Comment Re:Is it morally wrong... (Score 0) 664
I see what you did there http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B...
I see what you did there http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B...
Teachers are not scientist? What the hell are you smoking? I have a teacher's MSc in chemistry and physics. Due to the low image of the profession, the politicized curriculum and the low pay I have worked the job for a few months only.
Since then I am a developer in one of the most advance high tech start ups in the world [semiconductors].
There is also something else that you miss - as a teacher in high schools I don't need to know cosmology at the level of Hawking or string theory at the level of Green. But I must be able yo explain Newtonian mechanics [for instance] in a manner that would be suitable for high shoolers. And this, my friend, is a fucking art and it is difficult as hell! If you want to do it properly, of course...
Trust me, to explain a concept to a researcher or post graduate, who already has all the basics of the scientific method in their heads and years and years of analytical thinking is peanuts, compare to explaining basic concept such as mass/energy relation to high school students.
Take a look at Richard Feynman. Why was he considered one of the greatest educators of all time? Because of his Nobel price? Of course not. Because he was a bloody genius when it came to transferring knowledge. He also had excellent oratorical skills and was very good actor [you need this as a teacher, trust me]. Feynman was the exception that combined genius level scientist with genius level educator. Such cases are rare, but not needed per se - as a teacher you only need to understand the concepts very well, genius level science-making is not required. And as a general rule - most science geniuses are NOT good educators.
End with a quote from my favorite writer:
"Ponder realized he can explain the theory of thaum very well, provided the other person knew everything about it already"
Look, philosophers and the like say that there is no spoon, just the concept of a spoon. But somehow no one ever says that the soup is an illusion or just a mere concept... [borrowed shamelessly from T.Pratchett]
Ben, I have one word for you, just one word - plastics! [I always hear Sid's voice in my head in such cases]
Excellent post!
The only 3 times I have been sick from eating too much the food was: cherries, brain and liver. Man, those things are tasty. I don't dare tell you how I find such products in the Netherlands for the fear some random euro bureaucrat will decide "to do something about it". Truly, not only the westerners have issue [or so they think] with smell and eww factor, they have been told that it is potentially unhealthy to eat those organs.
Sure it is dangerous - if you feed all kind of chemistry crap to the sheep don't give me their liver!!! Again, something good and useful is about to be taken from us in the name of [probably] profit [is there any other motive left in this society?]
I don't have the time to read every post, so sorry if someone has pointed it out already:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQTHqg_8_UA
Note the reaction of the american dude when he learns that not only nitrogen is painless but you even get a bit high before the end...have you seen so much spite and hatred......the problem is people confusing retribution with justice...
Back in the days of totalitarianism our history teacher told us once "It does not matter which party wins in the US, their imperialist politics does not change. It is the illusion of choice" . After the class we all said to each other "Ah, that was a nice piece of communist propaganda".
And then the system collapsed, we went abroad and saw for ourselves. The teacher, at least in this respect, was right! How depressing...
And why do all commercials sound like they were written by the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation?
US soldiers rape even in "allied" countries. Japan - that's easy to find. I am too revolted to do the search in my native tongue, but I can assure you that we had such case in my country too, not long after the establishment of the first american base. Teen girls there were...
Every army is an army of rapists and the awful, terrible secret is that , well, secretly the misogyny is encouraged in the military, US not excluded...
It isn't self-evident. Let me try to explain, but first the disclaimer - I am a fire-proof atheist (like Dorlf).
For many years I said what you say. To the rational mind that is not indoctrinated with religion there is nothing more baffling and inexplicable than the apparent gap [discontinuity] of the logical train of thought of a religious person. And then I started meeting really intelligent scientists and engineers that are devoted believers. That was my chance to get more info.
First - two cases illustrating the stuttering of the logic in believer's brain. Intelligent and aware person in a religious discussion suddenly shows stark lack of thought. I stated that one of the evidences that religion is human creation is its geographical distribution. If you were born in the Arab world you [likely] would be a Muslim, no? - I asked. No, I would not be! - was the incredible answer. At that moment my friend stuttered himself, as if part of his brain was also surprised by this answer. Second case - how religious people are so very thin skinned when it comes to their belief. I tried showing the TV version of Master and Margarita to a christian. I told him that the description of the trial and execution of Christ in this book/movie is so humane and compassionate that even atheist like me want it to be true. Many people even call that book "the gospel of Bulgakov". The representation of Christ is done with utmost respect and love, the book itself is manifestly religious and humane [was censored during communism] - I mean the opening scene is two communist discussing how Christ never existed and then the devil himself joins in the conversation and shows them they are wrong...my friend did not express much opinion about except that it was quite difficult to look at the movie because "anything you say about Christ is very important to me, it's like talking about my mother". That statement stopped me in my tracks...
