Electricity is a Mystery!!

[trillium13 84]

Frickin’ electricity, how does it work?

Category: Creationism

Posted on: July 1, 2010 7:50 AM, by PZ Myers

This is a scanned page from a Christian science textbook published by Bob Jones University. I think they've been listening to too much Insane Clown Posse.

We're all just mindless zombies here at scienceblogs, but somehow, BJU is even more brainless. I swear, a creationist could walk by right now and I wouldn't even drool. But even in my decaying state, and as a biologist, not a physicist, I can answer this one.

Electricity is not a mystery on the level this book is discussing. There is a lot we don't know about fundamental particles, but we understand the principles of electromagnetism so well that we can use it to build hair dryers and Large Hadron Colliders; to make the argument that we are mystified by it is lying to the kids.

The common creationist argument that we can only know what we directly perceive with our unaided senses is also nonsense. One could argue that we don't really see people, what we do is gather photons that have been perturbed, we think, by a body, and infer the existence of a person…but that's sophistry. It is no less 'seeing electricity' to say that I can hook up a current meter to a couple of wires and see a needle move in response to the flow of electrons.

That second paragraph is a horror of gobbledygook. Apparently, they think electricity is something like oil, a substance lying in large deposits that must be harvested and poured into your hairdryer to make it work. A current, as mentioned above, is produced by the movement of charged particles, nothing more or less. The sun produces moving charged particles, so it is a source of electricity, and the movement of the earth generates an electromagnetic field, but I can also do the zombie shuffle across the carpet to build up an excess of charged particles and touch the cat to allow them to flow, creating electricity myself, like unto a God. I do not have to create particles to make electricity, I just have to make them move.

Also, if that little girl did not use electricity, she would be dead. All of the cells in your body create charge imbalances by pumping charged ions across their membranes, and using the flow of ions back across those membranes to create chemical energy — they are machines that convert chemical energy into electricity that is used to power little dynamos that create stored chemical energy. We also use the gated movements of charged ions to generate electrical currents in our nerves and muscles, which is how we think and move.

Isn't it nice how clearly religion is shown to be a science-stopper? Just take common questions, declare them a mystery and that no one has an answer, and presto, religion becomes an authority. An authority stuck at a dead end.

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2010/07/frickin_electricity_how_does_i.php?y

[engineer21 51]

I think the whole thing about electricity was meant to be an analogy. albeit a bad one..

[IndigoSkies 168]

I think the whole thing about electricity was meant to be an analogy. albeit a bad one..

You went to that university, didnt you?

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

The only thing that is important is that electricity can be used to cook Bacon.

[elmcitymaven 9,712]

Why yes. In fact, the only way we CAN prove the existence of electricity is through the power of the electric range to cook bacon. Although I prefer cooking with gas. I'm just kind of sniffy that way.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

I was thinking more along the lines of some sort of Tesla device.

[elmcitymaven 9,712]

I was thinking more along the lines of some sort of Tesla device.

Hmmmm. Intriguing. Possibly quite mad. I want a pic of this, preferably a diagram with all sorts of impressive looking squiggles and a full description of the bacon aroma.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Once the prototype is squared away perhaps Shamwow Vince will do the infomercial.

[elmcitymaven 9,712]

It's a shame Billy Mays is no longer with us at this important juncture in civilisation.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Well there is always the magic bullet guy.

I'd suggest Ron Popeil but I think the Tesla field would interfere with his pacemaker.

Or we could take a chance on Chef Tony.

[elmcitymaven 9,712]

Well there is always the magic bullet guy.

I'd suggest Ron Popeil but I think the Tesla field would interfere with his pacemaker.

Or we could take a chance on Chef Tony.

All risky propositions. For something of this magnitude, we need someone with appropriate gravitas. It will have to be ShamWow Vince.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

"You're gonna love my bacon bits"

[elmcitymaven 9,712]

Exactly! It should be done in-studio, with a fawning blonde as his co-presenter, handing over the raw bacon at the appropriate juncture, maybe getting a little shock from the Tesla coil.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

As long as there is an extreme close-up of the female presenter with bacon grease dribbling down her chin...

[elmcitymaven 9,712]

I think that may belong in the Bacon Porn thread.