Re: virus: New Ideas

David McFadzean (morpheus@lucifer.com)
Sat, 24 May 1997 18:15:58 -0600


> From: Dave Pape <davepape@dial.pipex.com>
> Date: Friday, May 23, 1997 5:09 PM
>
> I've been lurking for ages (time constraints and shit) but have ducked the
> faith argument cos... I think that scientists accept a LOT of things
> technically on faith, in that they haven't done the relevant experiments
> themselves but just accept other people's word on the matter in question (ie
> a meme comes in and meshes easily, unchallengedly, with their memecologies).

Do you think scientists accept any random person's word on the matters
in question? Or perhaps do they have good reason, like the other person
is educated and has published in a peer reviewed journal? If they believe
whatever is in black & white, then I would call it faith. Otherwise it most
certainly is not.

I'm starting to get the impression that I'm the only one around here that
has a scientist's perspective on faith (as described in, say, Carl Sagan's
excellent "The Demon Haunted World"). Is it just me and Carl vs. the
world?

--
David McFadzean                 david@lucifer.com
Memetic Engineer                http://www.lucifer.com/~david/
Church of Virus                 http://www.lucifer.com/virus/