S&S vs. SF in BotNS

Jeff Wilson · 23 Dec 2011, 05:42 · from 2011-December.txt.gz

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From: jwilson at clueland.com (Jeff Wilson)
Date: Thu, 22 Dec 2011 23:42:39 -0600
Subject: (urth) S&S vs. SF in BotNS
In-Reply-To: <SNT123-W6264EC536A69C6A6153331CFAA0 at phx.gbl>
References: <SNT123-W6264EC536A69C6A6153331CFAA0 at phx.gbl>
Message-ID: <4EF414CF.3000700 at clueland.com>

On 12/22/2011 2:20 PM, Lee Berman wrote:
> I hope you won't try the argument that Zeus' thunderbolts and witches crop hexings was
> fake while sub-atomic physics and neurosurgery are real. Ancient experts predicted
> thunderstorms and crop failures and they were usually right and came to be believed.
> You have never seen an electron and you have not done original research on the subject.
> Electricity seems to work so you believe the experts who tell you how it works. Same for
> brain surgery when you submit to the knife. Belief in science and technology is fully a
> matter of faith as much as mythology/religion.

You're overlooking reproducible results. Preindustrial crop hexings are 
not reproducible by witches, while electrons are tamed well enough that 
we can reproduce Zeus-strength lightning as necessary and prevent it 
from striking houses when it occurs naturally.

-- 
Jeff Wilson - jwilson at clueland.com
Computational Intelligence Laboratory - Texas A&M Texarkana
< http://www.tamut.edu/CIL >

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