Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site pyuxd.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!gamma!pyuxww!pyuxd!rlr From: rlr@pyuxd.UUCP (Rich Rosen) Newsgroups: net.philosophy Subject: Re: If that's what you think, why argue? Message-ID: <1580@pyuxd.UUCP> Date: Sat, 24-Aug-85 14:37:59 EDT Article-I.D.: pyuxd.1580 Posted: Sat Aug 24 14:37:59 1985 Date-Received: Sun, 25-Aug-85 03:27:49 EDT References: <1509@pyuxd.UUCP> <1314@umcp-cs.UUCP> Organization: Whatever we're calling ourselves this week Lines: 26 > For crying out loud, Rich, that's my whole argument!!!! We are not > scientifically in a position to decide the question. And besides, would you > deny the following passage? > > >>>Yes, indeed, plenty of > >>>human behavior APPEARS to be random, Charley. Plenty of lots of things > >>>APPEAR to be random, but on closer examination, we find something holding > >>>it together. A bit more complex than some people who prefer one-sentence > >>>explanations for things ("God did it!"), but perhaps they're just too lazy > >>>to examine things in that dreaded "scientific" way. One look at the > >>>universe, one careful look, will show you how many "random" things > >>>really have very simple physical processes at their root, complexly > >>>interweaving with each other to give the illusion of "randomness" to > >>>the casual observer. > > You call THAT rigor? [WINGATE] I don't think I'll deny what I wrote myself. Yes, I call this rigorous. Very much so. Especially when compared to "We don't understand it, so rather than examining it further, let's make up a model that conforms to the way we want the world to be regardless of whatever is found". -- "to be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best night and day to make you like everybody else means to fight the hardest battle any human being can fight and never stop fighting." - e. e. cummings Rich Rosen ihnp4!pyuxd!rlr