1. notleia says:

    I dunno how I feel about maintaining the false dilemma of religion vs science. Why can’t we have both?

    • That’s another good point — that the folks running this story magazine seem to feel there is some kind of conflict between Science (good!) and Religion (bad!). My conclusion is that they are reluctant to admit their “science”-veneration is religion.

      • notleia says:

        And I dunno about maintaining the ridiculous projection of “liking science is religion” hokum, either. It’s built out of the rhetorical device overused in sermons about how enjoying anything but Jesus is somehow religious competition to Jesus (which is pretty ridiculous in of itself, because that pretty much defines anything that holds your attention as “religion”). I would like to see some actual evidence to support this rather than skewed anecdata.

        (Or the inverse worse, “religion” being defined as something that holds your attention? That would mean my crochet hobby is a religion. LOL, now I’m imagining a theological pissing match between natural-fiber-ists and acrylic-acceptionist, or between the difference factions of natural-fiber snobs: “Alpaca is morally superior!” “Sheep wool is traditional and sacred!” “Silk is heresy; it’s not even a hair fiber!”)

        • Autumn says:

          Lol, that would be funny, and you’re making me wish I could resume work on the afghan I started ages ago :p

          When I hear people say that an ardent faith in science is a religion, I tend not to hear them say that simply when people like science(growing up I found science and documentaries fascinating, but no one called that religious or worship, for instance.). But I do tend to hear people use the term religion to refer to times when people put their faith and trust in science, thinking that it will eventually solve all problems, when they think it is all they need or attack people that have the slightest doubt about what some prominent scientists are saying at the time, etc. Whether or not people think solely following science, atheism, etc is truly a religion, there are many similar patterns between people that solely believe in science and solely believe in God that make it a little unreasonable to call a sole belief in science perfect.

  2. Nicola says:



    The Science of Persuasion.  This video is actually about common sense.  But if it was called ‘Secrets my Dad taught me about getting my way’ people would be less persuaded.  Put the word ‘Science’ in the title and people are gobbling it like they would chocolate chip cookies.

What do you think?