<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#000000"><br></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Aug 17, 2016 at 6:15 PM, John Clark <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:johnkclark@gmail.com" target="_blank">johnkclark@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><span class=""><div style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">On Wed, Aug 17, 2016 PM, Keith Henson </span><span dir="ltr" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"><<a href="mailto:hkeithhenson@gmail.com" target="_blank">hkeithhenson@gmail.com</a>></span><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"> wrote:</span><br></div></span><div class="gmail_extra"><div class="gmail_quote"><span class=""><br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);border-left-style:solid;padding-left:1ex"><div style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;display:inline">> </div>Recently made a post that started with "Irrational is not an easy<br>
strategy to understand."<br>No replies at all.<br></blockquote><div><br></div></span><div><div style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;display:inline"><font size="4">Irrational behavior means having no reason, no cause, for that behavior, it would be equivalent to random behavior. So putting on a suicide dynamite vest is not irrational it's just stupid; he did it for a reason, he did it because he read in a book that a invisible man in the sky will give him 77 virgins after he dies if he puts on that vest. It's stupid for believing what that book says is true so you might then ask why stupidity exists, but as stupidity is the default assumption a much better question would be why intelligence exists. There can only be one answer to that, Evolution. </font></div></div><div><div style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;display:inline"><font size="4"><br></font></div></div><div><font size="4"><div style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;display:inline"> John K Clark </div> </font></div></div></div></div></blockquote><div><br></div><div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:"comic sans ms",sans-serif;font-size:small;color:rgb(0,0,0);display:inline">Problems with word definitions. Irrational could be viewed as against reason, rather than without reason, meaning that a rational reason for something could exist but the person acted against it.</div></div><div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:"comic sans ms",sans-serif;font-size:small;color:rgb(0,0,0);display:inline"><br></div></div><div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:"comic sans ms",sans-serif;font-size:small;color:rgb(0,0,0);display:inline">That, to me, is the meaning of 'stupid' - knowing better but not doing better, as evidenced by 'Why in the world did I do that? I knew better." This contrasts with 'ignorant', which is simply not knowing. So a stupid mistake means that the person knew better, whereas an ignorant mistake means that he did not know.</div> </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-style:solid;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_extra"><div class="gmail_quote"><span class=""><div><br></div><div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:"comic sans ms",sans-serif;font-size:small;color:rgb(0,0,0)">Presumably no one sets out to be irrational in the senses we are discussing. Ditto stupid. </div><br></div><div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:"comic sans ms",sans-serif;font-size:small;color:rgb(0,0,0)">No matter how irrational a religious belief seems to us, it is rational to the person who holds it. That is, unless you believe that empiricism holds sway over rationalism or authoritarianism in every instance. (as I do) So you would think that if there is no hard evidence for it, the it cannot be believed as real. There are, of course, defensible alternatives to hard materialism.</div></div></span></div></div></div></blockquote><div><br></div><div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:"comic sans ms",sans-serif;font-size:small;color:rgb(0,0,0);display:inline">And it doesn't have to be religious: we have had the hottest July on record.</div> <div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:"comic sans ms",sans-serif;font-size:small;color:rgb(0,0,0);display:inline"> And some will still deny global warming, perhaps because they heard that some scientists don't believe it, and some that do fudged their data, and so on. This is rational even if we think it's misguided - they are believing the wrong experts (just as we are believing the right ones!).</div></div><div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:"comic sans ms",sans-serif;font-size:small;color:rgb(0,0,0);display:inline"><br></div></div><div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:"comic sans ms",sans-serif;font-size:small;color:rgb(0,0,0);display:inline">bill w</div></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-style:solid;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_extra"><div class="gmail_quote"><span class=""><div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:"comic sans ms",sans-serif;font-size:small;color:rgb(0,0,0)"></div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div> </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);border-left-style:solid;padding-left:1ex">
<br>
There are two reasons for that.<br>
<br>
One is that the post went right over everyone's head.<br>
<br>
Second was that it was so clear that nobody could think of anything to<br>
add to it.<br>
<br>
If it was the first, I should find another news group.<br>
<br>
Best wishes,<br>
<br>
Keith<br>
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