Off Topic — HabitableZone

Off Topic » in reply to " But some of us cannot afford to be wrong about anything. "

Not even close.
ER — (archived)

You're the one who's claiming there is "something out there". I never said there wasn't. All I've said is that I haven't seen it and I have no reason to believe you--not yet, anyway. And I suspect that if we ever do find out what, or if, it is, it will be something neither of us anticipated.

And if there IS something out there, I see no reason for you to be better informed about it than I am. In fact, I suspect there are a lot of reasons why you shouldn't be.

Anomalists, whether they be political, scientific, or religious, all have two things in common. What they believe in is what they want the world to be like. They need to know that their ideology or their pseudoscience or their mysticism has reality because it will make them feel more comfortable, safer, secure. Second, they feel this pathological urge to convince everyone else they're right and everyone else is wrong. Most people don't have the courage to admit they just don't know, and they need reassurance from others to convince them they do.

If there is one thing studying science teaches you, it's that we haven't got a clue as to how the universe really operates. We know a little basic bookkeeping, but the big questions are still as unanswerable as they were to our Bronze Age forebears. It still has a lot of surprises in store for us, discoveries that will make UFOs, ghosts, and ESP sound as ridiculous and pathetic as Rush Limbaugh, Bigfoot and the Grassy Knoll Gunmen. And when people come out and tell you they've got it all figured out, and you don't, they're giving themselves away.

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