Space Forum / Space Science / January 2008

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David,

You're wasting your time. People whi live by faith (fear) cannot be
persuaded by facts and logic.

My immortality (at least for one or two generations) will be in the
memories of those whose lives I have touched, for better or for worse. I
have no problem with that. I used to tell my daughter that the atoms in my
body were older than the atoms in her body. When she got to be about seven,
she figured out that we are all essentially Ylem.

-> You're wasting your time. People whi live by faith (fear) cannot be
-> persuaded by facts and logic.
 
The trouble is, a lot of people are persuaded more by the volumes of
arguments than by their validities. If we allow Min and his ilk to
scream his bullshit here over and over again, with no response, then
some people will come to believe that he must be right. This is a
mistake that we atheists have made repeatedly for a long time. We have
thought that we needn't counter the tirades of theists since rational
people will clearly see their vacuousness. But human nature doesn't
work that way.
 
I don't believe we will ever convince Min. He is beyond reason. But we
may reduce the damage he does.
 
He has already pretty well destroyed this newsgroup. The best
contributors here, such as Ron Baalke, have gone elsewhere, to a
moderated group, sci.space.news, where Min would not be allowed to post
his nonsense. Sad.
 
                           dow

-> I do admire your stalwartness in this effort, David. I tend to only open
-> posts that relate to the group subject, in this case, alt.sci.planetary. I
-> only opened this one because I saw that you had posted a reply to
-> it.
 
Thanks for the compliments!
 
I guess, as a former teacher, I tend to see the newsgroup as something
like a classroom. There are people who do all the talking, but there
are also people, probably a greater number, who just listen and
possibly learn. I don't know how many of these are here, maybe just a
handful or maybe hundreds, but I am sure there must be some. And - also
as a former teacher - I don't want these people to be exposed only to
the rantings of the likes of Min. If they are, they may be inclined to
accept what he says. But if we provide some more rational postings for
them to read, they may, I hope, reach some rational conclusions of
their own.
 
-> I subscribe to sci.space.news to get information from Ron Baalke and Andrew
-> Yee.
 
I see Andrew Yee on TV from time to time. Whenever I do, I am reminded
of a guy of the same name who was a Grade 13 math student of mine some
25 years ago. Could they be the same person? It's possible. I believe
the one on TV is here in Toronto. At least, he is when he does the TV
programs. And Toronto is where I taught. Maybe I should contact the TV
company and try to find out.
 
Happy New Year to you, too, and to everyone else here - including the
silent ones.
 
                           dow