Howdy from Texas...

[navvelline]

Welcome!  

[Thumpalumpacus]

Hola fellow Texan - there's actually quite a few Texans on here....we should have a Texas meetup or something....that would be cool...anyhow, welcome and stuff from your friendly neighborhood Squid in south Texas.

Being exiled to SoCal, I love how many Texans are here.  Takes me home.  

[The Magic Pudding]

Howdy madness.
I spent hours Texas Rangeren when iza yougen, that's how I nose how to greet folks propa.

[wildfire_emissary]

Howdy madness!
I'ts been suggested that the primary source of government revenue is from Texas.

[ablprop]

I vacillate between being entirely intolerant of organized religion and having a 'live and let live' attitude.  Lately I've been much more intolerant as more and more religion is being pushed down my throat

Hi Madness. I'm new here, too. I struggle with the same thing. I'm a science educator. More and more, I find that a supernatural world view, even a moderate one, gets in the way of appreciating the true wonder of the world. For instance, if you believe that evolution is how "god did it," then you miss the true message of evolution, that we're damned lucky to be here. If you believe that everything happens for a reason, then you can't see the dangers posed by things like environmental collapse, supervolcanoes, asteroid impact, and so on.

Someone recently told me that you can't fill a container that's already full. So now my question is, how do we empty those containers? And should we?

[PoopShoot]

How exactly does one determine the true message of evolution?  I wasn't aware that evolution even had a message.

[ablprop]

How exactly does one determine the true message of evolution?  I wasn't aware that evolution even had a message.

Then you get it!

Here's the thing. I've encountered many people who can accept evolution, but believe that's just the way god did things. I want them to understand, then, that they believe in and worship a god who uses pain and death routinely. When male lions and gorillas take over a group, the first thing they do is kill all the infants. This makes perfect evolutionary sense, but what does it say about a god who would use such a method? The natural world is full of pain, terror, and horrible death. Exactly what you'd expect if there were no plan and no designer.

And, to look in the other direction, we can expect the future to be full of the same thing. The universe (metaphorically) will certainly kill us if we don't do something to save ourselves. I think Pascal got it exactly wrong. There is terrible, terrible danger in having a supernatural world view. It blinds you to the reality of our unlikely arrival here, and our precarious continued existence. Our only hope is us.

How's that for a cheery morning thought?

[TheWilliam]

Ha!  TheWilliam, I'm not hip-anything!

[PoopShoot]

How's that for a cheery morning thought?

It's one that I disagree with.

[ablprop]

It's one that I disagree with.

OK. Do you disagree that the universe is a dangerous place and that without active effort we will become extinct? Or do you disagree that natural selection is built on pain and death? Or both?

[PoopShoot]

Neither.  I disagree that a supernatural worldview is inherently detrimental.

[ablprop]

Neither.  I disagree that a supernatural worldview is inherently detrimental.

OK. Thanks for clarifying. You may be right. It may not be detrimental (who am I to say), but in my experience, it gets in the way of my teaching.

I'm glad we agree on the other two points.

[PoopShoot]

but in my experience, it gets in the way of my teaching.

Yeah, but i think that often has more to do with the specifics of the supernatural view.  I bet teaching a buddhist wouldn't be any different than teaching any student with a more natural worldview, with the possible exception of their annoying tendency to parse everything in overly mystical terms.

I'm glad we agree on the other two points.

What's to agree on?  they're not opinions, they're facts.

[jduster]

Welcome!

I can clearly understand where you're coming from.