[ExI] Tolerance.

[Giulio Prisco (2nd email)]

One can be a very good surgeon, operating strictly within the
boundaries of the current scientific understanding of his area, in his
professional life, and a believer in his private life.

I will judge his professional expertise on the basis of the available
evidence. Does he save lives? Does he recommend the best course of
action to his patients? Does he make his best effort to maintain his
expertise and staying current?

I will not judge his belief in Allah, or Vishnu, or God, because it is
not my business.

And I can have a pleasant dinner with him, talking of things we are
both interested in. I don't need to think of his belief, crazy as it
may appear to me, as long as I don't try to convert me.

I trust fundamentalist feminists will forgive my using "he", it has
one letter less to type and I am pressed for time.

2009/12/9 John Clark <jonkc at bellsouth.net>:
> On Dec 9, 2009,  Stefano Vaj wrote:
>
> I think stupid may plausibly mean, depending the circumstances, both
> somebody believing in naive and crazy ideas *and* the contrary of
> astute and clever.
>
> Crazy, not just odd but crazy ideas are pretty close to the contrary
> of astute and clever. And I think one can decide to be stupid, as in a
> surgeon who doesn't believe in the cornerstone of the biological sciences,
> Evolution; or a structural engineer who doesn't believe in Newton's theory
> of gravitation. Actually such things are possible provided you put your
> ideas in little airtight compartments and refuse to let them interact, but
> that's just a longwinded way of saying the word stupid.
>
>  I am inclined to consider the supporters of the religions
> of the Book as "stupid" in the first sense, but not necessarily nor
> always in the second. Far from it...
>
> Oh come now Stefano, we both know its really not that far.
>  John K Clark
>
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-- 
Giulio Prisco
http://cosmeng.org/index.php/Giulio_Prisco
aka Eschatoon Magic
http://cosmeng.org/index.php/Eschatoon