from the glacier

If you look at the statistical argument for the end of the world coming, as given in the last post, you see a funny parallel between the scientist/gambler, and the rapture squawking fundamentalist Christian. Only scientists like to drag in "Mr. Billion" to make it seem as though they are not saying that the world is about to end now, just relatively speaking to the overall duration. I do think it would be funny to see physicists in lab coats marching around a university with "the statistical end of the universe is coming" cake-board signs.

But all of this got me to thinking: what are the ominous parallels between the scientist and the fundie, besides this one? Hmm......

"Do you accept Jesus as your personal Lord and savior?" compared to experiment as the only method of knowledge. Both require a personal experience with a higher thing (laws of physics, God) as the only roads to "salvation" - Hallelujah vs. Eureka! Both think that there is one particular way to reach that truth, and look with scorn on any other methodology. Hmm....

Both love dissention. If a fundie doesn't like what another one says, he just goes off and founds a new church. If a scientist has a disagreement with another one, he comes up with his own theory of how the universe runs according to laws - while publishing papers to discredit the other one. Hmm.......

The fundie has private revelation of a secret (i.e. his salvation) which elevates him beyond the sinners of the world, to a new-made higher class. The scientist uses private language to become a new intellegencia - a higher class of knowers. He is elevated above the common man by his rationality and "detached reserve". Hmm.......

Ominous Parallels....