MY IGNORANCE IS AS GOOD AS

Isaac Asimov. I think I cut my science fiction loving teeth on his stories along with Campbell and Heinlein.

 There is, and has been, a strain of "my stupid is just as good as your smarts" in this country." And to be honest it's killing us. It got a boost with the Palin candidacy back in '08. It really reared its ugly head in 2012 with the candidates who went on and on and on about whether or not a woman could get pregnant if she was "really" raped for example. It really became totally weird in the last elections with a candidate who finally picked up her GED when she decided to run for congress representing a district in Colorado. 

Then there is the rep from Georgia, real estate broker and life coach, who is comparing the upoming federal vaccine mandate with the Nuremberg Code that was drafted after the Nuremberg trials in an attempt to define medical ethics. Especially in response the the medical "experiments" conducted in the concentration camps without the consent of the victims. These vaccines are not experiments. Most were already in the pipeline when the Covid SARS varient kicked the world in the ass. While no one is going through the streets ringing a bell and calling "bring out your dead" ICU's are filling up again. I don't know much about other states but last I heard Idaho was at maximum and the doctors were looking at triaging care.  

We also saw it during one of the forced budget shutdows with the congressman from I forget where (and I decided to no waste my time looking him up there was probably something better I could do with that five minutes) who wasn't really sure what it was all about but he knew that he and his fellows wanted to get some respect. For what? Breathing? Existing? Waking up in the morning, being a total embarrasment to the folks who voted for him? Actually I'm not sure about that last one since some of these "reps" keep getting reelected. 

And if you don't mind feeling like you took a dip in the moat during high summer you can find sterling examples in the comments section of just about any story about science (especially if evolution is involved), gay rights or religion.

One of the best examples I can still find is this story on HP. The original comments seem to have disappeared from the original article so the one that triggered this set of responses is no longer there. It would be funny if it wasn't so pathetic. One commenter claimed that he was studying anthropology (admired Louis Leakey) but ran across information that made him question what he was being taught and he dropped the field. 

I FINALLY got him to provide some links. What shook his faith in Anthropology? The Piltdown Maa and a story about how early modern humans aren't being called Cro Magnon anymore. Cro Magnon referred to where a set of fossils were discoverd in France. At the time these fossils were just about all we had for modern humans. We have many more from amost all over the world. I really didn't want to pursue that line any further. Hell I've known Piltdown was hoax for like forever. As for changing the names give me a freakin' break. I suspect the author of the comments doesn't really know too much about Anthropology.

Actually I first learned about the Piltdown forgery in a comic book. A comic book. The publisher's used to stick a one page prose article in with the picture story. Fossil hunting was in its infancy and the serach was on for the so called "missing link." To be honest the "is that a pebble or a tooth" crowd are still searching and sifting. If I wanted to update my seventies's era Anthro degree I would have to start from scratch that's how the fields have advanced.

Now we come to the really fun exchange. I guess it was fun. Again I don't know whether to laugh or cry. The fundies were out in force and for folks who demand we respect them? Well, you gotta give it to get it and calling people names while you prove you don't understand what in the H E double tooth picks you're talking about is a strange way to go about it.

What follows is a prime example. And yes, I'm being extremely sarcastic. When you find yourself on the north side of sixty you start losing the incentive to play nice in the play ground. Anyway the other guy's comments are bolded. Mine are in italics.

"Our belief is a lot solid compared to the "might have come, possibly, maybe, could haves, probably, possibly gibberish theories you people keep holding on to. At least our faith is unshakable and rooted firmly in God. You people believe and trust uncertainty. Now that's funny. No wonder science always comes up short of answers and falls flat when proving the source of life. To believe in evolution is saying, you're one big accident. A BIG MISTAKE. I regret wasting my time talking to you fools because you're just one big mistake in your own hearts. From now on, live a meaningless life without purpose, without a plan, without desires without creation and without dreams because your source has none of that. Living any other way would be going away and contradicting the source which you came from." Notice that there's a whole paragraph that doesn't say a whole heck of a lot actually. And science is all about uncertainty. You describe a problem, do the research, design experiments that may give you an answer, present it to your peers for approval (or "we believe you need to go back to the drawing board"), publish your findings and hope that you have found the answer. At least until someone finds a better answer. 

Me "Depends on your vision of God/Creator/Singer/harp player - however you see Him/Her. If your vision is closer to that of the old Irish, the German mystics;Hildegard or Eckhart, the early Quakers then the Creator and the universe are one and the same. The question becomes how you treat the universe. If the Creator is continually singing the universe into being then you are walking on sacred ground no matter where you are. Best to step softly and carefully."

"You're either insane, a monkey or out of this world. Are you still evolving into something we don't know about. If being a monkey is not good enough for you, let me know, I'll wait till you become an octopus with legs." Now I ask you, what the heck is going on here? Anyway I thought of and discarded at least a half dozen possible responses and settled for this. 

“Don't spend all those nickels in one place. Curious. How did you get from my comment, which reflects a perfectly good view of the universe, to yours? Check out half the Irish monks that made their way down to the heel of Italy's boot, Saint Francis, Meister Eckhart and Hildegard of Bingen. That'll do for starters.” And that was the end of that thread. 

I did not mention the obvious. About the only thing we have in common with an octopus is the fact that a humna and an octopus are both animals. An octopus is a mollusc. Even if what is left of the original shell is buried deep in its body. Humans are chordates. We have more in common with a rainbow trout or a cobra than we do with an octopus.  Even if humans did branch off a a being that made its home in the seas and rivers we would still be air breathing mammals with backbones. 

What's scary is that I believe this is the real deal not just a troll. The threads go on for too long and the entries are too consistent. And a prime example of the folks that don't seem know how evolution by natural selection works but don't seem realize why an octopus and a human have so little in common. We both live on the planet earth and we're both animals and that's just about it. 

 And even if I could pull it off  I still have absolutely no desire to become an octopus with those eight tentacles. Too damn much trouble.