Posted: Aug 20, 2014 9:59 pm
epepke wrote:tuco wrote:I tell you what. I recognize sugar, whip not so much. To me, authority does not come from power but truth. The other factor is my background. Nobody where I come from would suggest creationism to be taught at school, no atheist would feel abnormal.
What does whether one likes or dislikes something have to do with truth? My background is science, and actual working scientists get excited and even pretty nasty all the time. It sometimes gets out of hand, but most of the time it gets the ideas flowing. I prefer it over the previous few score thousand years, when people were so afraid of offending dogma that they didn't say anything new. When push comes to shove, I'd rather see a bit of pushing and shoving than heretics being burnt at the stake.You know the sayin about fighting monsters.
The quote is something like, "When you grapple with monsters, beware lest you become a monster, for when you look into the abyss, the abyss looks at you." It urges caution, not avoidance.
Nowhere I requested avoidance of anything, especially enforced via law. I do believe in freedom of speech and expression much greater than FUA here, for example, allows for.
Perhaps we do not understand each other and perhaps I am not making myself clear enough. You were trying(?) to explain to me why you believe your approach is, to your goals, appropriate. I was trying to explain to you why I believe my approach is more efficient, hence sugar and whip metaphor. In other words, if you will be aggressive to me I will turn my back on you and go elsewhere simply because you are not the only one who can contribute to my lets say wisdom.
Glad to hear you have background in science. I have soft spot for natural sciences and those who popularize it, make it understandable, for me. I have yet to see, however, one popularizer of science who would use "militant" method, who would state something like "I think I hate ignorance". Since you like science, perhaps venture into science of teaching and learning could prove useful.