On 11-6-2009 7:17, Jim Henderson wrote:
> On Wed, 10 Jun 2009 21:40:12 -0700, Patrick Elliott wrote:
> 
>>> Exactly.  There's no dictum that states that humans have to be 100%
>>> rational 100% of the time.  Some scientists (and quite well known
>>> scientists, at that) believe there may be a higher power.
>>>
>> And, all of them would have a century ago. This doesn't mean much.
> 
> I don't understand what you're trying to say here.

That it is only very recently that most scientists are either agnostics, 
atheists, or at least not convinced that a God exists. In most of the 
western world that change is probably only something that happened over 
the last 40 years or so. Just as with more of such changes people living 
now can not imagine that it was different. I should quote Terry 
Pratchett here I guess, but I don't know where to find the quote.

For the generation of my mother that included e.g. living together 
unmarried, homosexuality and same sex marriage were unthinkable. Firing 
a woman because she go married was OTOH just the way things should be. 
Nowadays things are much different. E.g. accepting homosexuality has 
become part of the national identity.
If you look at why our right wing parties consider the muslims here 
totally backwards it is because they act like and believe the same sort 
of things as our parents did not even half a century ago. It would be 
funny if they did not hurt so many peoples feelings.
In the US same sex marriage is still debated, but I would not be 
surprised if 5 years after the last state changes its laws most people 
can not understand anymore what the fuss was about.

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