Re: The Awesomesauce with Religion
Reply #539 –
[…] it makes me wonder how one gets to be a scientist without any basic reading of historical texts. We have internet at our fingertips, but those so-called scientists fail to look up every once in a while whose theories they are poorly mimicking. We would have been spared some reinventions of the wheel, or at least the reinvention would go faster.
There's nothing new under the sun. All scriptures say this in some form. How does one get to be a scientist without knowing this?
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In an eatery near you is a dishwasher who blathers… Shouldn't our best and brightest converse with him, because he may say something profound — something that they wouldn't think of?
That ancient thinkers had scattered or coherent thoughts that presaged what the hard work of science has given us isn't surprising. What's surprising is that a modern educated man so easily succumbs to the "Ooh! Wow!" factor that snake-oil salesmen depend upon…
There is much that is new under the sun! But most people would rather think not (…both senses!) because they aren't comfortable with the style and level of argument refuting such would require.
Of course, ESP and telekinesis, ghosts and past lives, and mind-reading is -like- for sure, really, like, real. Ya know?
Ask your local dishwasher what emendations Hawking should make to his theory of black holes, to save it from the problem of information and the event horizon… Your conversation may be a great deal of fun! It may even give you some ideas.
But it won't do, as science.
It will do, as mysticism, though. That's your bag, isn't it?
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But you can still read and enjoy this…