Active Users:892 Time:15/06/2026 11:19:42 PM
Re: I'm just carrying on a conversation. Tashmere Send a noteboard - 05/12/2010 07:08:04 PM
I am not a religious person although I am spiritual. I have no problem with science and evolution makes sense to me. It is the attitude of some scientists that bothers me. The attitude of some religious people bothers me too. In both groups it is the ones that don't just think that they re right and that everyone else is wrong but but also feel the need to be vocal about their lack of respect for the view points of others.


Respecting someone's right to hold a view, and respecting the view itself are two different things. Views are worthy or unworthy of respect based on their merit, not just their existence.

You spoke of believing in things because of evidence. I have mounds of personal evidence that God exists. On the other hand I have to take other people's word for it that men walked on the moon. The two are not mutually exclusive. I am just pointing out that much of what we are told by science are things that the vast majority of us have to take on faith as we don't have the time or means to prove it ourselves. It isn't so different from people believing in various religious concepts. Just something to think about before you bash the other side. I don't even see where there has to be two sides. It isn't hard to embrace both.


The difference between the two types of evidence is falsifiability. You could, in theory, check if men walked on the moon. No one can can check your personal evidence for God's existence. (I discuss this in reply to Nate's post above.) It isn't hard to embrace both sides because humans can live with a certain amount of cognitive dissonance, but that doesn't make it a good thing.

This is far from what I was originally saying that I didn't think it was such a stretch that their may be other manifestations of life out there besides the ones we are familiar with.


I agree that it's not a stretch. We can't possibly imagine all the forms life could take. That's not really why this discovery is noteworthy; it's because now we have proof of a new (or at least altered) form.


Just curious. How could I in theory go about checking whether men walked on the moon? How would I go about proving this to myself or to a skeptic in a manner that would actually verify it happened without relying on someone elses word? I am an agnostic in this. I have to admit that some of the evidence for it looks and sounds pretty dodgy. Fortunately my faith in science doesn't rely on that. If it ever came out it was staged I would just shrug my shoulders. It just isn't that big of a deal if someone did that 40 years ago. But it isn't something that I can duplicate or that anyone else has the spare cash to duplicate.

Some people are more sensitive to spiritual things than others. For them it is hard to imagine that other people may lack that extra sense that seems such a natural part of them. They don't understand how someone can not feel the things they do and attribute it to the other person not trying hard enough or blocking themselves from feeling it on purpose. If you were to tell them that their experiences were not duplicatible they might not believe that you had ever tried to actually duplicate the experience because when they experimented it worked for them. It takes awhile to figure out that we are not all made the same and to allow for that in our judgements of each other. Just because one person can do something and the other can't does not make them inferior or mean that they are lying or crazy or whatever.

And you are right. It is nice that they have proof now. A whole new world of possibilities has opened up to their view.

