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Conservative, n. A statesman who is enamored of existing evils, as distinguished from the Liberal, who wishes to replace them with others.
--
Ambrose Bierce
****
Read chapter one of "Dirk Tungsten in...The Disappearing Planet"! It's useless to struggle.

You know, I reckon I could make up a story of weirdness that would be good enough to get me on TV too, if I really worked at it.

I once, just for fun and a break from college work back in '92, wrote a very detailed account od my alien abduction, complete with "all the information I could get while I was on-board the ship" which included a reconstruction of their bridge, maps of their homeworld, star system, and the "14 civilized (star-faring) races of the galaxy," and submitted it to one of those UFO-fanatic web discussion groups...

And got over 300 replies, about a dozen of which wanted to 'confirm the accuracy of my findings' because they matched with their own observations.

Let me reiterate, just incase anybody's unclear: I MADE THE WHOLE THING UP. It sprang from the cradle of my cranium, and there wasn't a shred of truth to it. But people believed it, and some people even believed it happened to them.

Try to remember, not everything people tell you is true. Even if they say it is.

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"Ed Gruberman, you fail to grasp Ty Kwan Leap. Approach me, that you might see." -- The Master

quote:

---

...it's "don't believe everything you read on the Internet."

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And yet here you are, trying to convince us that your half-assed, LSD-Induced, absolute lack of independent, rational thought, late-night TV inspired, shittier than a bull who shits a lot (Yeah, that's right, Fuck tolerance. I give up.) "belief system" is indeed the be all and end all.

If you're all content with yourself, that's damn good. Why are you here, trying to tell us that some woman in Mississippi who stepped out of her Trailer, erm, "Mobile Home", in between episodes of The Jerry Springer and COPS (in hopes to see any relatives, of course), and had a flash of recognition, and was able to predict the winning powerball numbers with the aid of her spirit guide - Elvis, naturally. Of course, we didn't see this on TV or any scientific journals, or anything even vauguely resembling a respectable journalism source, except for the pinnacle of the printed page, the Sun, right beside the article on Whitney Houston and Pauly Shore's exciting affair, for three possible reasons.

1) All canonical examples of this particular trait are kept secret by all experiencees, in hopes that someday they can combine and form a human psychic wall capable of converting the world into Psychic-ianity (WTF would it be called), and at the very least, locate Elvis.

2) She did infact win the powerball, but had to spend the money on bail for her pa, bruther, and 'er maw. And the two fathers of her four children.

3) And lastly, we could be in the dark about it due to the fact that she is indeed Psychic and used her powers for good, not evil, and joined the
"Psychic Friends / Wet, Sweaty Phone Sex" Infomercials, which air at 2:30am, and nobody in their right mind would be concious enough to see it. Of course, if they did, they'd get the "Authentic" Psychic reading they were advertised for $45.13/Minute, and whose precious questions are answered with responses no more specific than "I feel that you are....Human, and judging by your name, a female. Please Hold."

*Insert Snappy Kenny G Tune Here*

"Thank you for holding. Your children - "
"I don't have children."
"Please hold."
"Thank you for holding, big boy. Show me right where you want me to put it, I'm your skanky ho tonight."
"Um, I'm confused."
"Oh, Please Hold."

That's one belief system I gotta get me into. I don't see any reason why that can't be anything BUT the absolute truth and be all and end all of anything!

Where's the sign-up sheet?

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"What happens if a big asteroid hits the Earth? Judging from realistic simulations involving a sledge hammer and a common laboratory frog, we can assume it will be pretty bad."
- Dave Barry

Xentrick: Oh, now it's my fault to quote somebody. What? A college student can't be an artist? A college student can't prefer right-brained thinking to left-brained thinking (or rather, a balanced thinking)? What's the problem?

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"Poetic souls delight in prose insane."
--Lord Byron

"learning" implies "knowledge"

"knowledge" implies logic, facts, etc.

To hold that science as a whole is just a matter of public opinion polls is to give in to astrology, palmistry, and whatever New Age delusion is this season's fad (ear-candles? magnetic shoe inserts?)

Creative Writing major, poet, artist. (Right-brain)
Scientist, logical philosopher, gamer (Left-brain)
I've got it on the ball, honey.
I've looked at it all from BOTH sides now.

That said...
"Science is just another story" is one of the most hare-brained, ludicrous concepts I've ever run across, designed to make people who know that their beliefs haven't a SHRED of rationality feel better about themselves.

Name me another "story" which challenges itself, which welcomes honest inquiry, which is based on raw, physical, observable, testable data, not hopes and fears and wants and 'wouldn't it be groovy if.'

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"Ed Gruberman, you fail to grasp Ty Kwan Leap. Approach me, that you might see." -- The Master

You were raised as a strict Catholic right? Now, the story of someone raised strictly in one religion rebelling against his or her parents and then believing, just as strongly, in another religion, isn' uncommon. Hell, I'm expecting Omega to become a Budhist an about 4 years time.

It's not what you believe. It's how your arguing. It's just as bad as Omega's "The world is actually only 23 miutes old. i know this because I read old stuff." This is worse than "I believe in God because I have faith". This is "I believe in N because their are books that say it. Books I tell you! That have information about people from California who say things that MUST BE TRUE!"