Paul,

I can't honestly be bothered responding to your drivel.

//Toni Lavis, "However, there seems to be a correlation between more guns and more people using them to kill each other"

The crowing of the rooster causes the sun to rise too.//

No it doesn't. Why don't people ever pay attention during their physics lessons? The Earth's rotation on its axis causes the sun to rise. This isn't quantum electrodynamics, OTB. I shouldn't have to spell it out for you.

Correlation does not imply causation. And it is unreasonable to argue that guns are a sufficient or necessary cause of homicide in and of themselves. But if more guns correlates with more people using them to kill each other - and it does - then surely that is an undesirable result and something that should be avoided at all costs.

Toni,

But ...... after the rooster crows each morning, isn't it obvious that the sun then comes up ? How else can any reasonable person explain it ? You can go on about the earth's axis and mumbojumbo like electrodynamics and yadayada but any reasonable person knows the truth.

Earth's axis etc.,? Mere correlation. And as you rightly say, "Correlation does not imply causation."

Joe

Toni Lavis,

You are just wasting your time and everyone else's with your adolescent immaturity.

//But ...... after the rooster crows each morning, isn't it obvious that the sun then comes up ?//

Which rooster, Joe? There are lots of them. Probably, somewhere out there, there is a rooster crowing right now. Sun's not due up for a few hours yet (we can predict the when the sun will rise because of a science called astronomy). Maybe it's just the wrong rooster. Probably, somewhere out there, a rooster will crow just before dawn, local time. But he's just as equally likely to be the wrong rooster, and therefore a rubbish herald of the rising sun. Maybe the Greenwich Observatory or the Bureau international des poids et mesures keep the Official Rooster.

//How else can any reasonable person explain it ?//

There are any number of methods by which one can demonstrate that the Earth is sphere and that the it rotates on its axis. Put the two together, and all you need is a sun and... hey presto! the thing rises and sets all by itself without any need to imagine giant dung beetles, chariots of fire or Official Roosters.

//Earth's axis etc.,? Mere correlation.//

It really isn't. If you don't accept that the Earth rotates then you have to accept that everything rotates around the Earth. This is an old-fashioned view but perfectly consistent with relativity theory. Either way, something is rotating.

//You are just wasting your time and everyone else's with your adolescent immaturity.//

Those in glass houses...

If you don't want people taking the piss out of appallingly stupid remarks like 'roosters make the sun rise', my advice would be to refrain from making appallingly stupid comments like 'roosters make the sun rise'. Surely it can't be that hard for somebody as bright as you.

Hi Toni,

Exactly ! There are roosters all around the world - thank God! - who crow just before the sun rises in their part of the world. Of course, in the NEXT part of the world, roosters crow later, that's obvious, and so on, and so on, all around world.

I know it is a difficult concept to get used to but when you think about it, you know it makes sense. The earth just sits here, and - because of the roosters - the sun goes around and around it. And it's been doing that for hundreds of years, ever since the earth and the sun were invented.

Sometimes I'm amazed that people just can't see what is right in front of their noses. How else can you explain it ? And what do you think if, one day, those roosters decided not to crow ? What then ? Hmmm ? It's just too horrible to think about.

Joe