Apology for the long introduction but it is necessary to illustrate that those fails of logic are not simulated. These people do not pretend. And in the rest of the walk of life they are so consistently logical and rational that to claim they lack the intelligence is simply ignorant...so the matter is elsewhere.
Where is the matter then? From all I have read, heard and experienced I'd say the old cliche is correct - religion is the opium of the masses. But the masses are put on this drug by their parents, you see. Religion is allowed, legal and overly-respected drug. My nicotine addiction it seems, uses the same reward brain-mechanisms as the other addictions [to both substances and, very importantly, behavior] including religion. When I saw how the above-described people treat their kids, it all fell into place. Even before the child is an individual [before 18 months] the religious education begins. For instance putting the hands together and praying before eating. After just a few weeks the kid started putting them together by himself - he learned this is the way of things. Little steps like that. Then you grow up a bit and you realize that your gods [mom and dad] are worshiping someone bigger even than themselves. Wow! And the more humane and non-violent the religious indoctrination is, the more firm the belief, because you would always associate religion with something positive [sense of community, love, belonging] and the neurons will fire up and you would get this warm glow from the inside that people get when they use their drug, or do their favorite activity, kiss their child, parent or spouse, have sex and so on...
OK, we have a plausible mechanism - addiction propagated through cultural indoctrination. What's to be done? First of all - is there a reason for an action at all? Surely, like any other structure of authority and power religion has bloody hands. That's one. It is dangerous for the survival to not account for reality, thus religion can be a force [one of many] nudging us towards extinction. That's two. Individuals and groups of religious people can be very dangerous when trying to push their worldview to others. That's three.
Hey, wait! My enlightened believer friends do not fall into those categories. They have condemned extremism on all sides , not just the "other". They won't be persuaded to go to a holy war or burn the pagans. They never impose the religion on others and will not discuss it unless asked by a person they trust can lead civilized conversation. I don't want them to lose their faith because of my opinions [and I know from the science that this would be a horrific experience for them]. They are not a danger to humanity, in fact we agree on everything when it comes to the big issues of humanity.
And on the other hand you have the majority that exploits religion for political and monetary goals, people who muddle deliberately the water to gain power or retain it [ID being the most prominent - those people even stated on TV that their goal is to "influence the minds" and "break the monopoly of science to tell the story of humanity". See - they want to combat reality for power gain. They think there is a conspiracy to tell the truth, because they cannot think different than hidden agendas and conspiracies].
You also have genuine stupid and dangerous religious people, but they'd still be stupid and dangerous without it too. In fact I have come to realize that religion is an extra thing
Summary:
do not sweep all religious people under the same rug
religious indoctrination is part of culture and every attempt to remove it by force will likely end in many tears
fight with everything you can the bastards who under the religious hood are pushing political and monetary goals; they are the true enemy of all of us, religious or not.
but do not attack all religious people, for you will loose the once that are also against the exploitation of belief.
keep spreading scientific facts and education hoping that in time more and more people will choose to live in reality
the whole issue is super complex and one-line retorts, although being fun and witty in their brevity, are certainly not showing the whole picture
When on vacation I don't use any other functionality of my phone but Google maps and Google star map for those clear nights away from the light pollution of civilization. And an e-reader.
My last summer vacation recapitulation:
- duration 3 weeks
- TV, newspapers, radio, Internet time - zero. I am not exaggerating - zero! I only said to my mom - call me if there is a war or a global disaster approaching; nothing else matters.
- books read - 12 volumes (5 of which were from the "saga of fire and ice", pretty thick...)
- star observation with binoculars and small telescope - every night
- sun baths in the garden while reading - every day
- visiting rock concerts, galleries and musea - plenty. Some would say that via Internet I'd get timely info for all cultural and entertainment events in the region; instead I just went to the organizers of the events and asked. Also, there are still those old-fashioned things called posters...
- satisfaction from the vacation - guaranteed (I consider vacation a success if I cannot immediately remember my logging password for the work PC when I am back. Bonus - if I have to think for a while in order to remember what project I was doing. I achieve that level of bliss consistently).
