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Shaman
2014 Apr 14, 3:30am
The point is to convince everyone else that the unicorn believer is an idiot who deserves no respect.
Then you've already lost every argument you put forth.
Respected scientists believed the gorilla to be a mythical creature until someone dropped a dead one on their dissecting table. The same all-knowing sages believed that the platypus was a clever fake, even when they had one to dissect.
Scientists of today commonly scoff at UFO sightings because they don't believe in intelligent alien life.
Until that day when an alien ship lands.
What will we know tomorrow that was impossible today? What cherished assumptions will be tossed aside like yesterday's trash? What shrill and condescending promoters of these trashed ideas who call all other voices "idiots" will be proven the useless blowhards that they are?
Heraclitusstudent
2014 Apr 14, 3:56am
Respected scientists believed the gorilla to be a mythical creature until someone dropped a dead one on their dissecting table.
Jeez... let's forget the blatant lie that scientists scoff at the possibility of alien life....
You do realize that's the whole point of science, right?: not believing until you have in fact the facts dumped at your feet.
It doesn't mean that the people who believed without facts were not idiots.
Do you have any idea how many weird beliefs are being professed by idiots? Do you seriously think they are true by default without any facts? Ghosts? Big-foot? Zeus? Feathered snake? 9-11 conspiracies?
One thing that we can definitely agree upon is that there is no "heaven for G." Thus, tupac lied.
Heraclitusstudent
2014 Apr 14, 6:07am
One must strive to live a truth-agnostic life.
Right.
It's like: "I see my neighbor Joe is in his garden, but maybe it's not him: maybe he has a twin brother looking exactly like him and dressing like him. It can't be proven with 100% accuracy that it's in fact him. And better not buy a car since there is no proof that the engine will still work tomorrow. And better pray Zeus and the Feathered Snake just in case they in fact exist. And keep some of these silver bullets just in case you are attacked by a were-wolf."
Truth-agnostic life.... Do you even realize how stupid that sounds?
Peter P
2014 Apr 14, 6:15am
Why should we care if something is true? Life is like trading in the market. It is a stochastic game.
Heraclitusstudent
2014 Apr 14, 7:33am
It is a stochastic game.
A probabilistic view is not an exemption from common sense.
That same 0.000001% chance assigned uniformly to unproven superstitious beliefs makes you 99.999999% atheist.
Dan8267
2014 Apr 14, 10:09am
Yeah Liberals are ones to talk. They've been totally useless in American politics for about 3 decades now
You're entitled to your opinion no matter how bigoted and uninformed.
I can't remember the last time a liberal held an office of power. Maybe Jesse Ventura as governor, but nothing in the Senate comes to mind.
The point is to convince everyone else that the unicorn believer is an idiot who deserves no respect.
Then you've already lost every argument you put forth.
You're entitled to your speculation, but why should I believe your speculation is accurate when your facts are not?
Respected scientists believed the gorilla to be a mythical creature until someone dropped a dead one on their dissecting table.
Therefore, unicorns and the Loch Ness monster are probably real. The burden of proof is on the assertor.
We've already proved that every Big Foot sighting has been a hoax. If some species of ape is discovered and the person who finds it decides to call it Big Foot in order to garner more publicity, that doesn't make the myth of Big Foot any less bullshit.
Furthermore, it is a false dichotomy to say that a person is either close-minded to news possibilities or is naive enough to believe everything. The religious refused to be accept evidence. The skeptic demands evidence. I am a skeptic, and that's a good thing.
Until that day when an alien ship lands.
When that ship lands, I doubt the occupants will plead guilty to anally probing thousands of red necks.
One must strive to live a truth-agnostic life.
Now that should be the motto of Fox News: truth-agnostic.
One last thought... The peer-review process in science is brutal, but it is brutal for a reason. It is only by thoroughly attacking ideas that one can distinguish good ideas from bad ones. It is only by thoroughly attacking theories that one can have a high degree of confidence in them. Skepticism is good.
Dan8267
2014 Apr 15, 2:18pm
The burden of proof is on the assertor.
Now Dan, isn't it standard debate rules that the burden of proof is on the negative? It's been long time since high school, but I'm just sayin'......
Actually, the affirmative team has the burden of proof to affirm the year's resolution.
IMHO, the whole high school cross-ex debate thing was ruined by spreading a long time ago.
Strangely, there was an episode of The Simpsons in which Homer and Marge were in forensics and Homer did cross-ex debate. He mooned for rebuttal. That episode was brilliant because it so accurately portrayed all of forensics right down to the index cards the debaters used to use.
Tenpoundbass
2014 Apr 25, 1:51am
Anybody know where I can pick up a copy of The History of Fish?
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http://money.cnn.com/2014/03/09/news/companies/cosmos-neil-degrasse-tyson/
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/lifestyle/57638209-80/sagan-cosmos-religion-carl.html.csp
http://www.evolutionnews.org/2014/03/discovery_insti_5082921.html
And don't forget Dark Age Defenders, who think rationality began with the Church and their hero Thomas Aquinas, who "Rationally Proved" masturbation was worse than rape.
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/christophers/2014/03/cosmos-may-get-science-right-but-it-gets-church-history-wrong/