Comments on: Podcast — Episode 5

By: Aurora

Aurora — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 00:52:25 +0000

Great podcast guys, keep up the good work :)

By: Robert Webb

Robert Webb — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 00:06:20 +0000

Re volume, yeah I almost blew my car up the other day when switching from the podcast back to CD! The musical intros and stuff are usually much louder than the talking though, so a bit of balance would be nice. It has definitely improved though since the first ep :)

Now what’s the deal with that minister guy talking about how religion and science can live side by side. I would have thought you guys would have some skeptical comments about that, but not a word. In America the skeptics seems to go out of their way to find a place for theists and make excuses for their beliefs. I don’t think we have the same societal pressure to do the same here do we? We trust science because of the evidence, but religious scientists don’t seem to think much evidence (at least objective evidence) is required for a belief in god. It’s a far more extraordinary claim than anything in science, yet they are satisfied with far less credible evidence.

Thanks,
Rob.

By: Young Aus Skeptic Admin

Young Aus Skeptic Admin — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 11:45:37 +0000

@Arthwollipot, Thank you sir. We will look into it and episode 6 should be totally rad :)

By: Arthwollipot

Arthwollipot — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 10:33:36 +0000

I love you guys, I really do. But I can’t hear you. Can we please have a little more volume on the podcast? It’s *really* hard to hear.

By: Jason

Jason — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 22:20:07 +0000

Oh gotcha. Love your work.

By: Luke

Luke — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 15:53:42 +0000

No, no, I didn’t mean it like that at all. You guys were asking, you were curious about it, and so was I, I was skeptical when I first heard the ‘it’s the worst natural disaster ever” reports in the media, so I went and researched it a little, so I thought I’d share what I found in response to you guys and girls being curious about it.

By: mddawson

mddawson — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 02:07:31 +0000

So a clergyman wants “hope” in the bus messages — how about “I hope religion fails”

By: Jason

Jason — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 12:27:55 +0000

I think we were merely repeating stuff we’d heard in news reports.. because, ya know.. they always tell the truth and never exaggerate ;)

By: Young Aus Skeptic Admin

Young Aus Skeptic Admin — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 02:02:23 +0000

Hey Luke, thanks for pointing that out. I guess it would of been more accurate of us to say it was the worst fire related natural disaster of all time. In retrospect it was probably bad to make a bold statement such as we did.

By: Luke

Luke — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 16:09:09 +0000

Another wonderful job with the podcast, guys.

Now, I’m not meaning to be insensitive here, but I would like to address the “bushfires are Australia’a worst natural disaster ever” issue, which was questioned at one point during the show.

At least 12,000 people died in 1918–1919 in the 1918 Spanish Flu epidemic across Australia, and about 1013 people died between 1946–1955 due to an epidemic of polio.

550 people died between 1900 and 1910 of an epidemic of bubonic plague in Australia.

438 people died of heat-related complications in Victoria in the summer of 1938–1939, during the heatwave that sparked the Black Friday bushfires.

437 people died of heat-related complications during a heat wave in eastern Australia during the summer of 1895–1896.

Cyclone Mahina killed 410 people in Bathurst Bay, Queensland, in March 1899.

246 people died of heat-related complications during a heat wave in southern Australia during the summer of 1907–1908.

The 2009 bushfires are certainly one of the most sudden and shocking of all natural disasters in Australian history, and certainly one of the most tragic natural disasters for a very long term.