w00!!1

[reenka]

One of the things I'm most passionate and nearly-rabid about is evolution vs. intelligent design (and which should be taught), but I generally never discuss it since my aborted attempt to proselytize evolution theory to a mousy girl (well, mousier than me) in my (Jewish) HS. I think people tend to get way too serious and way too stupid about it, and the worst of it is that people who talk about it, at least online, always -try- to sound intelligent and FAIL.

Even the people who're for evolution often sound just as stupid and self-righteous as the others, and omg am I sick of people referring to the 'scientific community' one way or another. It sort of hurts my soul that people... well, people really have no clue what scientists (or academics in general) are like, how 'theories' are received, blah blah. Not that I have a lot of clue, but I used to be a science groupie in adolescence so I did my research & paid attention to the types of people involved, 'cause my interest is always in the people anyway & because I just thought they were cool....

In any case, it's really laughable that people point out loopholes in a theory as if that's the death knell for the whole scientific discipline. DUDE. It's SCIENCE, not RELIGION, so of course it's got research/theory errors-- the main difference is, scientists FIX THOSE ERRORS through further research. *headdesk*

    Anyway, I pretty much accept that people (even people I like) will be like 'scientists this' and 'scientists that' as if scientists have a hive mind, so.... I'm good as long as the person isn't too self-righteous, too stupid, or too humorless.
    So far, this vid snip of Bill Maher's commentary is probably my favorite. I actually laughed till I cried. Oh man... now this... THIS IS WHY WE NEED SNARK, people (...though that's not an excuse to start enumerating reasons we -don't- need it for). :D

"You don't have to teach both sides of a debate... if one side is a load of crap." <333333333333333

Bill Maher = +1,000,000, GW = -1,000,000,00,000 :D
PS: Locked because wank is bad :/

Comments

[yourpoison.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I've had a lot of chance to 'study' religious crazies of all types and descriptions, 'cause I'm just naturally drawn to them in a horrified sort of way. A lot of 'rational' people dismiss them or think they understand but they don't 'cause they don't wanna put themselves in that place, so they say things like 'faith kills thought'. I don't think people generally understand -why-. I think it's the urge to question others rather than yourself & your beliefs; I think to the majority of people, when they really believe something, they can't bear to think about it in the 'wrong' way, too coldly, so they invent a whole mess of ideological/creative buffer between themselves and the rawness of faith. If you come right down to it, most people -don't- believe that strongly, that's their problem-- they're afraid to believe, unable to believe, need -help- to believe-- that's one of those things Christians actually complain about, I think, and they view it as a divine 'test' or a crisis of faith. In actuality, most people are actually more skeptical/rational than say, someone like me, but they're also emotionally insecure/needy/afraid or they hate the world 'as is' so they -need- to believe more.

It's not just death, though I've started to wonder about things like spiritual energy if not souls (which imply a Creator). I will never believe in 'heaven' or 'hell', but I do wonder sometimes. I'm really a pretty credible person and pretty much the ONLY thing I categorically refuse is a Creator God 'cause the idea is offensive to me. I mostly don't like souls or most afterlife ideas either, and reincarnation mostly seems silly even if I like the idea.

I started thinking of it in very abstract terms when I was little, and it went on until I was about 13. It wasn't that I was religious or agnostic at one point and then changed-- quite unlikely most people I've ever heard of, I was always -me- and others' beliefs and society never influenced me much (though I admit I grew up in an atheist household in atheist Russia-- given that, I'm tons more spiritual than any in my family). Anyway... I just thought about it, envisioned the universe when I was 8 for the first time, tried to imagine how it works. I always needed my own answer. At some point I decided the universe didn't need a god, but I sort of always felt it was ridiculous because I couldn't imagine a universe with a single omniscient omnipotent creature both within it and outside it. It hurt my head. I tried to envision it and failed, so as a child I decided it couldn't work :D