here!]. But we of course won't be able to find out in this lifetime. The only way to be sure we are on the right track is to put our full faith, trust and confidence in the Lord Jesus Chirst, throwing all of our hopes for our eternal destiny on his sacrifice for our sins at Calvary.
<img src="graemlins/notworthy.gif" border="0" alt="[Not Worthy]" />

This is what the Bible seems to indicate on its face as the best course of action. Clearly it is the conservative approach to such a seriuos matter. The more liberal approach is to live a life as one pleases, giving no consideration for Jesus, His sacrifice, placing no confidence in Him, and spending a lifetime breaking every sacred law on the books purposely, while teaching others
it is OK to do the same thing, and at the end of your life simply taking your chances that when standing before the Lord you can just say you were wrong, you're so sorry, now let me in.

I may be the biggest jerk in the world [Ahaaaa!!], but I have never said I wasn't and never have pretended that I was doing something right when I knew I was doing something wrong. But my eternal salvation depends on what Jesus did right, and it is in what He did for me that I put all my faith, trust, confidence and hope. <img src="graemlins/boohoo.gif" border="0" alt="[Boo Hoo]" />

Clearly I regret all my human failings when the opportunity came to live up to the standard of Jesus while I lived on this earth, and if my salvation turns out to depend on my performance in this regard,I am clearly doomed [ohhh...we can only hope! ]. So I know already that there is NO possibility I escape hell and get heaven if Jesus' sacrifice at Calvary does not cover my sins. Jesus is the Man. He is the ONLY one whoever pleased God. That is why we call him LORD.

At Gould's imaginary trial, he might be surprised if he is asked, "is that all you have to say? tell me, mr gould, what then is right?" (how about to send THIS nitwit to hell instead of me? )"

[ May 20, 2002: Message edited by: MOJO-JOJO ]</p>

bluefugue

I just saw this on cnn.com and almost fell out of my chair. I didn't even know he was ill.

R.I.P., Dr. Gould.

lpetrich

Here is a <a href="http://www.skeptic.com/01.3.prothero-punc-eq.html" target="_blank">nice article on Punctuated Equilibrium</a>, his great idea.

Basically, it states that a fossil species looks much the same over its existence -- much the same in fossilizable features, of course. And that new species originate in small offshoot populations where big genetic changes can spread more easily.

This has been tested using some species with relatively abundant fossils; that abundance overcomes one common countargument, that of rarity of preservation. And in many cases, though by no means all, PE fits very well.

[ May 20, 2002: Message edited by: lpetrich ]</p>

Vorkosigan

&lt;stunned silence&gt;