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Re: Good climate change skeptics

Posted by glen ropella on Sep 23, 2015; 4:19pm
URL: http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/Good-climate-change-skeptics-tp7586673p7586691.html


Y'all do a good job of highlighting the importance of the context for such a forum.  Here's another time-wasting anecdote:

I spend way too much time trying to make peace with the local atheists.  When I go to their meetings and the topics of faith or the supernatural or mystical come up, I have to be very careful about the sheer pleasure I get out of stories about occult beliefs, conspiracy theories, and alternatives to accepted scientific theories.  I have to be careful, I think, because most of these people (atheists who need the social support of other atheists) are ex-theists.  It's like a support group for alcoholics or cancer caregivers.  I kinda have to treat it like a "sacred space".  That means _not_ defending concepts like faith, either in the Kierkegaard conception or Nick's (faith the floor is there when I get out of bed), the former of which I've tried and failed miserably.  Defending a subtle concept of faith to this crowd is like arguing for moderation instead of abstinence at an AA meeting. //*

So, if I were a climate scientist, regardless of what I believed about AGW, I would avoid this forum.  By contrast, if I were a climate activist, I'd want to be there.


On 09/23/2015 07:52 AM, Gillian Densmore wrote:
> yeah I don't know that a person can stay sane and constantly question what they do.

I think it's easier than we might think.  I think the key doesn't lie in questioning (everything) one does.  The key lies (as you point out) in how seriously you take things, especially your own actions.  Actually, "seriousness" is the wrong concept.  The right concept is "commitment", how committed you are to your actions, including your beliefs.  If you're committed (convinced, convicted, with conviction), then you're doomed.  Skepticism depends on the ability to retract previous (tentative) commitments when it's appropriate to do so.  And that includes physical actions as well as thoughts.  A good fighter can tweak her strike at any point along its path.  Competent strikes, like assertions of belief, should never be "fire and forget".  As you bring your foot to the floor in the morning, if the floor doesn't push back as expected, _don't_ get out of bed, just yet. 8^)


> On Wed, Sep 23, 2015 at 8:27 AM, Steve Smith <[hidden email] <mailto:[hidden email]>> wrote:
>     In a century (if there is anyone there to reflect on it) we will laugh at some of our strongest beliefs

I strongly hold that laughability and strongly held beliefs are correlated.

--
⇔ glen

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