From: Damien Broderick (d.broderick@english.unimelb.edu.au)
Date: Wed Nov 15 2000 - 17:19:47 MST
At 10:57 AM 15/11/00 EST, CJC wrote:
>Phew! Thank Ghu -- I was beginning to think I had subscribed to the wrong
>mailing list :)
It's getting that way, isn't it? The horror, the horror...
>Supernatural interpretations of phenomena are, IMHO, the result of the human
>mind's drive to find patterns in nature (even when they aren't real)
combined
>with ignorance. They tend to fall apart whenever they are looked at with a
>critical eye backed with experimental evidence.
The brain, in Dr Robert Park's phrase (adopted from James Alcock) is a
belief engine. Everyone here should enjoy the analysis in his very fine
recent book VOODOO SCIENCE. Extropes will bridle a tad at his equal dislike
for `those who love technology too much', and I personally find some of his
objections to certain ideas glib and journalistic/coffee-table. But the
book's a fun and informative read, as enjoyable as Richard Dawkins (who
praises it expansively on the cover of the British Oxford University Press
edition).
Damien Broderick
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