On Sep 10, 5:08*am, oriel36 wrote:
I must assume that many readers have found themselves no longer able
to support a state of mind which is counter-productive to their own
existence and the surrounding community without actually finding their
true bearings and although I have gone to great lengths to maintain a
level of discussion which avoids the temptation to reach for
weaknesses in the thinking processes of an individual or a
community,even I have to concede that such an avoidance is temporarily
unreasonable in itself.

I thank you for being politie to us.

After reading the experiences of others,I came to a decision a long
time ago to approach readers here as though they are not unfeeling and
although their mental machinery may be stuck or latent,there is always
the chance of 'snapping out'* as they shift from a lower to a higher
level of *thinking and feeling and *into the arena where 'methods' are
not so important,as individuals trust themselves and each other to
maintain balances and rules.

Empirical reasoning and the scientific method let people check one
another's conclusions, instead of people just having to sit back and
admire the conclusions of the person who convinces everyone else that
he has the best intuition and insight. There's a _reason_ why
mathematics versus intuition has caught on in science like wildfire.

We're not programmed cult members, because the merits of today's
science are something that a person can *see for himself* if he can
achieve a basic level of mathematical competence. Yes, perhaps the few
who cannot do that are stuck with having to respect authority, but
even there, at least they have the technological fruits of science to
give them some confidence in which authorities know what they're
talking about.

John Savard