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On 10/20/2010 8:58 AM, Darren New wrote:
>> Sadly, this is not uncommon. However, many, including myself, have
>> argued that you cannot have such a drastic error in thinking, and not
>> have it spill over into your own discipline,
>
> Huh. Odd. Some of the smartest people I know doing computers are
> devoutly religious. I can't imagine why you'd think that belief that
> Jesus sacrificed himself to save you would interfere with your ability
> to design computer software, for example.
>
Right.. Because there isn't, for example, a very weird association
between either engineers *or* computer science, and the tendency of both
to think ID makes more sense than Evolution. Its invariably one or the
other, which ends up being the discipline someone belongs to, when they
claim to advocate ID. By the same token, there is at least one computer
scientist, who worked for the military, who in fact "claims" that
genetic algorithms don't work. He knows this because he worked with
them, supposedly, yet, nearly every modern weapons tracking system uses
them, because its easier to "evolve" a system that tracks 250
simultaneous targets, than it is to engineer one.
>> I flat out do not believe
>
> So, in other words, "seems reasonable, so I have faith that it is so"?
>
Sorry, did I make the mistake of failing to denote "believe" in this
context as, "based on my experience, not just because I want it to be
true." Because, you know.. Having nearly every moron I have ever seen
show up on a science blog denying evolution either say, "I reject it for
religion", or, "Religion is part of it, but I am also a computer
scientist, or engineer, and things just don't *work* that way, or happen
without a creator!"
It does effect things. But, as I said, it may not be in a way that is
obvious to an outside observer. You don't need to believe in the earth
being billions of years old to be a car mechanic either, but if you
found yourself having to find your own oil... all of the sudden your
"expertise" in internal combustion engines has just been rendered
worthless, by having no fracking clue where, or why, to look for fuel
for the damn thing. If you have no need **at all** to find it, its never
a problem. Same for someone that thinks genetics is a lie, and programs
computers. If they never deal with the obscurity of genetic algorithms,
and they don't need to build their own chips, they can go around
blissfully ignorant of everything they program, or use to program, that
may have, at some point, used them to make the product. Same with every
other field. If you never deal with the stuff "under the table", which
is just the wiring/parts/mechanics of the system you use to do your job,
you may be completely unaffected by the fact that you also believe
something contradicted by the existence of the gadget you are using in
the first place. So, in a bloody trivial sense, you are quite correct.
It is possible for someone to even be a neurosurgeon, and deny the brain
as anything but and "interface" to souls, but I for one want to frakking
know my doctor doesn't hold this view, if he is going to be working in
my head. Same with the guy building my car, or my TV, or coding my
software. I want to know that they not only are using the best ideas,
but that if they *need* to reinvent the wheel, for some reason, they are
not trying to do so by referencing passages in the Bible that suggest
that "round" objects can be made using 3 for the value of PI.
--
void main () {
If Schrödingers_cat is alive or version > 98 {
if version = "Vista" {
call slow_by_half();
call DRM_everything();
}
call functional_code();
}
else
call crash_windows();
}
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