Mostly these guys make me feel really really bad. I genuinely approve of their trying to figure things out and use numbers and shit, but what they really need to do is audit a third grade science class.
Such a polished, annoyingly generic intro to such vain and incurious folly. Is it just a problem of graphic design majors? Because I've known some severely wrong-headed motherfuckers to came out of that field.
If I am understanding them correctly, they are arguing that if moonlight is actually reflected sunlight, it should be just as a warm as direct sunlight, which is of course completely fucking retarded.
The thing is they even state "The sun warms by radiant heat." This is true. Radiant heat warms the first thing it touches, and then stops. It does not bounce. The fact that the moonlight is not warm does not prove that it isn't reflected sunlight - it is still behaving as expected.
It's real. The only thing that separates this person from those screaming that lossy compression equals demonic hologram facade being exposed is a bible. Actually there's probably quite a bit of overlap there, too.
I learnt about this lunacy from a great caller to the Atheist Experience. Apparently the moon creating it's own light is an interpretation from the Quran.
هُوَ الَّذِى جَعَلَ الشَّمْسَ ضِيَاءً وَ الْقَمَرَ نُورًا
"It is God who has made the sun radiant and the moon luminous ..." (10:5)
Unfortunately, there are still literal flat-earthers out there. Granted, it's the Jar Jar Binks of conspiracy theories, but no one has lost money underestimating human stupidity.
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