Mike Collins:
Yes hell is created inside people's heads. Your personal hell exists
because you are too proud to admit that you are wrong and are therefore
forced to deny more and more evidence and logic. So you are compelled to
play the clown just because of your pride.

I don't find clowns funny. I don't like laughing at the disadvantaged.

Bill:
You write that you don't "like" laughing at the disadvantaged; but you
can't seem to stop poking at him with your sharp stick either.

If oriel is experiencing his own personal hell - what legitimate
cause could you possibly claim to have for adding to his state of misery?

(The evidvence has shown)He can't be helped - at least not by any of us;
and while we would all like for oriel to understand what we understand,
does it really matter, in the greater shceme of things if he never
understands?

If you leave him alone, will the Sun cease to rise, or the stars fail to
continue
to exhibit their apparent motions... will global warming cease?

Exactly so. These guys are not harming anyone. What difference does it
make what they believe (if they believe what they write)? Why should
anyone care what they say or believe? Why are some people here so
obsessed with setting them straight on celestial mechanics? IOW, why be
argumentative? Being an ordinary American, I hear people around me
saying all sorts of weird things all the time. Religion, politics,
science denial, astrology, you-name it. I don't confront these people
with the "truth" (as I understand it, which might not be the truth at
all); I just step away and leave them to talk themselves.

Besides, I started this thread to ask a legitimate amateur-astronomy
question about a matter that I did not understand and the nut cases and
the pedants hijacked it. Thanks to Roland and to Chris Peterson for
sticking to the subject and helping me understand what I needed to
know!

--
I agree with almost everything that you have said and almost everything that
you will say in your entire life.

usenet *at* davidillig dawt cawm