scary things at CRTC

[James Knott]

JoeHill wrote:
> Madison Kelly wrote: 
>
>   
>> Madison Kelly wrote:
>>     
>>> To me, I see anyone who dismisses the beliefs, or lack thereof, of 
>>> others with simple adjectives like "insane" as being equal foolish and 
>>> close-minded.
>>>
>>> Madi  
>>>       
>> What I meant by this is that when someone simply dismisses someone 
>> else's views, beliefs, opinions or what have you out of hand, it closes 
>> the door on discussion, hurts people's feelings and results in people 
>> getting defensive. (run on sentence much?)
>>
>> I was raised Catholic and when I left the church I was angry. I mean 
>> Livid. I thought all religion was crap, that it's followers were simply 
>> idiots.
>>
>> It wasn't until I calmed the heck down and actually *talked* to people 
>> of various faiths that I was able to see the value in religion. I still 
>> have no time for the organizations behind major religions, but 
>> individual people's faith I can respect, if not agree with.
>>     
>
> I absolutely agree...however, my problem is not with anyone's individual
> beliefs, it is when people, without making the slightest effort to educate
> themselves, equate my efforts to arrive at a factual and scientific
> understanding of the world with their faith or religion. People can believe
> what they want about God or Buddha, but they should stay away from commenting
> on science until they understand it. Like Lennart said (if I understood him
> correctly) not all opinions have equal weight. Some are backed up by a more
> complete understanding. When someone says 'I believe science is the same as
> faith', they are betraying an obvious and extensive _lack_ of understanding of
> what science even means, at its most basic level.
>
> This is why, for example, I did not make any comments about religion,
> beyond what had already been established by its proponents, because I do not
> pretend to understand in the slightest why people believe what they do. I
> certainly would appreciate the same consideration from the non-scientific crowd.
>
> I don't care to change anyone's mind to think like me, but I'll be damned if
> I'll sit back and watch these insidious lies about science being spread
> around.
>
>   
The big problem occurs when those people of faith insist on imposing
their beliefs on others, all too often using violence to do so.  If you
want to believe in fairies, that's your business.  When you try to force
it on me, you're wrong.


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