:)
Tash

Reply to message
More Important Than Soccer: Completely new type of DNA discovered - 02/12/2010 04:48:51 PM 1729 Views
that is TOTALLY inappropriate - 02/12/2010 04:58:47 PM 942 Views
Of course there is... - 02/12/2010 05:02:30 PM 947 Views
I saw, I'm just not in the proper habit yet - 02/12/2010 05:35:33 PM 1039 Views
Crazy awesome. - 02/12/2010 05:07:49 PM 1008 Views
Re: Crazy awesome. - 02/12/2010 10:32:56 PM 843 Views
It's confusing, that's for sure. - 03/12/2010 02:01:11 AM 845 Views
lol, or maybe not - 09/12/2010 07:49:19 PM 1217 Views
So the movie Evolution was real! - 02/12/2010 05:24:16 PM 929 Views
Nice reference, but not quite. - 02/12/2010 10:32:04 PM 875 Views
Thanks for clearing that up - 02/12/2010 11:23:36 PM 987 Views
Wow. *NM* - 02/12/2010 05:32:08 PM 517 Views
I love how it was found in a massively polluted lake - 02/12/2010 05:35:22 PM 858 Views
The answer to your question is: Pretty damn cool. *NM* - 02/12/2010 05:33:54 PM 499 Views
Goddamnit I am SO PISSED that I have a meeting at 2!!! - 02/12/2010 05:50:21 PM 831 Views
I won't pretend I know enough about biology to understand the impact of this - 02/12/2010 06:26:24 PM 986 Views
It's like finding a type of rock that eats laughter - 02/12/2010 06:51:15 PM 835 Views
I think I had an ex once that was made of arsenic. *NM* - 02/12/2010 07:10:57 PM 473 Views
Maris? *NM* - 02/12/2010 07:33:14 PM 511 Views
Well you are made of poison, so that makes sense. *NM* - 02/12/2010 07:39:09 PM 487 Views
Curse you, poetic justice! Curse you! - 04/12/2010 03:38:37 AM 1023 Views
So, is it an alien? - 02/12/2010 07:19:49 PM 983 Views
I don't see why it couldn't be natural - 02/12/2010 07:22:49 PM 892 Views
They haven't mentioned anything saying it's not from Earth, I think - 02/12/2010 08:03:44 PM 1000 Views
It was funded by NASA, I think - 02/12/2010 08:15:15 PM 1013 Views
lols. *NM* - 02/12/2010 08:17:40 PM 482 Views
The bacteria in question is part of a known lineage - 02/12/2010 08:07:34 PM 1216 Views
see my note below - 02/12/2010 08:13:35 PM 987 Views
Maybe - 02/12/2010 08:23:16 PM 928 Views
it could be there are some in the lake naturally - 02/12/2010 09:00:42 PM 832 Views
Huh! I must have missed that part. *NM* - 02/12/2010 09:05:15 PM 469 Views
No it isn't! - 02/12/2010 07:39:34 PM 996 Views
I really didn't understand that, either. - 04/12/2010 10:44:51 AM 1006 Views
So, apparently, this bacteria doesn't use arsneic for its DNA in its natural state? - 02/12/2010 08:06:02 PM 888 Views
While awesome, it's a bit of a problem. - 02/12/2010 09:04:22 PM 893 Views
Re: While awesome, it's a bit of a problem. - 02/12/2010 10:34:34 PM 832 Views
It's interesting, but not completely shocking - 02/12/2010 08:08:46 PM 1062 Views
I don't understand why this is such a big deal. It always seemed common sense to me that there are - 02/12/2010 10:40:22 PM 1030 Views
It's much more than an educated guess. - 02/12/2010 11:59:18 PM 1096 Views
You can't "know" from this distance. - 03/12/2010 03:13:05 AM 809 Views
Why not? - 03/12/2010 04:42:15 AM 1075 Views
obviously you have not learned to look at the back label on the car *NM* - 04/12/2010 07:04:42 PM 444 Views
Yes, we can. - 04/12/2010 06:04:48 PM 1238 Views
The problem probably is with me. - 04/12/2010 08:00:56 PM 882 Views
No, they aren't. - 04/12/2010 10:01:25 PM 902 Views
Depends on how you view evidence, no? - 05/12/2010 04:50:11 AM 1136 Views
There are correct and incorrect ways to view evidence. - 05/12/2010 05:42:41 AM 836 Views
Are you baiting me to bait you? - 05/12/2010 06:41:49 AM 1080 Views
I'm just carrying on a conversation. - 05/12/2010 07:26:39 AM 1076 Views
Re: I'm just carrying on a conversation. - 05/12/2010 07:08:04 PM 853 Views
Re: I'm just carrying on a conversation. - 05/12/2010 07:56:43 PM 1048 Views
Re: I'm just carrying on a conversation. - 06/12/2010 03:15:37 AM 1013 Views
Re: I'm just carrying on a conversation. - 06/12/2010 09:18:51 PM 929 Views
Okay. - 06/12/2010 11:22:44 PM 1084 Views
I watched that and was very intrigued - 03/12/2010 01:31:29 AM 756 Views
It's neat, but I object to the circus act - 03/12/2010 02:52:46 AM 1010 Views
yah, and it's kind of shooting themselves in the foot anyways - 03/12/2010 09:10:21 AM 898 Views
xkcd - 03/12/2010 10:35:24 AM 1052 Views

Reply to Message