Thanks for your opinion. I'm truly sorry for causing Nazism, and will refrain from expressing views based on my own personal experiences in future.

JB

<Added>

P.s A 'pet hate' of mine is people who use other people's honest comments as a springboard to advertise their own, somewhat overblown, PC-ness.

<Added>

Also 'It is also quite sobering to discover how many physicists have deeply-held religious beliefs'

Um, excuse me, but isn't that a 'sweeping generalism' itself?

No, JB, it is not. It simply implies that, contrary to what one may imagine the statistics to be, a considerable number of scientists do have deep, religious beliefs.

Len

Based on what? Personal opinion, or actual recorded statistics?

<Added>

And can I just say for anyone concerned, I reserve the express right to generalise as much as I godamn want to! Who are you? the frickin' thought police?

Oh, dear - he's off again..................snooooorrre!!!!


;o(

We all tend to talk about generalisations as they appear in other people, not ourselves; as if we're not actually afflicted by them. But the way I look at it is we live in a world where generalisation and its close family member, homogenisation, governs almost all thought, behaviour and emotion. You only need to read the first three words of a newspaper column to know exactly how the rest of the piece will run. Or hear the first few words out of the mouth of the bloke in the pub. But the point is, we're all the same. We think we have original views and thought-out morals, but for the most part we've just allowed one or other of the minor shades of generalisaton to take us over. The joke is that we're so vociferous, even violent, in defence of views that for the most part are really just the latest fashion, whatever end of the PC/non-PC, right/left, scale they gravitate towards.

I once knew a truly original thinker – an 'uneducated' man, interestingly enough. One time, someone asked him what he thought about global warming. He said he believed that everything is trying to develop to its next evolutionary stage, and for a planet like the Earth, it's to become a sun. So all that volatile material going into the Earth's atmosphere means that eventually it will ignite and become a new corona, i.e. humans are actually responding to the urge of their planet to develop. Now, I can't for a minute say how much, if any, truth there is in such an idea but it certainly makes a change from the Good-Bad arguments that are, for the most part, based purely in what humans need. (Incidentally, I know a senior meterologist who quite cheerfully will tell you that global warming is an absolute certainty, and that the government accepted such ages ago; he reckons most of the 'worst' effects predicted will all take place in the next 20 years.)

Terry

No, you're right.

It's perfectly alright to be condescended to, accused of latently supporting Nazism, but you're not actually allowed to react without having everyone and their dog take a pop at you.

I don't see how my reaction has anything to do with you Len, or Mike (grow up). Can I respectfully suggest that you mind your own business?

Thanks

JB

JB,
You miss the point entirely and go off on one of your pointless rants.

Think about it! It is a statement and to many people the fact that scientists can have deeply religious beliefs is a concept that is not the easiest to grasp since scientists have been at the forefront of much of the destruction of religious tenets and misconceptions over the generations.

I can accept that many do hold such deep beliefs despite their scientific knowledge. Towards the end of his Life Einstein expressed such thoughts.

You'll give yourself an ulcer if you react so aggressively to such matters.

Len

Don't patronise me.

The issue I was taking was Alex being sniffy and condescending because I made a swepping generalism about scientists. My off the cuff remark, based on my own personal experiences, was put into a context that included Nazism, and I'm sorry, I don't actually care much for that.

Secondly, I'm not inflicting my own PC views on anyone here, and I'm not remotely interested when people jump on people to basically grandstand about how frikkin' 'open minded' and 'accepting' they are.

I am well within my rights to state that this had absolutely nothing to do with you, or Mike, and you seem to be grabbing the opportunity to exercise your own condescending attitudes. Butt out!

The only thing 'pointless' about it, is your insistence at sticking your nose in where it isn't wanted.

JB

JB,

Keep taking the tablets.

Cheers,

Len

Len, keep being an asshole.

JB

All people who make generalisations are idiots.

Colin M

<Added>

sorry - couldn't resist. Excuse me while I throw a custard pie and trip over my size 47 shoes.

:)

JB,

Now YOU are being condescending.

Len

Yeah. Sucks doesn't it?

JB

If I can just peer though the mustard gas of this particular outbreak of literary trench warfare, I’d like to pick up on a rather interesting point if I may.

Can scientists be religious, at a general level I’d say no since they are opposites. One requiring faith and one proof, and if you believed Douglas Adams they are incompatible, unless you’ve got a genuine split personality.

Having said that, the Vatican runs one of the premiere observatories in the world, the priests there are doing ‘state of the art’ research into cosmology, so go figure?

Grinder

I had a boss, years ago, who was an electronic engineer and very scientific minded. He was very religious, so I asked him why, stating that the more you know about science and the birth of the universe the less you can believe in God. He nodded and agreed, but added, "then you start to see the patterns, and you soon come to realise that the universe didn't just happen, it was designed. Which means that someone, or something had to design."

Colin