From: hamilton@hydra.cs.gmr.com (William E. Hamilton CS50 CS/50)
Newsgroups: talk.origins
Subject: Re: New Evidence for Creation!
Date: 2 Oct 92 13:34:01 GMT
Reply-To: hamilton@gmr.com (William E. Hamilton CS50 CS/50)
Distribution: na
Organization: GM Research Labs, Warren, MI

In article <1992Oct1.135043.23660@cbnews.cb.att.com> ran@cbnews.cb.att.com (Robert A. Neinast) writes:
>
>A new scientific study has now given us the data to show that the
>creation certainly occurred after 33,000 BC and strong evidence
>shows that it probably occurred in 5386 BC.

I shall watch with interest your proof of this!
>
>In the "Journal of the American Medical Association", Philip Mackowiak has
>recently measured the average human body temperature (he's at the University
>of Maryland).  His result is 98.2 degrees F.  There is significance to these
>new findings, since the 1868 study of Carl Wunderlich showed that,
>in humans, the average body temperature at that time was 98.6 degrees F.  He
>collected the data using OVER ONE MILLION PEOPLE.  

OK so far. At this point you have established that measurements of
body temps in 1992 yielded a body temp of 98.2 degrees and measurements
in 1868 yielded a body temp of 98.6. We are told nothing about what
statistic is being reported (mean? median?) nor are we told anything
about the distributions (or even just some moments), nor are we told
anything about the probable error of the instruments used. In view of these
omissions, the fact that there were a million measurements (in 1992? in 
1868? or both?) doesn't tell us anything useful. So, at this point
we have two points whose statistics are unknown on a time axis segment 
that is 124 years long.
 
>This pretty well points
>to the fact that, just as maximum lifespan of humans has been declining
>since the Fall (c.g. Methuselah--Gen 5:27), so has average body temperature.

For the reasons I've cited above, it doesn't point to anything, except
that some measurements in 1868 yielded a different value than some measurements
in 1992.
>
>A least-squares fit to this data yields the following precise equation
>for body temperate vs. time:
>
>	Temperature = -0.0032258064 * Year + 104.6258063552   .
>
You have data at only two points on the time axis. Trying to infer
time-dependent behavior from only two points seems foolhardy to me.

>Surely, body temperature could never have been above the boiling
>point of water.  This equation shows that body temperature would
>of been 212 degrees in 33286 BC, so it is clear that the creation must
>of occurred after that date.  

This is an extrapolation back to a point 283.5 times the length of the
baseline from 1868. A statistician caught doing something like this
would be fired.
 
>We can better pin down the date
>for creation by considering the perfection of God.  What better
>evidence of the flawlessness of his Plan than to create humans with
>body temperature exactly midway between the boiling and freezing
>points of water: 122 degrees F.  The above equation shows that
>this occurred in 5386 BC, in remarkable agreement with other estimates
>for the time of the Fall.

Even this extrapolation is 58.5 times the length of the baseline. Still
would get a statistician fired.
>
>Maybe this will finally silence the unbelievers.

More likely it will cause them once again to wonder why some Christians
seem to think being Christian exempts them from careful, critical 
analysis. God reveals Himself to those who are willing to believe
in Him (he [Abraham] believed in the Lord, and He reckoned it to him as 
righteousness - Gen 15:6 - also quoted by Paul in Rom 4:11)

Bill Hamilton
GM Research and Environmental Staff 
>-- 
>                                                                  _
>". . . and shun the frumious Bandersnatch."                 Nipetlahuini.
>Robert Neinast (ran@cblpo.att.com)
>AT&T-Bell Labs
Newsgroups: talk.origins,alt.atheism