Patrick Elliott wrote:
> In article <473dd775@news.povray.org>, war### [at] tagpovrayorg says...
>> Phil Cook <phi### [at] nospamrocainfreeservecouk> wrote:
>>> No not really, feel free to doubt it. if you do then you must have a  
>>> reason to do so, which implies you have another theory
>>   Once again, that is completely flawed logic.
>>
>>   There's no law in science which says that you must have an alternative
>> theory in order to reasonably doubt an existing theory.
>>
> Quite true. He got that much wrong.

Well, he was right in the sense that if you doubt the theory is true 
without any reason to do so, then you're behaving irrationally. Not 
necessarily a bad thing, but not exactly scientific.

> If they stopped with, "I don't know, lets find an answer.", no one would 
> have a problem with them, at least with respect to their position on 
> science.

I think if they asserted their views and actually had a willingness to 
change their mind based on reality, people wouldn't ridicule nearly as 
much. It isn't the creationism being ridiculed. It's the pigheaded 
refusal to evaluate whether it might be wrong, even in the middle of a 
scientific debate.

I honestly think creationists would get far less ridicule if they just 
said "our opinions differ, and I can't convince you, and you can't 
convince me, so let's just each do our own thing." But they often try to 
argue you into believing it for some reason.

> Imho, if it wasn't given absurd levels of respect, 

Only some of it. Try taking off every thursday from work on the grounds 
that you need to go worship Thor, and see how much slack you get from 
your boss.

And apparently Australia now has more write-in Jedi Knights on the 
census than many of the other religions. Yet, oddly enough, Australia is 
reluctant to recognise it as an official religion. Wonder why....

-- 
   Darren New / San Diego, CA, USA (PST)
     Remember the good old days, when we
     used to complain about cryptography
     being export-restricted?

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