It always amazes me that otherwise intelligent people have a complete blind spot when it comes to superstition, from the billions of practitioners of it to the apologists who attempt (and fail miserably) to support it, defend it or even dismiss it as unimportant. Here is a classic case in point a story steeped in woo woo from top to tail whose outcome typifies the unthinking and prejudicial response that characterises human interaction when people subscribe to invisible, undetectable and yet purposeful imaginary agents.
Carole Smith is one of those people who work in American airports manning the security scanners and doing the frisking, she is also a Wiccan. Apparently her work colleagues complained about her saying that they were fearful of working in close proximity to a witch, one of them even claimed to have been cursed by Carole, a curse which manifested itself in the heater of her car not working properly. Now if I were managing these people I'd seriously check them for drug or alcohol abuse or perhaps investigate personal grievances, but the authorities in the case decided to take a different tack, they fired Carole Smith.
What the majority Christian, Jewish, Muslim population don't seem to "get" is that from a rational point of view there is nothing (other than tradition) to differentiate their superstition based beliefs from Carole Smith's superstition based beliefs, none are grounded in fact and all require the abandonment of reason, they are in effect equivalent. The tangible fear and prejudice projected from one group to the other with no basis in reality simply illustrates that fact.
The solution seems obvious, remove any credence or privilege for unfalsifiable beliefs from the workplace, a properly secular society should insist on this, anything else is only trouble waiting to happen.
13 comments:
Oooh, she's gonna GET THEM since they fired her. She'll put a spell on them then...watch out.
:)
Hi E, at least you don't need to worry about this at work hey... hold on, maybe Nokia has a hex on it already? ;)
Superstition? Oh man, I can't believe it!! You've opened Pandora's box!! You've finally done what no one has been able to do for thousands of years!! Christianity is superstition! Man, I wish you would've told me this earlier...
Although, I'm sure you've done your research and, oh, you must have been John Titor's sidekick. So then you can go back through the Bible's timeline and disprove everything then. Man, so easy. You wish...
Ryshroom, and you went back in time and disproved everything in the Koran no doubt..
Exactly my point. I don't have to because I don't subscribe to that faith. It's all about faith and it's all about a personal choice. It's unfalsifiable. Similar to one who believes beyond a shadow of a doubt they were abducted by aliens and can pass a polygraph test. No matter what you say to them regarding evidence, proof, etc., they will still believe they were abducted. Evolution on the other hand, is falsifiable: there is a chance it can be disproven. Simple logic allows this since you, nor any other human being on this planet is all-knowing, and on top of that it's not good science because it's not repeatable, it doesn't follow the LAWS of thermodynamics (all repeatable laws), it doesn't match population growth, it doesn't match up with the moon's increasing distance from the earth, it can't explain micro-biology, it can't explain morality, it can't explain unconditional love, it can't explain reason (since you'd be reasoning yourself into existence; talk about circular logic) among other things. Food for thought, anyway.
Ryshroom, so you agree that unfalsifiable things aren't worth cluttering your brain with? Anyway, you sound like the kind of inquisitive person who would actually be interested in real science.
I encourage you to look into some of the real reasons why the evangelical garbage you are repeating here is just that. For example, WRT the 2nd Law of thermodynamics, here's a little clue, I draw your attention to a giant ball of very hot gas 90 million miles from us which makes all your assertions about it in our local environment wrong. WRT evolution I draw your attention to the successful predictions it makes about the distribution of species and fossils, not to mention the actual observations of it in animals with short reproductive cycles, these awe inspiring insights are only a book or two away Ryshroom!
I'm sure your pastor tells you to "open your heart", well I would advise something similar, but close your heart for a second and open your eyes and your mind!
Even overlooking the basic factual errors you make, you should never forget a more fundamental and sobering fact Ryshroom. Just because science can't explain something (and it can't explain everything), this sure as hell doesn't automatically mean religion can.
Steve, I beg to differ on evolution being observed. Where, and in what species? Where's the documentation and written by whom? It's impossible to observe if the process takes bazillions of years! Please don't give me the dog example, either. So what's your explanation of the sun being there? According to the first law, energy cannot be created or destroyed, but merely converted. That would mean the sun's energy level is ever decreasing, so it's finite in nature, but that would also mean something would have to have created it outside of the "Natural System". Explain that one. Also, WRT to the 2nd law, in case you didn't get what I meant earlier, entropy always increases. In other words, the system moves from order order to disorder and never the other way (i.e. heat always moves to cold, high pressure to low pressure, etc). Evolution (Natural selection) is counter to this as everything has supposedly moved from disorder to order! I don't see the factual errors here, steve! Again, steve, you're actually referring to "real" science but where is it? It's all conjecture and theories, steve. There is no real evidence, steve. Trust me steve when I say science can only get you so far. BTW, religion can't explain everything either. A measure of faith is required.
Distribution of fossils? Easy: Noah's flood. I'm not going to try and explain distribution of species as I've got an engineering background, although it's difficult to see how natural selection increases population numbers and how you can randomly evolve a male and female of the same species on a billion-year scale at the same time. Anyway, gotta go.
Rysh,
I don't have the time to educate you, so all I can do is suggest you stop reading your creationist pamphlets and actually take a look at some real science; i.e. go buy, borrow or steal ISBN: 059306173X; it comprehensively deals with all the creationist myths you raise here and a few you haven't discovered yet. Then go out into the world and dig up some actual evidence for why what you think is true, then we'll actually have something to talk about.
"I don't have time..." Ha, this is your blog bub!! 1 book! Oh man u r killing me. U obviously don't have a scientific background but that's ok. This is my last comment and I'll leave u with this: Jesus Christ died for all mankind's sins once and for all. Believe in Him and you will be saved. It's about eternity and it's about realizing where you end and He begins and that we have absolutely no control of this world around us. Remember what I've said, "save you, it can" (Yoda). Ryshroom out.
Ryshroom, I'm thinking your name must be some kind of play on the word "mushroom"? Anyway, it seems appropriate to me, your religion is expert at keeping you in the dark and feeding you sh*t...!
If you knew anything about thermodynamics you'd know that the 2nd law only applies in a closed system; sunlight from our local star makes the Earth NOT a closed system, heat flows, hence your assertions are wrong. Entropy can and does decrease on Earth due to this and work is done, go look at a cloud. Anyway, even in closed systems spontaneous increases in order are perfectly possible as entropy increases, see Aranda-Espinoza et al. 1999; Kestenbaum 1998, order is NOT the same as entropy.
Oh and FYI I have 2 honours degrees in science subjects (from real universities!), Chemical Engineering being one of them, thermodynamics was 4 years of my life!, what have you got hot shot?
You know I could genuinely feel sorry for you Ryshroom, you give the impression that you have an enquiring mind; or maybe I'm being naive and it's just an act, perhaps all you really want to do is peddle your silly little death cult, which is it?
Hi Steve.
You're dead right on the science, but then you knew that anyway. Will be expounding an alternative exposition on 2nd Law tomorrow (I've blogged too much already today).
But really, the way you bang on, nobody would ever guess you were studying as an Orthodox priest.
Oh bloody hell Archdruid now you've gone and blown my street cred ;)
Evolution hasn't been observed? Where did that commentator get their science from? The Watchtower? It's been observed in the lab with fruit flies, for a start. It happens with mocrobes, for heaven's sake. Where does he or she think superbugs came from?
Anyway - I agree religion should be removed from the workplace, especially in churches, mosques, synagogues and temples.
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