The point many skeptics don't see is that most people don't have rigid, black-and-white belief systems. They play with ideas, have fun with them. There can be a lot of value in doing that as it puts you in a frame of mind to entertain differences between people rather than chew their heads off.
Richard Brodie richard@brodietech.com http://www.brodietech.com/rbrodie/
Author, "Virus of the Mind: The New Science of the Meme"
http://www.brodietech.com/rbrodie/votm.htm
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-----Original Message-----
From: owner-virus@lucifer.com [mailto:owner-virus@lucifer.com]On Behalf
Of David McFadzean
Sent: Wednesday, February 10, 1999 7:49 AM
To: virus@lucifer.com
Subject: Re: virus: Scientists and Philosophers
At 12:23 AM 2/10/99 -0800, Tim Rhodes wrote:
>David wrote:
>
>>Skeptics emphatically do not hold truth above everything else. When is the
>>last time you heard of a group of skeptics descending on an amusement park
>>to debunk the rides, proving to the poor deluded thrill seekers that the
>>roller coaster is in fact not nearly as dangerous as they had believed?
>
>Can you see, however, how some might view skeptics as descending on their
>mental and emotional amusement parks in just such a manner?
Like astrology or iridology or facilitated communication? What possible harm could result in letting people believe what they want? It's just like kids and Santa Claus, right?
-- David McFadzean david@lucifer.com Memetic Engineer http://www.lucifer.com/~david/ Church of Virus http://www.lucifer.com/virus/