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The Magic of Reality
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Sean Faircloth:
Attack of the Theocrats!
I feel that in the question lies the oxymoron. Theologians are more excited by what humanity has not yet discovered and with every scientific discovery their iceberg melts a little more. Their arguments remind me of the logic my cat uses when faced with her reflection in the mirror "What's that cat doing here?", approaches slowly and attempts to attack reflection, realises the offending cat is behind the mirror, checks, no cat, moves to front of mirror and looks at me as if to say "See, there it is!".
I am not sure if you are in Japan for a conference or speaking engagements, if it's the latter and you have time please address one of the most irritating examples of pseudoscience that I encountered in Japan, eastern China and Taiwan - the blood group personality beliefs. It's particularly strong in Japan, if you speak to some people for a time, someone will suddenly ask "Are you type AB? You seem like an AB person!". It's basically astrology applied to blood groups, but when you dig deeper it has it's origins in the three "evils" of eugenics, social Darwinism and neo confucianism, it is basically a throwback from Imperial Japan's flirtation and collaboration with Nazi ideology.
Permalink Fri, 27 Jul 2012 00:03:07 UTC | #950132