brianp@shark.UUCP (08/31/84)
I just want to clear up some stuff so that we can abandon it for
something more relevant.
9 > The more important point in my mind is that he is attacking the
9 > uncertainty in the arguments on the non-creationists' side. The
9 The first sentence is manifestly untrue, and should be evident
9 from reading my article.
(well, maybe the "point in my mind" is untrue :-) You could have
said your following 5 word sentence in your previous article:
9 I attacked lack of evidence. ALL of the
9 referenced excerpts were pure speculation, ...
Pure misunderstanding (on my part). You quoted qualifiers-of-tentativity
So I thought you were attacking tentativity. You did not say
"where's the evidence, guys?" You also attacked the scolding
of the creationists for USING probability. I think people were
actually (even if they were as clear as mud) scolding for the MISuse of
probability.
9 ... I may be dense, but not to that extent.
I disagree. You are not dense.
("maybe" as opaque to observers as I when not fully explaining a stance :-)
9 As far as your diatribe on religion: you brought it up, not me.
My fault for equating creationism with religion and getting carried away.
9 > We all depend on our senses to detect what the world is like,
9 > and we have to use our brains to figure out what is going on.
9 > If anyone has the inside scoop on "absolute truth", then could
9 > you please let us in on it?
9 This is a silly request, given the obvious *a priori* hostility
9 you have for the idea that there might even exist such a thing
9 as an absolute of any kind.
I think we have different ideas of what we are talking about.
In the context of trying to see what is going on in the physical
world, we are limited both by our senses, and the stuff of
Heisenberg and Go(with 2 dots)del. Thus I think there is no "absolute".
(There is a "real world" on the far side of our eyeballs, though.)
So let's stop telling each other what we think the other is thinking,
and get back to the issues...
(maybe we need to agree what tools we use for discussing BOTH
evolution, science, etc. AND creationism)
Brian Peterson {ucbvax, ihnp4, } !tektronix!shark!brianp