Appolinaria

You said I shouldn't get mad because I want everything to be sunshine and lollipops all of the time. I took it as you alluding to the fact that I'm childish. I find this insulting. If it wasn't to be taken personally, cool. I'm still waiting on a response as to a specific example of where ridicule has been shown to advance science.

f this shit, were all running around in circles like woodland creatures on crack. just stop arguing and fetch me some grapes, minions.

That's because the quote is taken too far. A sabre-toothed tiger is a ridiculous example. However, a galaxy we have not observed is likely.

grow a pair. "cowboys" don't insult women like you did earlier.

Yeah, it's actually kind of confusing.

Ridicule is not valid because the foundation you base ridicule on can be swept from under your feet in an instant... All of these quotes express not to adhere too strongly to any belief. Ridicule is not possible if you don't adhere too strongly to any belief.

Oh, come on, imatfaal. You're kidding me, right?

You know how many cowboys I've seen crying for mommy over lollipop, sunshine filled girls? Anyway, stop attacking people iNow, you're gonna lose all credibility of your argument!

Imatfaal- I appreciate your response, and can see your viewpoint. I might be pulling an Aristarchus here, but I feel it's appropriate. These apply to all of us, equally. "Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence." - Sir Martin Rees "Everything we know is only some kind of approximation, because we know that we do not know all the laws yet. Therefore, things must be learned only to be unlearned again or, more likely, to be corrected." - Richard Feynman "They are ill discoverers that think there is no land when they see nothing but sea." - Francis Bacon "The task is not to see what has never been seen before, but to think what has never been thought before about what you see everyday." - Erwin Schrodinger "The man who cannot occasionally imagine events and conditions of existence that are contrary to the causal principle as he knows it will never enrich his science by the addition of a new idea." - Max Planck "It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it." -Aristotle "Desire for approval and recognition is a healthy motive, but the desire to be acknowledged as better, stronger, or more intelligent than a fellow being or fellow scholar easily leads to an excessively egoistic psychological adjustment, which may become injurious for the individual and for the community." - Albert Einstein "The human understanding, when any preposition has been once laid down... forces everything else to add fresh support and confirmation; and although more cogent and abundant instances may exist to the contrary, yet it either does not observe them or it despises them, or it gets rid of and rejects them by some distinction, with violent and injurious prejudice, rather than sacrifice the authority of its first conclusions." - Francis Bacon "If we will only allow that, as we progress, we remain unsure, we will leave opportunities for alternatives. We will not become enthusiastic for the fact, the knowledge, the absolute truth of the day, but remain always uncertain... In order to make progress, one must leave the door to the unknown ajar." - Richard Feynman "When I examined myself and my methods of thought, I came to the conclusion that the gift of fantasy has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing positive knowledge." - A. Einstein "If the man doesn't believe as we do, we say he is a crank, and that settles it. I mean, it does nowadays, because now we can't burn him." - Mark Twain "Let the mind be enlarged... to the grandeur of the mysteries, and not the mysteries contracted to the narrowness of the mind" - Francis Bacon "A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it." - M. Planck "No matter how we may single out a complex from nature...its theoretical treatment will never prove to be ultimately conclusive... I believe that this process of deepening of theory has no limits." - Albert Einstein, 1917 "The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift." - Albert Einstein "Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind." -Albert Einstein "Science is not only compatible with spirituality; it is a profound source of spirituality." - Carl Sagan "The high-minded man must care more for the truth than for what people think." - Aristotle "I can live with doubt and uncertainty and not knowing. I think it is much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers that might be wrong." - Richard Feynman "In any field, find the strangest thing and then explore it." - John A. Wheeler "I love fools' experiments, I am always making them." - Darwin "I have steadily endeavored to keep my mind free so as to give up any hypothesis, however much beloved (and I cannot resist forming one on every subject), as soon as the facts are shown to be opposed to it." - Charles Darwin

Please do not get all apoplectic because I do not feel the need to approach others who differ from me with hostility, malice, or death. Sorry, but maybe I do not have a superiority complex, elitist mentality, or genocidal tendency to feed. Perhaps ridicule is beneficial, but I see no evidence... just opinion. And my opinion is as good as yours. You have no reason to insult me attributing my standpoint with lollipops, sunshine, a childish demeanor, etc. I did not insult anyone. I don't necessarily think their opinion is not possible. I will provide incredibly trivial evidence on my standpoint that ridicule doesn't help conclude any scientific facts about our universe. I don't believe the scientific method contains a step saying "make sure you ridicule as much as possible, this is necessary". Plenty of scientists have used this method to develop science, without ridicule. Refute my evidence, with evidence that ridicule has been shown to advance science. I am willing to see your point of view if hard proof is given of where ridicule has been beneficial to establishing scientific facts about our universe.

Ridicule is a waste of time and deduces absolutely nothing about our universe. Reacting to any person with malice or death because of a crackpot idea, especially one who hasn't shown the same hostility towards you.. is interesting, to say the least. But there is no need for me to ridicule someone with a different opinion than myself.

Oh, ya, typo, thx.

Or what about the Baghdad Battery... How do you suppose ancient people powered their flashlights, Mr. Cuthber?

Lol, I don't think you have the blue screen of death if it goes away. Mine made my computer go kaput.

The blue screen of death claimed my netbook. no more torrents 4 me plz

Good post, Iggy.

Yes, I totally understand your point, Mooey. But what I'm trying to say is that pink unicorns (like gold spheres larger than 1 mile) don't exist here, most likely never will, but that is not guaranteed by any law we have. There is a crucial difference between an accidental generalization, and a law... the latter denotes scientific reasoning in my opinion. Rationality is subject to opinion based on one's environment, science is not.

The point I am trying to make has absolutely nothing to do with religion. The inability of observation does not mean something doesn't exist. I like the following example; "Consider the unrestricted generalization that all gold spheres are less than one mile in diameter. There are no gold spheres that size and in all likelihood there never will be, but this is still not a law..." "All gold spheres are less than a mile in diameter. All uranium spheres are less than a mile in diameter." "Though the former is not a law, the latter arguably is. The latter is not nearly so accidental as the first, since uranium's critical mass is such as to guarantee that such a large sphere will never exist (van Fraassen 1989, 27)."

I blame it on Cuthber. I'm expressing (IMO, valid) neutral points... others are using religion as an example. I just responded.

Uncertainty doesn't mean non-existence.

But there is nothing that proves a creator doesn't exist. Tainting a possible explanation with a biased opinion is illogical.