#38 Bohemond;
I used to believe as you do, on the grounds that (as Heinlein once observed) on the whole, curmudgeons make more comfortable neighbors than the “socially conscious” because they are less relentlessly missionary about their beliefs. (Yes, I am a curmudgeon by nature.)
But in recent years, the more extreme elements of the “religious right” (like the “Don Wildmon” crowd) have gotten into crusade mode. If you don’t believe me, check out the Discovery Institute sometime. Their antics are often missed because other than running ads on TV to advertise their museum (that “tells the truth about Evolution”- well, actually, no it doesn’t), they take pains not to be to blatant about their determination to replace any sort of scientifically-valid discussion of how we evolved in schoolrooms across the country with “Intelligent Design”, which is a sort of pseudo-scientific version of Creationism. The amazing thing is that they’re actually getting people to buy into their scam- look up “Texas School Board” and “science textbook standards”, you might be surprised at what you find.
I don’t mind somebody believing that black is white. I do rather worry when they try to make that sort of statement a part of school science curricula.
#76 Tennwriter;
I quoted Gerrold’s Law precisely. You do not seem to have grasped the implications.
By the standards of our thinking, the Universe does not necessarily make sense. Consider these examples;
1. According to non-quantum (“classical”) physics theory (which works just fine at the gross level), an X-ray tube should radiate in the pale pink end of the color spectrum, just above infrared. Having worked with X-ray units, I can assure you it doesn’t.
2. According to Einstein’s basic theory, time should only flow in one direction; this is known as the “Y” factor. However, later work based on Einstein’s Special Theory of relativity (notably by Dr. Stephen Hawking) has shown that the only way to make the numbers come out even at speeds near that of light is to assume that “Y” can be “violated”- i.e., that time may flow in either direction, its normal present to future state, or the reverse, as local conditions demand. (This is discussed in Hawking’s “A Brief History of Time”, and yes, that result surprised him, too.)
3. Some sets of natural phenomena, that have apparently existed on Earth throughout history, have done a sufficiently good job of “fooling” humans that we have often concluded that we were being “visited” (or even “attacked”) by alien beings in things we variously call “flying saucers” or “UFOs”. (It didn’t start in 1947, believe me.)
I could go on, but you get the idea. The Universe does not necessarily make sense to us, simply because we don’t necessarily know all the “rules” that govern its function. Which was what David Gerrold was talking about.
As for the “ID people”, as you call them, the only way they can support their arguments is by throwing out about 99% of the accumulated fossil evidence, the same proportion of the geological record, and ignore the “inconvenient truth” that there is no historical record of a man every meeting up with a dinosaur. Not to mention the fact that the Earth is both more than four millenia old, and has had higher primates that were recognizably human living on it for about twenty times that timespan (about 80,000 years), but that no demonstrable evidence of the existence of large saurians, etc., exists after the impact of a meteoroid in the Yucatan (the Chicxulub mass), which occurred 65 million years ago (give or take a human lifetime either way).
Not only aren’t the “ID people” right, they aren’t even in the ballpark.
Logic, as you state it, would decree that the ID claims be rejected for lack of compelling evidence. But, as I stated, those who Believe such things (the capitalization is deliberate) also Believe that their brand of “logic” is superior to that used by the “common herd”, i.e. the rest of us.
In that, as I previously stated, the extreme right and the extreme left are kindred spirits, though neither lot would ever admit it. And most of both do not even realize it.
clear ether
eon
