17 thoughts on “The truth about scientism”

  2. It is so true (maybe even True) that scientisimists do not discriminate about such things. We see beauty in such things as slime molds and hag fish. Heck, we even see beauty in black holes, where there is nothing we can see.*

    * Yes, yes, yes; Hawking radiation and beautiful equations etc. In the Late-Afternoon-Tea-Time Church of Gnu Scientism we don’t have karma. We have pedant points. These are awarded for exceptional pedantic observations in the face of poorly structured humourous sentences. You don’t get to cash them in for a better reincarnation, but there may be merit badges in the future.

      1. Sarcasm has been a great source of contention within the various segments of the Greater and Lesser Churches of Gnu Scientism.

        There is one school of thought that is characterised by the ‘We should not use sarcasm as it detracts from the clarity of our message.’ argument. The counter-school response is characterised by the ‘Oh Yeah Right. We should not use sarcasm as it detracts from the clarity of our message.’ counter-argument.

        Personally I subscribe to the former as a general rule, but have been known to “follow the rule. Pffft.” from time to time. I hope this helps, and does not prevent you from becoming a member of the Church of Gnu Scientism (In All Its Forms).

  4. This is why I’m so bad at parties. I remember once when I wanted to share the excitement of my tarantula’s molt; and another when the topic foremost on my mind was the size of the worms that came out of my cat…

    2. Now the cat is out of the bag, the worms are out of the cat. The only way of stuffing everything back in is getting the worms into a bigger cat into a bigger bag. There’s entropy for you.

      But wait, while the cat is back in the bag, there is the probability of it being alive, superposed with the probability of it being deceased; expired; ex-cat; metabolic processes now history.
      Enter the worms. Rather, exeunt the worms. One of them manages to disentangle itself from quantum entanglement, escapes through a wormhole, and pfffft, the wave function collapses. So does the cat. She was lovingly known by the name of Maya.
      And that was the Great Maya Collapse of 2012.

      Happy New Year, probably.

    3. I commonly hang out with other goat people and farmers.

      On the few occasions when we mix with civilians, we are always surprised that they don’t find our discussions of breeding and genetics, disease, butchering techniques, cheese molds (both the kind you inoculate with, and the kind you put the curds into), injury treatments (ours and theirs), and birthing dystocias fascinating.

      Sometimes they’re actually grossed out.

      Can’t seem to figure out why. L

      1. Obviously, my only problem lies in not attending parties with you, Occam, and Rixaeton!

        1. Then let’s!
          My problem is that we won’t be able to be in exactly the same place at exactly the same time, according to Pauli. Sadder still, we can’t even share the same impulse; or so Heisenberg tells me. And if we’re to dance, I can take you only to a half-spin. So it will all have to be rather fuzzy.

  5. I think that it is sad that people who have had the fantastic good fortune to be born in these scientifically enlightened times prefer to remain in ignorance. The live out their whole lives without ever understanding the world any better than they did when they were toddlers.

  6. I once went to party where I found myself in conversation with another parent about when to talk to our children about things like sex and drugs. All of the sudden he said that he still hadn’t told his 8.5 year old twins that Santa doesn’t exist because he wanted to keep their lives magical and interesting for as long as possible before the inevitable banality and misery kicked in. I was stunned into a WTF moment.

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