Re: Notice to Scott Gamon

[johnlb@primenet.com (John Bowling)]

In article <Pine.ULT.3.96.970603121420.27843B-100000@occs.cs.oberlin.edu>,
Toby Reiter  <treiter@cs.oberlin.edu> wrote:
>On 3 Jun 1997, Nathan Mates wrote:
>
>>    Scott- if you can't think to make sure you're speaking the facts,
>> and all of them, then please be quiet until you learn to do so.
>
>Nathan, you are REALLY annoying me now.  There is no reason on earth that
>you should HURT the Apple II community just because you can't live with
>the fact that there are other reasons for speaking with another human being
>that giving them "facts".  
>
>In fact, it amazes me that a person who is as religious as you seem to be
>(from looking at you web page) should have such a literal interpretation
>of knowledge. How can you balance your deep-set Christianity with your
>obsession with empirical evidence? Empirical evidence would seem to push
>anyone away from, for instance, a biblical understanding of history.
>However, a non-literal interpretation of the bible would allow one to do
>so. I can't see how a person who refuses to see anything other than
>black-and-white could possibly use such an interpretation.
>
>> <*> Nathan Mates http://www.visi.com/~nathan/      <*>
>> # What are the facts? Again and again and again-- what are the _facts_?
>> # Shun wishful thinking, avoid opinion, care not what the neighbors
>> # think-- what are the facts, and to how many decimal places?  -R.A. Heinlein
>
>This quotation just about sums up some of the problems inherent to your
>belief system. "Shun wishful thinking?" If there had never been wishful
>thinking, there wouldn't be a wheel, let alone Apple II computers.
>Obviously opinion has greater importance than fact--it doesn't matter if
>the world is round if no one believes it! What the neighbors think will
>have a great deal of influence--they could elect a politician, even if
>he's not the best candidate, or choose a computer system, even if it's not
>better quality (witness the world's use of MS-DOS, Windows, etc. over
>Apple II's).  
>
>I don't believe there actually are any absolute truths, and even if they
>did exist, their importance to humanity would not be based upon the extent
>to which they were true.  Rather, they would be important to the extent
>that a belief in that "truth" was valuable to the person who believed in
>it.  This is what makes faith significant.
>
>Anyway, I hate cluttering up an Apple II newsgroup with philosophy, but I
>really think it's time you, and others thought about the true reasons why
>we are all here: because we love the Apple II and _believe_ it can be a
>great computer.
>
>Thanks,
>Toby Reiter
>

What seems strange to me is that someone who "shuns wishfull thinking"
is at all religious == the area where the most wishfull thinking is done!

John


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