[WikiEN-l] Abuse of your services

Sat May 7 07:53:24 UTC 2005

Michael P. Hopcroft wrote:

> Ray Saintonge wrote:
>
>> Michael P. Hopcroft wrote:
>>
>>> First of all, the man is an ASTROLOGER. That doesn't bode well for 
>>> his logical capacities in the first place unless he's an outright 
>>> fraud. "Serious discusssion of astrology" is no more possible than 
>>> serious discussion of the belief that every object in the Universe 
>>> is a uniform shade of purple. 
>>
>> That's a shamefully ignorant comment of the kind that can be expected 
>> from those who believe more in scientism than science.
>
> I have no idea what 'scientism" is, but I do know that the idea that 
> randomly placed thermonuclear reactors dozens, hundreds and thousands 
> of light-years away have a direct influence on what happens to human 
> beings on Earth is illogical to the point of delusion. Even if they 
> were capable of thought, which is insanity in itself, how could they 
> possibly care? 

According to Oxford scientism is the "excessive belief in the power of 
scientific knowledge and techniques."  In many instances it takes on the 
characteristics of a religion.

You began by making a wild comment about astrology and astrologers, and 
now you want to compound the issue with your creationist premise that 
someone has been going around placing thermonuclear reactors just so 
that you can set up some kind of straw man argument.

> Some hypotheses are too utterly absurd to be worth exploring. And I'm 
> going to drop the subject at this point because we are getting 
> woefully off-topic.

Absurdity is a Point of View, but since the only hypothesis that has 
been raised is yours about the placement of thermonuclear reactors, I 
must agree with you. 

Since you were the one that raised the issue of astrology and chose to 
say nothing about it, and furthermore want to drop your subject I must 
agree with that and accept your apology.

Ec