and one more thing, john doe

[Oscar]

I think you are confusing science with engineering.  Engineering is
applied science.

Regardless, the problems you speak of aren't new problems.  I would
argue that the world revolves and has revolved around competition
since the dawn of time.  Do you think Napoleon/Hitler/Gengis Kahn (who
was possessed by a supernatural sheep, BTW) wanted to conquer the
world because they wanted to make it a better place?  No, they wanted
to be  #1.  They wanted to rule the world.  Do you think that all of
the drug companies are working on products to cure diseases so they
can feel good about themselves?  While I'm sure there are people out
there like that, I'm more sure that money is the driving factor.

The idea that the problems in the world today are new problems is what
I like to call the 'rose colored glasses' syndrome.

"Science is not applied biology, nor is biology applied chemistry"

On 10/10/05, Kyle <kybrow at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> On 10/10/05, John Doe <tristero69 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> > It's funny how they get all their
> > skeptical ammunition out to attack science, but never
> > do it to Eastern Mysticism...like, why not? What's
> > good for the goose is good for the gander...
> >
>
> You should have seen me in my high school health class, which consisted 99%
> of Eastern Medicine.  I thought this was probably the worst excuse for a
> class that I've ever experienced (it was required, for God's sake), not
> because it taught the thought but because it attempted to put it in the same
> class as pure science... and to this point I completely agree with you (I
> don't think I was around yet for the first mention of Eastern Philosophy vs.
> Science, I joined pynchon-l a couple of days ago).  On top of that, after I
> graduated she won the State of Illinois Health Teacher of the Year, somehow.
>  Some examples of our classroom activities - we held certain items (like
> plastic, milk, a beer can) in one arm while an 'expert' put pressure on the
> other (if your arm gave way, you were 'weak' to this 'substance' (though
> contact was made with the container and not the contained)), our teacher
> stood in front of a white projector screen with the lights off, and we were
> prompted to 'unfocus our eyes' so that we could see her Chakra (spelling on
> that might be off, for obvious reasons), and we held a paper clip that was
> attached to a string and tried to will it to move, all of which a
> frighteningly high amount of people actually bought.  It got to the point
> where I thought that the class might just be some brilliant experiment to
> prove the Placebo Effect, and if this is the case then she certainly
> deserves that Teacher of the Year award if not just for her ability to shape
> the minds of giddy teenagers.  Certainly, Eastern Philosophy is not one
> entity (I find myself occasinally entertaining the idea of life being an
> illusion and the possibility of separation from material dependency, while
> almost blatantly disagreeing with overly permissive works like The Bhagavad
> Gita and 'applied' Eastern Medicine that seems, to me, to be entirely
> concerned with finding delightful, mystical answers), but you're right; the
> two (Science and Eastern Philosophy) can hardly be compared in either
> scientific standards (making EP look childish) or EP standards (making
> Science look overly restrictive or useless in its 'Just Zoom Out For A
> Moment' ideology).  It's like the argument against the Big Bang and
> Evolution that basically argues that the two are so unlikely
> probability-wise that they're a non-possibility, while this ignores the fact
> that the chances of a benevolent God exisiting and creating an enitre world
> cannot even be statistically calculated.  And the same goes for those who
> say that the statistical possibility of God is nonexistent and therefore
> impossible.  I have to say though, I almost always find myself exclusively
> leaning toward Science.
>
> --
> -kyle b