Bagpuss, there's been absolutely nothing posted on this thread yet that 'proves' or 'disproves' a single thing I've said, scientifically or otherwise.

And you're right -- I have as much use for articles by skeptics - and by scientists on this particular subject, for all the excellent reasons noted above -- as I do for the slanted misinformation posted here by the Mudcat pothole gallery.

Notta smidgeon.

Wolfgang, that article looks interesting although I've only given it a preliminary glance. It does not appear to be one of those biased skeptical time-wasters though -- if that's correct, thanks for posting it and I'll go over it in more detail later.

And wow, look how quickly our resident philosopher professor ducked out of here, as soon as I called a spade a spade and demonstrated his use of slanted metaphor!

Should have done that a LONG time ago. It's one of his regular tactics when discussing things he knows nothing about. LOL!