SubJeff on 3/7/2012 at 17:26
Ha ha ha. Yeah, it's only 2 people (ish, lol) but I've been thinking about this for a while and that was just the catalyst. It's all the nonsense one reads on the net, in newspapers, sees on TV. There is a website I like because it just points out stupidity (
http://www.badscience.net/)
I agree with you on the God thing too Jason. Maybe I've become jaded.
And well played on the phones! I make it 8 so far, I think.
Jason Moyer on 3/7/2012 at 17:42
8 holy crap. And you still retain the ability to operate them?
I remember this one time in like 8th grade I had a calculator watch (REMEMBER THOSE?) and I think at least 1/5th of my brain actually fell out of my head the moment it touched my wrist.
If someone actually made a calculator watch cell phone I think I'd get one of those instead of the $5 flip-up things I periodically buy due to the previous one being damaged beyond usability.
SubJeff on 3/7/2012 at 17:44
That's 8 - in my lifetime! I only have 2 now, one I use and the old one that I don't use/is the emergency mobile. 8 phones! Who has 8 phones? I'm not Stinger Bell!
Jason Moyer on 3/7/2012 at 17:49
8 jesus christ. That's a lot of damage to the parts of the brain that effect whatever it is that regular cell phone usage damages.
SubJeff on 3/7/2012 at 17:52
Hahaha. Jason Moyer with the sense of humour. Who knew?
Jason Moyer on 3/7/2012 at 17:55
The gaming forums are serious business. Commchat is all about the lulz.
Sombras on 3/7/2012 at 17:57
Quote Posted by Jason Moyer
If I wrote them a letter claiming that the earth was created 30,000 years ago by an omnipresent old man...?
Now if that old fucker were also
omnipotent, then I think Subjective Effect would have a real gripe.
SubJeff on 3/7/2012 at 18:10
Thing is, I still struggle to explain all... this.
It's just too amazing for it all to be a coincidence so I wouldn't call myself an atheist.
demagogue on 3/7/2012 at 18:28
> Starts anti-Dark Age thread, leaves door open for Creationism. Brilliant. ;)
That said, I'm actually on the "compassion" end of the spectrum for stuff like this. Science has taught us the universe is pretty bizarre and incoherent from our normal way of looking at it, and we've learned things people would have never dreamed about unless pushed into it out of necessity ... volcanoes are caused by the earth eating its own surface, the entire universe is about 13 billion years old following a giant explosion of all space & time itself, all the very weird quantum effects where things can act like they're in two places at the same time... I would suspect fantasy creatures, but I wouldn't be surprised if there was some news story about some very weird creatures out there... There's a story about the new Mars rover going with a drill to dig into a suspicious clay layer. It's looking for chemical signs of past habitability... I wouldn't even be surprised if it turned up something like a fossil. The very idea might have gotten laughed at by some a few decades ago.
So people should get some slack to ask stupid questions and get corrected IMO, rather than keeping their mouths (and minds) shut. I might stifle a snort, but I'd answer them. Actually I'd worry that their question points to some failure in the education system somewhere...
But most worrying to me is anti-intellectualism as a dogma, which American Conservatives are doing & some Lefty crit theorists... Where they attack science as such as suspect it as some kind of conspiracy to push the agenda of their ideological opponent, and it all gets politicized. That's like willful ignorance by smart people that should know better. That's what I really don't like.
Jason Moyer on 3/7/2012 at 18:42
Quote Posted by Subjective Effect
Thing is, I still struggle to explain all...
this.
It's just too amazing for it all to be a coincidence so I wouldn't call myself an atheist.
"Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?" -- DNA
In regards to anti-intellectualism, I think the idea that the US has a near monopoly on it is anti-intellectualism in itself. Actually, I'd classify 99% of the shit I read about this country as being about as ill-informed as it gets. In this country it's certainly not something confined to one political party, that's for sure.
