Al Billings wrote:
>
> Cymm wrote:
>
> > But there's a hell of a lot of orthodox scientific bigotry going on here.
> > Natural, to be sure, in a Kuhnian sense... but to be kept in rein - if we
> > want to be good extropians.
>
> Thank you. I couldn't have said any of it better than you did in your post.
Considering what I think most or at least many of us think about the likes of
Kuhn, thats a pretty meaningless statement. Bigotry is distain or hate that is
not based on rational argument or actual facts. Hating individuals or groups who
have in fact done heinous things, for example, is not bigotry, because it is
factually well established why they are to be hated, no stereotypes or
prejudices are involved. Hating individuals who are members of groups that have
done heinous things in the past, but which they themselves as individuals have
not done, and show no evidence of doing, is prejudicial, but it is also arguable
that it is a prejudice with some merit, though not conclusive by any means. The
more we know about such individuals allows us to better judge whether or not
they are deserving of our distain.
What is natural is that, in accordance with the scientific principle, given
enough examples of people in a certain group that do prove their right to our
distain, it is natural for people to lend credence to rules about certain
patterns (BTW: This is actually directly contradictory to Kuhn, who claims its a
matter of class struggle).
So the questions to debate are:
Can ideas or opinions merit distain?
Under what criteria do they properly earn distain?
Are any people who espouse those ideas or opinions to be accorded the distain
consistent with those ideas or opinions?
Under what criteria are such people to be accorded that level of distain?
Now, Al, contrary to what you might think, I do have difficulty with the level
of vehement distain that many people on the list have for anyone or anything
spiritual, mystical, or religious. I have constrained my own statements here,
for example, I say that in my experience, only some or many of the mystical
people I know are know nothing zipperheads who don't like to think. I most
explicitly did not say I think that all such people are.
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