In article <486918c2$1@news.povray.org>, dne### [at] sanrrcom says...
> Patrick Elliott wrote:
> > Hmm. Yes and no. There are always scientists that opt to side with the
 
> > lunatic fringe and only use the science when/if it helps that agenda.
> 
> Well, I was speaking of Laura's father. I suppose there were a number of
 
> other "scientists" in the book that weren't so clear-cut.
> 
> > Someone had to make, for example, the alethiometer, 
> 
> It just seemed very contrived to me, is all. Breaking willing suspension
 
> of disbelief, that none of the scientists opposed to the Magesterium 
> actually knew how the magic worked either.
> 
Tell that to people building gravity meters. I am sure they could 
"test" for what ever made it work, even if they didn't get how. And, it 
was suppressed technology, so its not impossible that they tried, and 
given the power the Magesterium had in the book, actually succeeded, in 
destroying knowledge of how it worked, even if they missed all the 
devices.

> I'd like to see fictional books that pit science against religion 
> realistically, you know, where like science works reliably and people 
> know why, kind of thing.
> 
True enough. Though, I don't mind some that try to give semi-plausible 
reasons why some fantasy things do work, as long as those reasons in the 
end are "effected" by science in some fashion, and thus really part of a 
larger natural world. Its the ones that try to treat it as "separate", 
then even dumber, try to use a lot of gibberish and BS that is debunked 
to "show" how its untouchable/explanable/defies the laws of physics, 
that I have a problem with it. GC takes the, "its part of the greater 
natural world, just a lot of it is parts we normally don't, and can't, 
see directly.", approach. Its not doing an astounding job of it, but its 
dealing with trying to provide plausible reasons why some stupid stuff 
people insist, due to lack of any clue how often they have been tested, 
failed the test, and don't in fact work, *might* be there some place. 
Its like the steps some parents take when trying to teach their kids 
that the monsters on TV are not real, while sidestepping if Santa is or 
not. lol

-- 
void main () {

    if version = "Vista" {
      call slow_by_half();
      call DRM_everything();
    }
    call functional_code();
  }
  else
    call crash_windows();
}

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