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From: michaelm@3comvax.UUCP (Michael McNeil)
Newsgroups: net.origins
Subject: Re: brief response to questions of Beth Christy and Mike Schwartzbach
Message-ID: <231@3comvax.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 25-Sep-85 23:45:41 EDT
Article-I.D.: 3comvax.231
Posted: Wed Sep 25 23:45:41 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 29-Sep-85 04:25:02 EDT
References: <397@imsvax.UUCP>
Organization: 3Com Corp; Mountain View, CA
Lines: 43

[Line Eater Monster trap.  "Come on, make my day!"]

>     I probably should have just said that anything which can be
> figured out logically should be figured out logically with no
> further ado.  Generally, we screw things up by doing otherwise.  

Ted Holden has neatly summarized his perspective on human knowledge.  
Pursuing knowledge scientifically -- that is, when one doesn't know
an answer, not merely speculating about it but "asking the world"
(i.e., performing experiments) -- produces results which don't fit
Ted's preconceptions.  As a result, Ted, in true sour-grapes style,
argues that we should figure things out "logically with no further
ado" because "generally, we screw things up by doing otherwise."  

The history of science, and the history of knowledge in general,
reveals innumerable instances where attempts to figure things out
"logically with no further ado" have backfired wildly -- too many
"authorities" have been wrong too often.  The conclusion of science,
in self-defense I might add, has been that "authority" is suspect --
only results which stand the "test against the world" are accepted.  

Ted's "authority" Velikovsky has proven unable to pass a "world test."  
Ted, therefore, would have us accept his speculation without evidence.  

> The particular comment about "leverage" struck me as off-the-wall
> and probably made-up, but if looked-up, looked up in the wrong place.

You're a fine one, Ted, to complain about quotations out of context.  

-- 

Michael McNeil
3Com Corporation     ``All disclaimers including this one apply''
(415) 960-9367
..!ucbvax!hplabs!oliveb!3comvax!michaelm

        ... if ``dead'' matter has reared up this curious landscape
        of fiddling crickets, song sparrows, and wondering men, it
        must be plain even to the most devoted materialist that the
        matter of which he speaks contains amazing, if not dreadful
        powers, and may not impossibly be, as Hardy has suggested,
        ``but one mask of many worn by the Great Face behind.''  
                Loren Eiseley, *The Immense Journey*, 1946


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