Re: Physics Cultists
From: Gregory L. Hansen (glhansen_at_steel.ucs.indiana.edu)
Date: 03/15/05
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Date: Tue, 15 Mar 2005 01:30:19 +0000 (UTC)
In article <9KoZd.12$45.3821@news.uchicago.edu>,
<mmeron@cars3.uchicago.edu> wrote:
>In article <d14cqi$a28$2@rainier.uits.indiana.edu>,
>glhansen@steel.ucs.indiana.edu (Gregory L. Hansen) writes:
>>In article <C0aZd.4$45.1423@news.uchicago.edu>,
>> <mmeron@cars3.uchicago.edu> wrote:
>>>In article <lf9Zd.66355$r55.4284@attbi_s52>, Sam Wormley
>>><swormley1@mchsi.com> writes:
>>>>Jack Martinelli wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Now, here's the thing. People believe in God. Lots of people believe in
>>>>> lots of Gods. In fact most people believe in some form of super-being(s).
>>>>> Nature has not gotten rid of the human tendency to believe. Therefore
>>>>> belief must be useful & religion must be useful. Believing in yourself is
>>>>> pretty useful. So is believing in others. Right?
>>>>
>>>> We only have evidence of historical evidence of religion for possibly
>>>> 4-5 thousand years... not very long on the evolutionary time scale.
>>>
>>>Just to nitpick a bit, we only have historical evidence of anything
>>>for 4-5 thousand years. The reason the time earlier than this is
>>>called "pre-history" is that we have no clear historical evidence
>>>about anything there. So, in this case, an absence of evidence is
>>>clearly not an evidence of absence.
>>
>>But there's some scanty and interpretable evidence from paleontology--
>>Venus figurines, neadertal burial rituals...
>>
>Yes, certainly.
>>>
>>>> Humans may cause their own extinction in the next few hundred years--
>>>> religion being one factor.
>>>
>>>Hardly. Humans tend to power struggles, regardless of whether
>>>religion is or isn't involved. None of the great conflicts of the
>>>20th century (or, for that matter, of any of the European conflicts
>>>past the 30 years war) had much to do with religion. Don't confuse
>>>correlation with causation.
>>
>>Some people come up with creative uses of the word religion. The various
>>Communist purges with communism identified as a religion, our own physics
>>cult with physics identified as a religion, etc.
>
>Yes, of course:-) Though, I would say that communism (as implemented)
>did share lots of similarities with religions. Same goes for various
>other ideologies.
There was an almost-interesting troll cross-posted to a computer newsgroup
I lurk in, as well as a few more relevant groups. He was asking atheists
who they worship, listing a few names like Newton, because "Everybody
worships something."
Well, sure, for suitably metaphorical definitions of the word "worship".
Atheist physicists probably worship Newton in much the same sense that
Christian physicists worship Newton.
That kind of word play irks me no end-- redefine a word to encompass
everything, and then return to the original meaning to interpret it.
>
>> I've been imbibing of
>>the holy waters of the Coca Cola Company and soon I'll have to purge
>>myself at the sacred porcelain of Crane Plumbing.
>>
>Oh, you've Crane too:-)
They make a quality urinal, as far as it goes. But only a foot and a half
high, necessitating different mounting heights to accomodate short men
and tall men, which invariably results in the tall man at the short urinal
hanging out over the top.
There's a mammoth urinal in the Ford building in St. Paul, MN. It goes
from the floor to my chest, and I can support myself on the sides with my
elbows. Now that's a urinal I can respect!
>
>>To paraphrase Freud, sometimes an egomaniacal grab for power is just an
>>egomaniacal grab for power.
>>
>Yep. Ghengis Khan and Tamerlane felt no need to invoke "God's will".
>Same for Alexander and Napoleon (and countless others). Mind you,
>people do have some desire to, at the same time, lord it over others
>while feeling that they're doing the "right thing". But if one excuse
>isn't available, another can always be found.
I think very few wars were inspired into formerly peaceful men reading
their scriptures and suddenly realizing their god wants them to go out and
kill people. But once a king decides he wants a war, he can find God's
will for it somewhere in there.
-- "There's nary an animal alive that can outrun a greased Scotsman!" -- Groundskeeper Willy
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