REM%IMSSS@SU-AI.ARPA (Robert Elton Maas) (03/02/86)
GWS> Date: 28 Feb 86 11:52:08 GMT GWS> From: brahms!gsmith@ucbvax.berkeley.edu (Gene Ward Smith) GWS> Let's clarify the question then. Is this deep fear of eventual GWS> red-gianthood the basis of some obscure religious cult I haven't heard GWS> about? To quote Bertrand Russell, "Religion is based, I think, primarily GWS> and mainly upon fear. It is partly the terror of the unknown.... Fear of the unknown, and fear of false legends, is what Bertrand Russell is talking about. Only a fool wouldn't be afraid of a loaded gun pointing at him or 40,000 thermonuclear weapons on launch vehicles or a tiger that escaped from the zoo and was seen in his neighborhood while his kids are outside playing or the sun going red giant before we have our eggs out of this one basket. Fear is what drives us to take remedial action. (Sometimes we have distaste, not fear, so I'm not saying fear is essential, in fact in case of red giant the word fear should read distaste both in this paragraph and in your critique of our proposals to take remedial action. We aren't "afraid" of the Sun knocking out Earth, but we are worried about it because we don't want that to happen to us even that far down the road. Sometimes the distinction may be that we fear that which we cannot change and which will hurt us if it happens, while we have mere distaste for what we can effectively control. I'm truly afraid of a thermonuclear this year or next year etc. I'm merely planning to avoid red giant death.) GWS> Science can help us to get over this craven fear in which mankind has GWS> lived.... Science can teach us ... no longer to invent allies in the GWS> sky, but rather to look to our own efforts here below to make this GWS> world a fit place to live in...." Science can also teach us what to truly beware, and to either change it if we can, or be truly and justly afraid of it if we are helpless.