Monday, February 23, 2009

Raisin of Reason: The Great Buzzword

This post isn't against religion, so much as it's against junk science and pseudo-science, which I find a greater threat. Because when people believe and find so-called "scientific evidence" to support daffy and ridiculous claims, this undermines the credibility of the scientific method.

Take this witty post slamming the ridiculous idea of "The Great Filter" (Or, Why We've Never Discovered Signs of Alien Life) for example:

The very existence of life makes finding a four-leafed clover with winning lottery tickets for leaves look like a sure thing.  Add the staggering improbability of our evolution from single cells and you end up with odds so vast they've driven the invention of everything from the Drake equation to an invisible sky-beard who seems unnecessarily preoccupied with what we do one day out of every seven.  People who study this subject file all that under "Shit we already knew", and were too busy actually working on the science to come up with a garbage buzzword phrase that would look really awesome in bold type on the cover of a hardback book (available now for $29.99!)  Luckily Robin Hanson was ready to do that for them.

I love sarcastic scientists! (The whole post is a short entertaining read.)

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