RL, Arrell, R.L.,

I really don't want to get into the science of atom formation here. If you are content with the current thought saying that all atoms were formed during a big bang - hey that's great. If you want to believe the sun is fueled by a proton-proton fusion process, that's great too. You are not alone, and will be comfortably surrounded by millions of others, and a majority of scientists, educators and students who hold similar views.

I don't believe in either of those, and for me, that's great too.

Science is not an either/or club, where you either believe ALL of it or none of it. It is very easy after receiving a very in-depth education in current scientific thought to find yourself disagreeing with tenets held dear - and in fact, this is largely why they teach hard science. They hope that after you take your courses and get your degrees, showing you understand and can memorize existing principles and formulas, etc. - that you will take it further. The best of your teachers hope you will challenge existing thought and will rack your well educated brain for answers to things that strike you as weak or wrong and dig into the depths of the unknown using old research as your shovel and new technologies as your flashlight. If you have a teacher who thinks science is something to be obeyed and that conformity to current thought is somehow ideal - you have a lousy teacher. Pouring over Feynmann's lectures and worshipping Feynmann was fine for some, while others often said, "Yeah, but.." and still others were asleep.

Science is never complete and doesn't have all the answers, or even mostly correct answers, at any given time. Even the most commonly accepted maxims more often than not turn out to be horribly wrong, never mind the more obscure stuff. Without dissenting thought, and people challenging currently accepted theories, progress in science could never exist. Atom formation, fusion reactors, solar processes, planet formation and similar topics are all very controversial. You will find fairly limited "concrete" information and much dissent as to how all these things work. You will find many more folks who don't care about scientific things at all.

But holding a dissenting view does not mean one is "lying" or "deceiving". It merely means one holds a dissenting or alternative viewpoint - one that over time will either be substantiated by later findings or left in the gigantic ash-bin of scientific thought, whose sole value lays in that it helped bring us to where we are today - and where we will be tomorrow.

My comments to Tom were meant to be informative as to my own reasoning for not supporting fusion research. I could have just as easily said "I don't think anyone will ever build a successful fusion reactor" and left it at that. You've pointed out you disagree vehemently with my position, find my statements absurdly illogical, bogus and wrong - and I'm perfectly fine with that.