There was a time before all those gadgets were here. Everything was just as possible back then as it is now...although carrying 12 volumes can be cumbersome - but I have done it for decades, so I am used to it and could go without the reader if necessary...
Disclaimer: large portion of my aversion to the gadgets [exhibited not only during a vacation] is because of the way the industry screwed one of the best tech ideas ever. The whole locking, spying, paranoia shit that goes on on phones and e-readers...I hate it and it puts me off from adopting the tech in earnest, which was my original intention...
So true!
People say about me, that I have above average people skills. Well, that is what you get from spending 3-5 hours per day [during school year, during vacation it was 5-10 hours] from the age of 5 being together with 5-10 neighbor kids [and not using a single electronic device in our time together - no radio, no TV, no Internet, of course]. That was in the countryside. In the big city - the same story only the locations and types of fun were different.
Being home after dark? Not after the age of 13. Around that time something happened to me that happens to most boys - I woke up wet. So I asked my parents what this means. "You are entering adulthood and you will change" they said. "But according to the law I am still a kid for 5 years" - I said. "Well, we will have to work it out somehow". Then I started staying with friends for the whole night, or coming home at 04:00 hours after heavy metal concert, going to the mountains for weeks at the time when there was no way to communicate with the rest of the world [can you even imagine that is possible today - to let your kid go to the mountains and not get news from it for 2 weeks!!] and so on....and all the time I was wondering when will my parents say "enough". They never did!
A few years ago I said to my mom "I have the feeling I was left with almost no oversight from you and dad when I was going out as a teen. I had friends on drugs. Others were drinking too much. You knew this; did you never worry?" Mom laughed her heart out "We never stopped watching you very closely indeed. I was worried you might start drinking too much or taking drugs. I was worried that you might have nasty experience with women, or be attacked in the desolate night streets. But since you never "took the bad road" stayed reasonable, studied hard and so on, we never interfered. How could I deprive from your friends just because some of them have habits I consider bad. It would have been a disaster...you need contact with people of your age to become a person!"
On the other side is the sad, sad story of a nephew of mine (born after communism), who got so protected by his [overly scared by media] mother that he never had a friend and was going out once per year with classmates. The boy turned psychotic because once he was in the University his total lack of social skills [although being 22 his emotional and social life is at a level of 10 year old] made him the ridicule of all. He went into fights, did not know how to approach women [guess how sensitive and empathic women are to boys they consider "losers"], grew progressively even more isolated....and at the end of that road was the psychiatrist....
And don't get me started on sexual education, because today kids have the choice between shy and/or paranoid parents and the utterly fabricated "reality" of internet porn....so sad.
"What exactly are you trying to say?"
Exactly what you speculated - that the "rules" of the economic game are as immutable as the laws of nature. I have heard this sentiment form the majority of "economists" I've interviewed and I swear next time I hear that obscenity I'd scream...
In other words - our way or the highway! F^ck them...
You seem to be under the impression that the Russians by large are atheists. Or that the government still promotes atheism. Let me tell you something - religion is exploding in Russia. Big time, no, huge time!!
They are incorporating it (again, just like during the times of the Tzars) in the their patriotic, empire-like attitude. "The third Rome" , have you heard that [Moscow]? The Russians see themselves as the sole protector of Orthodox Christianity. The Russian tourists that I meet in my country spend all their time visiting religious sites. They talk about it all the time. Just yesterday a Russian businessman offered to buy one of the largest old buildings in the capital of my country [it would cost a fortune] in order to make a museum of Orthodox Christianity.
Tzarist Russia was a backwater, superstitious, low-educated, peasant-bashing, stupid and callous totalitarian hellhole. But man, were they religious! Now they come back to that state again, only at a different technological level.
In the way the state uses religion to fortify patriotism and instill a sense of righteousness Russia and USA are the two sides of the same coin. This has to do with empire-thinking more than it has to do with religion IMO [although a successful argument can be made that that every religion is an empire and behaves like one]. In fact I am aghast that the religious folk happily accepts to be used in this manner by the sate. But then again, they probably like it because the state will, in turn, place special privileges for their religious institutions. Why are you, religious people, behaving like prostitutes, I often ask? Have you no shame? Some sensible people in the military of the US have complained that they were/are used as racketeers; where are the religious leaders that say "we don't want our fate to be used as political tool".
Simplicity does not precede complexity, but follows it.
