Love this.
I’ve read a lot about all the people who are worried that CERN’s upcoming activation of the Large Hadron Collider on Wednesday is going to either:
a) destroy the world,
b) open up the gate to hell, which will destroy the world, or
c) create a microblackhole, which will suck the Earth through it, which will (you guessed it) destroy the world.
Obviously, all this speculation has a common denominator:
that, according to Brian Cox, a professor at Manchester University, anyone who believes any of it is a ‘twat.’
Which is awesome. I’m so tired of ignorant people who claim that both sides of any argument need to be given some attention. This is why the creation/evolution argument is still a debate; people want to be tolerant of other people’s views/beliefs, whether those beliefs are inherently ignorant or not (they are).
Scientists get death threats over Large Hadron Collider – Telegraph.
September 6, 2008 at 2:51 pm
There is a difference, Will, between ignorant beliefs and a ignorant way of explaining, interpreting, and expressing beliefs.
I will let Richard know about the other Coxs in the world who also have a love of science.
September 7, 2008 at 1:12 pm
We’ll see who’s calling who ‘twat’ on Wednesday 🙂
September 7, 2008 at 2:04 pm
Just how big do those mosquitos get in Geneva? 🙂
September 7, 2008 at 2:35 pm
the last one they built wasn’t a problem….
http://sarsen56.wordpress.com/
September 7, 2008 at 3:05 pm
@Gotham: great point, and why does it so often feel like something I still have to learn? Note to self: stop being a douchebag.
@Rascal: Indeed we will.
@BJ: You wouldn’t believe!
@Sarsen: interesting… Though I’m not sure I quite get the association of Stonehenge with a particle accelerator/collider, but hey.
September 7, 2008 at 8:11 pm
I’ve gone from the naysayers (don’t create a micro blac khole and destroy us all) to thinking, you know, at some point the scientists can’t put everything to a vote.
If they ever should put science issues up to a vote, I think the voters should be required to take a test requiring them to demonstrate at LEAST a high school education on the matter.
I don’t know if I’d pass my own test, but I’m not looking to get my hands on the power switch for the LHC, either.
Quantum Physics, away!
September 7, 2008 at 8:51 pm
Your not a douch bag. A douche bag would have intentually been rude. Just try not to put everyone in black or white.
I have a freind who deserves his own spot on the 700 club. He took the oportunity in high school one day to stand up on a table during a abnormily crowded cafetria to announce that evoltion was crap. He once babtised a few students in what I had been told was just going to be “bible study.” Talking to him about religion is like talking to you about modern feminism; I don’t have chance in hell of getting the other party to consider my view and I wind up getting very agrivated.
The last time I talked to him about evoltion I said that I thought the bible had many flaws in it just in the text it self and that the added flaws of bad translations and biased interpretations gave us a bad picture. I told him I belived in evolution, big bang, and pepsi was yankee invetnion ment to kill southerners. (one of those I through in to make sure your paying attention. Hope you can figure out which one)
He countered with something I was not expecting. He told me that he’s asked quite a few people what they believed and alot of them belived that evoltion was true. He would ask them to prove it and they would respond by saying “scientist proved it.” He would ask them to explain how scientist proved it but they couldn’t. They were blindly falling a biology book they didn’t read but trusting what other people told them about it was true. They were doing what they accused people like him were doing, following something blindly with out real thought about it.
So, you have ignorant people who belive in a non-ignorant belief, evolution, and can’t properly explain it or argue it because they are ignorant. That’s why you still have a debate.
September 7, 2008 at 9:31 pm
Couldn’t there be a combination of evolution and creation? I find myself far away from judging anothers intelligence. As far as creating a minnie black hole….perfectly scarry!!!!!!!
September 7, 2008 at 9:41 pm
Large Hard On Collider…
*tumbleweed rolls past*
September 8, 2008 at 10:56 am
@rationalpsychic: Well, of course, the truth is we don’t know what will happen, but then again, I love your idea of the test. I think we should have a similar test for both parenting and voting, too.
@gotham: Ah, I see what you mean now, I think. But I’d still rather have someone believing in evolution but not understanding than otherwise.
@fullmind: not in the way creationists tend to mean, which is the problem. And scary, perhaps, but very unlikely.
@davwuh: you know, it’s really difficult not to write it that way. I guess brains aren’t used to typing ‘hadron’.
September 9, 2008 at 12:12 pm
There are people who believe in creationism. People who believe in Evolution. People who believe in both. And people who believe in nothing.
I believe we have to respect everyone’s beliefs, which means that I don’t think you should call someones beliefs ignorant. A belief different then ones own is not ignorant. It’s different.
September 19, 2008 at 6:52 am
i do miss Carl Sagan.I don’t think about Cox as a substitute but i think we need him as a mediator…and a wonderful job he does by his projects and his awesome ability to simplify terms in science that comes so natural!He’s too gentle naming ignorants tw*ts but one can never be too diplomatic.
September 19, 2008 at 10:22 am
Open the Gateway to hell. lol