Politics and Religion
A hypothesis is an educated guess. Gravity is a Law.(eom)
A post on another thread brought this to mind.
It doesn't matter whether you believe in evolution or not. Science has established evolution as a solid theory substantiated with more research and observation than most of us can imagine. You may as well rail against the theory of gravity as against evolution.
However, many people do not 'believe in evolution' and either can't or won't accept the reality of the physical world. This has large implications for their political behavior. It's easily observed that many, maybe most, people are relatively ignorant of what's actually going on in the political arena and therefore must base their political choices on something other than real information. What do they substitute for this information? The same thing they substitute for valid scientific theory- mythology and emotional appeal. Just like football.
People choose loyalty to football teams based on geographical proximity, community and family acceptance, and what little they know about the team's personnel (mythology such as Brett Favre is a rugged, down-to-earth regular guy). They then proceed to rabidly devour trivial information about their team of choice (such as which UGA we're on now) and root for 'their' team regardless. They never even bother to try to determine whether the opposing team may have traits which would be more worthy of that loyalty; they just want 'their' team to beat the bejeebus out of the other team because this validates their own personalities somehow.
That's OK with football because football ultimately doesn't matter, except in the SEC where we play REAL football. Unfortunately for most sheeple, politics matter. Politics matter on the level of life and death and how happy our progeny have the opportunity to be and, in the U.S., what happens in the rest of the world. Politics are far too important to be decided by people with a football fan's mentality but that describes most people and it surely describes all those people who discount objective data and research in favor of some mythological feel-good bullshit.
FWIW, this is directed at people on the left as well as the right. Both groups have their mythologies on which they rely rather than actual reality. Both groups are participating in the political process with the same mentality that they follow sports, or fashion, or Hollywood gossip, or....
Sad but true.
of reality? Football style, Huh?
A cheap, thoughtless, perfunctory gift that nobody ever asks for. Unreturnable because all you get back is another box of chocolates. So you're stuck with this undefinable whipped mint crap that you mindlessly wolf down when there's nothing else left to eat. Sure, once in a while there's a peanut butter cup or an English toffee. But they're gone too fast and the taste is... fleeting. So, you end up with nothing but broken bits filled with hardened jelly and teeth-shattering nuts. And if you're desperate enough to eat those, all you got left is an empty box filled with useless brown paper wrappers.
The C-man
sheese... gimme a break...
I began applying the football analogy to pres elections over 25 years ago in my classes. What I was explaining in my post was how that approach is caused by doofuses who believe mythology rather than objective information.
But thanks for your scintillating contribution to the thread. It's always nice to hear from people with nothing but ad hominem bullshit.
well, i'm grateful for the small favor of being spared yet another George F. Will contribution wherein he waxes estatic about the virtues of baseball and america, blah, blah, blah, peppered with an obsurce quote of two from Dickens.
there is a Law of Gravity. A scientific law is when based on a certain set of observations a predicted result can be described. For example Newton's Law of Gravity can provide a description of what will happen if an object is dropped from a bridge. A scientific theory is only one step above an educated guess.
Please tell me how does the theory of evolution help me accept the physical reality of our world? Please provide facts rather than conclusions. I also like to know what is a "solid theory".
Respectfully.
-- Modified on 9/20/2008 1:02:06 AM
No such thing as theory of gravity? Google is your friend.
You also have confused theory with hypothesis. A scientific theory has been tested and validated over and over. However, in modern physics some ideas are referred to as theories which cannot be tested and this has drawn criticism for some scientists. Such tenuous theories include string theory but not evolution.
Observation and measurement are at the heart of our understanding of the physical reality of our world and evolution can be observed and measured. http://scienceblogs.com/loom/2008/06/02/a_new_step_in_evolution.php
Facts concerning evolution
http://www.fasebj.org/cgi/content/full/19/12/1581
A good essay on evolution
http://www.worsleyschool.net/science/files/evolution/facts.html
As I said, one may as well deny gravitational theory as evolutionary theory. Denying observable phenomena is counterproductive to understanding physical reality and, unless one has conversations with some deity, observable phenomena are pretty much all we have to rely on in pursuing this understanding.
PROVABLE. Evolution is a theory - granted, it is the best theory that explains how all the species on the planet came into being, but unless you can prove it with predictable outcomes, it is only a theory. Evolution also helps explain why, for instance, all life on this planet uses the same exact chemistry - as the basis of life. That would NOT be possible without some evolution of one, more complex form of life, from another less complex form of life.
So, Evolution gives us the how or at least, it is the best explanation of the how.
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