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@tomic
Administrator
USA
4607 Posts |
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jec96
Skeptic Friend
USA
61 Posts |
 Posted - 05/20/2002 : 13:40:10 [Permalink]
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PLEASE TELL ME YOU ARE KIDDING! (sorry for shouting, but...it is hard when one of your heroes dies....)
-It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.
Aristotle
Edited by - jec96 on 05/20/2002 14:10:00 |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 05/20/2002 : 13:59:22 [Permalink]
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I read about this eleswhere. He is already missed.
f
"He who joyfully marches in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would suffice."
- Albert Einstein
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dimossi
Skeptic Friend
USA
141 Posts |
Posted - 05/20/2002 : 14:21:56 [Permalink]
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In memory of Stephen Jay Gould -- memorable quotes:
"Nothing is more dangerous than a dogmatic worldview--nothing more constraining, more blinding to innovation, more destructive of openness to novelty." [Stephen Jay Gould, "Dinosaur in a Haystack"]
"The most important scientific revolutions all include, as their only common feature, the dethronement of human arrogance from one pedestal after another of previous convictions about our centrality in the cosmos." [Stephen Jay Gould, "Dinosaur in a Haystack"]
"No rational order of divine intelligence unites species. The natural ties are genealogical along contingent pathways of history." [Stephen Jay Gould, "Dinosaur in a Haystack"]
"The fundamentalists, by 'knowing' the answers before they start (examining evolution), and then forcing nature into the straitjacket of their discredited preconceptions, lie outside the domain of science---or of any honest intellectual inquiry." [Stephen Jay Gould, "Bully for Brontosaurus," 1990, quoted in "2000 Years of Disbelief, Famous People with the Courage to Doubt", by James A. Haught, Prometheus Books, 1996]
"Skepticism's bad rap arises from the impression that, however necessary the activity, it can only be regarded as a negative removal of false claims. Not so... Proper debunking is done in the interest of an alternate model of explanation, not as a nihilistic exercise. The alternate model is rationality itself, tied to moral decency--the most powerful joint instrument for good that our planet has ever known." [Stephen Jay Gould, from Michael Shermer, "Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition & Other Confusions of Our Time, p. xii)]
"Good and kind people outnumber all others by thousands to one. The tragedy of human history lies in the enormous potential for destruction in rare acts of evil, not in the high frequency of evil people. Complex systems can only be built step by step, whereas destruction requires but an instant. Thus, in what I like to call the Great Asymmetry, every spectacular incident of evil will be balanced by 10,000 acts of kindness, too often unnoted and invisible as the "ordinary" efforts of a vast majority." [Stephen Jay Gould]
"Human consciousness arose but a minute before midnight on the geological clock. Yet we mayflies try to bend an ancient world to our purposes, ignorant perhaps of the messages buried in its long history. Let us hope that we are still in the early morning of our April day." [Stephen Jay Gould]
"We are glorious accidents of an unpredictable process with no drive to complexity, not the expected results of evolutionary principles that yearn to produce a creature capable of understanding the mode of its own necessary construction." [Stephen Jay Gould]
"We pass through this world but once." [Stephen Jay Gould]
"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." [Philip K. Dick, science-fiction author] |
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jec96
Skeptic Friend
USA
61 Posts |
Posted - 05/20/2002 : 14:29:54 [Permalink]
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Thanks dimossi, I will have to keep these.
-It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.
Aristotle
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Wiley
Skeptic Friend
68 Posts |
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Starman
SFN Regular
Sweden
1613 Posts |
Posted - 05/21/2002 : 06:05:14 [Permalink]
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In case anybody thought the fundies would show Gould some respect instead of using the moment for propaganda:
http://answersingenesis.org/docs2002/0520_gould.asp
"God-as revealed in his book of edicts and narratives is practically an idiot. He has nothing to say that any sensible person should want to listen to."
-- Johann Most
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James
SFN Regular
USA
754 Posts |
Posted - 05/21/2002 : 15:53:20 [Permalink]
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quote:
In case anybody thought the fundies would show Gould some respect instead of using the moment for propaganda:
http://answersingenesis.org/docs2002/0520_gould.asp
To paraphrase Iago from Aladdin: "Why am I not surprised? I'm gonna have a heart attack and die from that surprise."
________________________
Monday is an awful way to spend 1/7 of your life.
Two more years...Two more years...Two more years...Two more years...Two more years...
*whine* |
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jec96
Skeptic Friend
USA
61 Posts |
Posted - 05/21/2002 : 16:30:20 [Permalink]
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Well, for them , I guess it is the best you could expect, could have been worse i suppose..
-It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.
Aristotle
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ljbrs
SFN Regular
USA
842 Posts |
Posted - 05/22/2002 : 18:34:37 [Permalink]
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Gould had a way of expressing his ideas in a positive light rather than taking the unbelievers to task about their unbelief. His wording took the sting out of his statements and made it possible for the *true believers* to receive a positive message rather than a condemnation.
He will be very much missed. The only thing positive about this is that he survived much, much, much longer than was expected by many physicians.
ljbrs 
"Nothing is more damaging to a new truth than an old error." Goethe |
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Xev
Skeptic Friend
USA
329 Posts |
Posted - 05/22/2002 : 19:06:38 [Permalink]
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Sorry. Kayce has me on 'watch out for fundie attacks' mode.
Steve was a great guy.
Edited by - Xev on 05/22/2002 19:26:25 |
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@tomic
Administrator
USA
4607 Posts |
Posted - 05/22/2002 : 19:18:19 [Permalink]
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I think you are misinterpreting it. I think she meant Gould could put them down in a nice way.
@tomic
Gravity, not just a good idea...it's the law! |
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Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13477 Posts |
Posted - 05/22/2002 : 22:56:48 [Permalink]
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For me, the most tragic thing about Goulds passing is that the world of science has lost one of it's most eloquent advocates. His ability to take complex ideas and make them understandable to a non scientist, like myself, will be missed. Like Carl Sagan, he believed that it was an important part his job to bring the rest of us along for the ride...
The Evil Skeptic
Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous. |
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the_ignored
SFN Addict
2562 Posts |
Posted - 07/28/2002 : 14:15:28 [Permalink]
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Well, the fundies are at it again: slamming someone when they're down. AIG has there own "tribute", actually it's only to Ken Ham's father, comparing his legacy to that of Stephen J. Gould's.
http://www.answersingenesis.org/us/newsletters/0702lead.asp
Of course, it's obvious that Gould's legacy is the "sad" one. These people have no empathy at all. They STILL have to kick people after they die. Maybe I should write a letter to Ken Ham, explaining the historical legacy of xtianity!
It's interesting how they have a letter from someone who claims that one of Gould's books led him to atheism, even though Gould was far more accomodating to religion than others.
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Donnie B.
Skeptic Friend
417 Posts |
Posted - 07/28/2002 : 15:31:53 [Permalink]
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Gould's last (sob!) book, "The Structure of Evolutionary Theory", was reviewed in the most recent edition of Science News. It was given a glowing report, though it's described as being "not for the timid". 300 pages of Gould's dense but elegant prose -- yeah, I'd imagine it's a bit of a challenge.
-- Donnie B.
Brian: "No, no! You have to think for yourselves!" Crowd: "Yes! We have to think for ourselves!" |
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