Perfectly balanced world?
Sep. 12th, 2003 11:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
plutherusTurning through radio stations the other day, I accidentally passed through what seemed like a religious call-in talk show. The guy on the line asked why, "if the world just happened by accident, how come it's perfectly balanced for human life"?
I couldn't respond to him, since I lost the station shortly thereafter, and he wouldn't listen anyway, but this kind of thinking (and I use the term loosely) just pisses me off. Dude, if you're gonna try to argue against science, do some fucking research first! Leaving aside for now the whole idea obviously the life forms (not just human, mind you!) that are going to evolve on a planet are those that are going to survive there well (to which almost everyone reading this is saying, duh! Sorry, I know I'm probably preaching to the choir here, but I needed to vent for a moment), it also completely ignores the fact that this planet is far from "perfectly balanced for human life". We've got an unshielded nuclear reactor hanging in our sky that gives thousands of people a year cancer. We get winds so strong they knock down our strongest buildings. The crust of the planet is sliding around and is so unstable that scarcely a year goes by where it doesn't kill at least a few people by shaking around under them, and hardly a decade passes without it destroying big parts of a city somewhere on the planet. Not to mention disease, volcanoes, tornadoes, flash floods, wild critters, and the occasional giant gouge from a comet plunging through the atmosphere to create a big crater and wipe out most of the species existing at the time.
So why do I care? Why should I give a shit about a bunch of anti-science religious fundamentalist lying to themselves and each other? I wouldn't, except that these people vote, they have a say in domestic and world affairs. The guy above, believing his God is taking care of everything, need never strive to accomplish anything on his own. And he'll prevent anyone else's attempts to do so as well. Why research cures to disease when it's all in god's hands? Why work for world peace when jeebus is coming back any day to destroy the world anyway? Why invest in a space program when we're all perfectly safe down here from the beginning to the end of time? Why try to get along with Muslims when it's so much more important to show them that our god is bigger than theirs so they'll convert before the End? These assholes aren't just merely useless, they are holding back all human progress.
The fuckheads.
I couldn't respond to him, since I lost the station shortly thereafter, and he wouldn't listen anyway, but this kind of thinking (and I use the term loosely) just pisses me off. Dude, if you're gonna try to argue against science, do some fucking research first! Leaving aside for now the whole idea obviously the life forms (not just human, mind you!) that are going to evolve on a planet are those that are going to survive there well (to which almost everyone reading this is saying, duh! Sorry, I know I'm probably preaching to the choir here, but I needed to vent for a moment), it also completely ignores the fact that this planet is far from "perfectly balanced for human life". We've got an unshielded nuclear reactor hanging in our sky that gives thousands of people a year cancer. We get winds so strong they knock down our strongest buildings. The crust of the planet is sliding around and is so unstable that scarcely a year goes by where it doesn't kill at least a few people by shaking around under them, and hardly a decade passes without it destroying big parts of a city somewhere on the planet. Not to mention disease, volcanoes, tornadoes, flash floods, wild critters, and the occasional giant gouge from a comet plunging through the atmosphere to create a big crater and wipe out most of the species existing at the time.
So why do I care? Why should I give a shit about a bunch of anti-science religious fundamentalist lying to themselves and each other? I wouldn't, except that these people vote, they have a say in domestic and world affairs. The guy above, believing his God is taking care of everything, need never strive to accomplish anything on his own. And he'll prevent anyone else's attempts to do so as well. Why research cures to disease when it's all in god's hands? Why work for world peace when jeebus is coming back any day to destroy the world anyway? Why invest in a space program when we're all perfectly safe down here from the beginning to the end of time? Why try to get along with Muslims when it's so much more important to show them that our god is bigger than theirs so they'll convert before the End? These assholes aren't just merely useless, they are holding back all human progress.
The fuckheads.
