Aliens On Earth.com Resources for those who are stranded here Our Bookstore is OPEN Over 5000 new & used titles, competitively priced! Topics: UFOs - Paranormal - Area 51 - Ghosts - Forteana - Conspiracy - History - Biography - Psychology - Religion - Crime - Health - Geography - Maps - Science - Money - Language - Recreation - Technology - Fiction - Other - New Search... for keyword(s)   in Page Titles in Book Title/Author in Contents of Pages ---other searches--- Metacrawler Yahoo FAST Search Google Altavista Dogpile Inference Find Northern Light IWon.com MSN Search Las Vegas Sun Location: Mothership -> UFO -> Updates -> 1997 -> Sep -> Re: CSICOP Takes Stock of the Media

UFO UpDates Mailing List

From: Dave Everett <deverett@vir.idx.com.au>
Date: Tue, 02 Sep 1997 09:21:02 +1000
Fwd Date: Mon, 01 Sep 1997 21:34:00 -0400
Subject: Re: CSICOP Takes Stock of the Media


>Date: Mon, 01 Sep 1997 06:52:57 -0500
>From: Ron Decker <ron_decker@wavebbs.com>
>To: updates@globalserve.net
>Subject: Re: UFO UpDate: Re: Re: CSICOP Takes Stock of the Medi

>> Date: Sun, 31 Aug 1997 21:12:33 +1000
>> To: UFO UpDates - Toronto <updates@globalserve.net>
>> From: Dave Everett <deverett@vir.idx.com.au>
>> Subject: Re: UFO UpDate: Re: CSICOP Takes Stock of the Media

>> >From: clark@canby.mn.frontiercomm.net

>> >> CSICOP Takes Stock of the Media

>> >Of course it's a little sad, too.  These guys need a life, or
>> >at least a hobby.  For all their huffing, puffing, and frantic
>> >bloviation, they have yet to provide an iota of empirical evidence
>> >for their beloved faithf that pro-paranormal or -anomaly opinions
>> >have any measurable negative effect on society.  At the very worst,
>> >such ideas amount to nothing more dangerous than silly folk beliefs.

>> It's much more dangerous than that! I lost a huge security contract due to
>> an Astrologer! Right now there may be people making decisions using faith,
>> myth or superstition that will affect you.

>> We can't control every aspect of our lives as long as we live in a society,
>> it is imperative that we ensure that decisions made for us are based on
>> logic, fact, evidence and truth.

>> I was once quite tolerant of peoples faith beliefs, but the incident I
>> recounted above made me realise how foolish that tolerance could be.

>> Dave Everett.

>  And when tolerance for others' beliefs are gone, with what are we
>left?

Tolerance for truth?

>  The real danger is not that someone might their stock picks or choose
>a security contract based on an astrological table, but that that
>someone will lose the ability to do so.  It's their money, right?

But it's my employment! It's not about people _losing_ their right
to hold beliefs, it's their ability to make decisions that affect
_me_ that matters. If I had been judged unsuitable based on facts
that would have been alright, I'd already been chosen by the Head
of Security for this job based on his knowledge of my skills. It's
a long story why I had to go through a separate Security Consultancy
for this contract and how Astrology came in to it.

But this is a case where I _knew_ faith was being used to make a decision
that affected me, what concerns me more are decision made
for me, based on faith, that I _don't_ know about.

>Why is it that the strict materialists don't recognize that their
>materialism is as much based on faith as the beliefs of snake handlers
>and poison-drinkers?  The true "true believers" are guys like Randi and
>his pals.  Their dogmatism and intractability would make an 11th century
>churchman proud.

That would be the type of churchman that condoned torture, the
selling of indulgences, murder of those who held alternate beliefs
and the suspension of all improvement would it?

Dave Everett.