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From Slashdot | How To Communicate Science to a Polarized US Audience

Re:Science of Political Agenda? (Score:5, Insightful)

by UncHellMatt (790153) on Thursday March 20, @12:29PM (#22807706)

Well, the information may in fact be pervasive, however getting someone to look at it, accept it or even be willing to discuss it is another matter altogether.

Case in point, I met someone who was a die hard “believer” who was attempting to get me to “believe”. Yes, he actually believed (or so he claimed) that the world was created by a god about 6000 years ago. He said that the tools used today to carbon date objects were “flawed” and that “scientists simply made machines that looked like they did something [he didn't get it when I asked if they go "PING!"... go figure], but all they did was churn out answers the scientists want”, and that mankind couldn’t measure the speed of light (after I’d pointed out that we could easily find objects in the sky well over 6k light years away, and if they were in fact several million/billion light years away, how could the light be reaching us if the universe were only 6k years old?). I explained that he himself could measure the speed of light with rather simply tools, and suggested he look into the methods used by folks like Armand Fizeau. Needless to say, the guy just said “No, I don’t need to. It’s all in the Bible.”

What I’m getting at is that you can’t communicate to some people, regardless of how good your data is, your evidence, or your argument. If a person flat out refuses to hear counter to their belief because of “faith”, there is nothing you can do. Faith is, after all, accepting something as fact which observation and evidence prove to be false.

“If a person walks on water, they’ll sink.”

“No, the Bible said Christ did.”

“OK, if a person can, and you’ve got faith, the Charles is right over there. Knock yourself out.”

“I’m not Christ!”

“No shit. You’re no Einstein, either.”

Re:Science of Political Agenda? (Score:5, Insightful)

by amRadioHed (463061) on Thursday March 20, @12:57PM (#22808128)

Correction, accepting something as fact despite a lack of evidence is faith. Accepting something as fact despite evidence to the contrary is foolishness.

Too many Christians can’t get that right but one of those traits the Bible commends while the other is harshly criticized.

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