[extropy-chat] BIO: Chimps and Humans

Adrian Tymes wingcat at pacbell.net
Fri Dec 12 23:42:01 UTC 2003


--- Harvey Newstrom <mail at HarveyNewstrom.com> wrote:
> Adrian Tymes wrote,
> > Be careful how you phrase that.  Some people
> > (hopefully
> > few who grok Extropian ideals, but perhaps some
> who
> > wish to do so but don't quite understand yet)
> might 
> > misunderstand, and think that you're saying this
> type of 
> > research actively goes against our goals, in the
> same sense 
> > that, say, stem cell research undermines certain
> religious 
> > memes.  Perhaps a better way to put it would be,
> "Advancing 
> > science sometimes shows us that we are not as
> close to our 
> > goals as we thought we were."
> 
> This is exactly right.  This is a hard point to
> make, and many people
> misunderstand me.
> 
> This is exactly what I am saying.  Thanks for the
> clarification.

No problem.  Ironically, I've seen this exact same
error made by people high up in religious hierarchies
who nonetheless Got It...but by making this particular
linguistic confusion, their disciples glommed onto the
"we oppose science" meme, with the end result of
setting their voices against us.  Something to
consider, the next time we confront creationists or
the like lead by an otherwise apparently enlightened
sort.



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