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Science a Mystery to U.S. Citizens
maddugan writes "CNN and probably others are posting their synopses of the National Science Foundation's biennial report on the state of science understanding in the US. Sixty percent of those surveyed believe in ESP, psychic power, and alien abduction."
Organized religion must be thrown out. It's clear that throughout history, religion has been at the root of so much death and destruction, from the Crusades in the Middle Ages to the terrorist attacks of September 11.
It coulds minds with ridiculous myths, untruths, fosters intolerance, and narrow-mindedness that have no place in today's 21st century technological, multifaceted society.
Ban organized religion, not only US, but worldwide -- it's what's holding back progress in places like Africa, the Middle East, India, and so much more.
Just like forced slavery and child labor, religion is an antiquated relic of the past that must be eradicated in the world, a scourge that hobbles the progress of the human race, like a ball and shackle.
There's 10 types of people in this world, those who understand binary and those who don't.
I'm certain that a majority of Americans also believe in life after death... that the world will end a la the new testament book of revelation... that there are angels...that satan and hell are real...that if they hold certain beliefs they will be spared eternal torture after they die...that the bible contains the unerring words of the one and only omnicient god of the universe...
Why doesn't anyone write an article about how ridiculous that is?
You like your Macintosh better than me, don't you Dave? Dave? Can you hear me Dave?
ESP, psychic power, and alien abduction
These things don't look any more superstitious to me than time travel, wormholes, black holes, parallel universes, quantum computing and the like. If scientists can openly believe in a bunch of crap without fear of being labeled crackpots, why can't the general public?
If a scientist has a theory for a natural phenomenon and yet cannot explain it in simple language that the average lay-person can understand, there is a 90% probability that it's crap. Furthermore, if the scientist claims that one needs math to understand the theory, then there is a 100% probability that he or she is as clueless about the phenomenon as everyone else.
Wow. More america bashing. You guys are great. So very original. I wish you would post what country you are from so I can unload some world history on your ass. America isn't the only nasty country in the world... as a matter of fact most of the countries in the world have done or currently do Very Bad Things(tm). I'll admit that America is one of um. I'm trying my damnedest to get out of this country.
/. babble gets +4.
:P
/. in the past week have had a couple US-bashing +5's. I hate this country more than anyone else in the world could ever possibly imagine, but at least be intelligent about your bashing.
BUT DID YOU EVER THINK THAT PERHAPS THE AVERAGE CNN.COM READER ISN'T A GOOD CROSS-SECTION OF AMERICANS???
Ye gods. You get +4 for a run of the mill, multible choice, american bashing post. Why not use your brain instead? I'm sick of seeing non-intelligent crap like this get modded up. I write an amazing post on U232 shells and it doesn't get touched, but your typical
Either:
a) Blah Blah Blah Blah
b) America sux0rz!!!!!!!
c) All of the above
I'd almost feel sad for you if it weren't for my desire to see you die in a ditch somewhere. I do hope your a resident of Iraq when we blow that whole fucking country to hell next year. I wouldn't mind listening to the trolls rant about how we "slaughtered" millions (of terrorist-supporters) as long as you wake up with a serious case of radiation poisoning.
Don't get me wrong, I'm a very peacefull guy. I'm very tired and a good bit fed up. 1/2 of the articles I've read on
Enough is enough.
-EvilMonkeyNinja
Mild Mannered Host by Day
Wild Hammered Programmer by Night
They shuv OOP down our throats without first getting objective evidence, or even side-by-side comparisons, that it is globally superior.
They have gotten carried away before with Expert Systems and heavy-top-down (hierarchical structured decomposition). Thus, they have been wrong before.
Just admit that it is a black art and stop pretending like it is "science". Bertrand Meyer is an Alchemist. (And he mis-uses his own "single choice principle.")
(This concludes another anti-OO rant.)
Table-ized A.I.
Oh, please. +5, Insightful? Have we got a bunch of jealous anti-Americans as moderators today?
I can tell you where the America-is-the-world attitude comes from, though, if you care to understand it. First off, for the people who don't already: have you ever BEEN there?
The United States is HUMUNGOUS! I've lived outside of it for a while, and one thing that strikes me is how small it seems almost every other country is. You can drive across the UK in a matter of hours. The same amount of time would get you across just half of Colorado.
How often does the average U.S. citizen actually have to communicate from somebody outside of the U.S.? Not bloody often. If you ask a French person who their neighbors are when talking about politics, chances are they'll name the British and the Spanish. Somebody from Nevada will name Californians and Utahns.
How much is the average U.S. citizen directly affected by the policies of the U.S.'s neighboring countries? Compare that to the direct effect of a neighboring state's policies, and the answer is: not much at all.
So before you shoot off your crapper about how isolationist the U.S. population is as a whole, consider the environment. The people live in a very large superpower country. Contact with foreigners is minimal. It's going to be that way. Deal.
I got my Linux laptop at System76.
Let me add that I have seen surveys and studies like this as far back as I can remember. Americans can't find the US on a map, American's can't read, Americans can't add, American public schools are cespools of ignorance and incompetence. America is fucked and it is going down the drain.
That's why Americans have a substantially lower standard of living than they did in 1965. Why the US has never taken the lead in fields like Space exploration, computers, software, telecommunications, cultural exports, robotics, high tech manufacturing, military technology, aerospace, etc. Why the US economy has become the less dominant, and why the US dollar is no longer the de facto world currency. That's why countries with excellent and exacting education systems have done so well. Like Japan and Switzerland.
What these surveys measure are not "facts", they measure cultural norms. US culture has a streak of anti-intellectualism. American culture is more can-do than think-it-through. This is true even in movies about intellectuals, like "Good Will Hunting" and "A Beautiful Mind". This is neither good nor bad, it just is.
On an individual basis, Americans prize education and knowledge. They are generally happy to talk about intricate ideas. Put them in a group and all they will talk about is football. That is what these surveys show again and again.
Indeed so. Thank goodness that's never going to happen. Oh, hang on...