big bullies

Anyone who remembers being bullied on the schoolyard should already understand this but what the hell...

Core problem of science vs. religion

Science attempts to use structured arguments based on reasoning and observation vs. unstructured arguments based on conditioned emotional reactions and perceptual manipulation.

Case in point from crit of recent Dawkins documentary on religion:

"Dawkins' main presentation was reasonable enough. In primitive times, man's mercy at the hands of nature gave the impression that supernatural forces controlled the Earth. Religious worship arose as the need to appease what man saw as powerful Gods. So far, so good. Yet when explaining why religion continues to play a part in modern life, Dawkins' explanation is to flash the 'you must be stupid' card."
http://www.spiked-online.com/Articles/0000000CAF1A.htm

Now, Dawkins does not ever say that anyone is stupid... but a significant fraction of humanity... whenconfronted with the evidence of how little they actually know... well... they tend to feel... erm... Stupid.

So throw in a healthy dose of paranoid transference and viola:

"Oh shit, I know nothing. I didn't know I knew nothing until Dawkins opened his big trap therefore Dawkins must be saying that I'm stupid, well fuck him!"

QED.

Stupid? Yes.

Serious obstacle? Oh Jesus yes.

fuck 'em if they can't take a joke

http://rbevilacqua.blogspot.com/

Interesting Story

Speaking of shamen and eggos...

http://www.metahistory.org/TreeNymphs3.php

In the far, far north, say the Yakuts, the great larch with many branches stands at the source of a terrible sickness. On these branches are nests in which shamans are born. When the shaman is born, a great eagle with feathers of iron and hook-like claws flies to the sacred larch and lays an egg. If the shaman is of the highest order, the bird stays with the egg for three long years. If the shaman is of a lower order, the time for nesting and hatching in only one year. The She-Eagle is called “Mother of Animals.” On three occasions in the lifetime of a shaman does she appear. The first, when she gives birth to the shaman; the second, when the shaman undergoes dismemberment and sacrifice; and the third, when the shaman meets death for the first time. When the shaman-soul hatches from the egg, the Mother of Animals entrusts the baby-shaman to a spirit-shamaness, Brugestez-Udagan, who has one eye, one hand, one leg. This wondrous creature places her charge in a cradle of iron, rocks him, tends him and brings him up on pieces of coagulated blood.

(From Joan Halifax, Shaman – The Wounded Healer.)