Joanne Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hi Simon,
>
> I agree with everything you've said here, and
> you've said so well! (Can you stand it? )
>

To be honest I'm happy with with us finding common grounds, but of course we will also clash again. Such is life. But its good to know people like you who consider such things worth fighting about in a real kind of way.


> "Its about balancing that fierce and powerful
> desire to help suffering wherever possible, with
> issues around what life is, understanding the
> difference between what we can do and what we
> should do, and trying to understand why there is
> so much suffering in the first place."
>
> Exactly. One of the things that irritates me no
> end are the non-stop daily news reports of the
> miracles of modern science that on every major
> network and cabel news show, like this sheep
> atrocity. To me, that is scientism at its finest,
> exploiting desperate people by giving them false
> hope.

Yes but also its easy to polarise the issue with labels. There are many scientists that could be classed as 'scientismists' who have genuinely good intentions. Its not fair to call it exploitation IMO. What it is is a misunderstanding of science, and the further away from the forefront of science they are the more they misunderstand it. So the media is the penultimate end of the misconception, and the general public have the ultimate misconception of sciences place and reach. This is the heart of the problem. The best scientists don't make the assumptions that are placed in their mouths by the media, but even thats unfair on the real media (as opposed to the media that is defined rightly as "popular"). Its the legacy of the illusion of sciences power that taints everything from the scientist to the media to the public. Man on the moon and jumbo jets and all that are the illusion of power, and even medicine and wonder cures. Its like a child who gets a present and forgets who it came from, and isnt even that bothered who it came from. Those who get less gifts tend to appreciate them more. Those who had the gifts taken away from them tend feel agrieved, naturally.


>
> My father died almost 25 years ago of lung cancer.
> As he was nearing the end, we kept hearing about
> Interferon -- that was the "cure" just around the
> corner, that would save people in his situation.
> So what happened? AFAIK, people are still dying
> from the same cancer he died from...Interferon has
> gone off somewhere, but there are plenty of new
> snake oils out there to be waved before wide-eyed
> and desperate. This is not science. It's not
> what science is supposed to be about.


Its the excitement at what could be that blinds. But its also about this desire to make things better. Unfortunatelty good intentions by themselves are meaningless. Simple people tend to have good intentions that are meaningful. Intelligent people need heart and wisdom as well before their good intentions gain meaning. Of course some will think I have been spoon fed such ideas by my belief in the gospels, and they will be right.


Simon