Re: faith and belief

"Russell Wallace" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in
message news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> On Sat, 11 Oct 2003 13:56:16 GMT, "Anthony Cerrato"
> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> >Belief has too much of a religious connotation I
> >think...after all, most people don't actually "worship"
the
> >putative ETI!  :)
>
> A great many do.

First, I said _most_. Second, I don't think a _great_ many
do--unless we mean different things by "great"--what do you
mean? 10, 100, 1 million etc. Too subjective to debate I
think. :)

>It seems to be the accepted dogma that if there are
> alien civilizations older and more technically advanced
than our own,
> they are also be wiser and more benevolent...

This is indeed true--don't you think the odds are that's
true?

>...and getting in two-way
> contact with them would help solve our problems;

It's possible over long periods of time (many generations)
that this might possibly be true (depending on distance to
them.) I certainly think many fewer people would believe
this than the first statement though. It's all pretty
chancy.

>when a moment of
> rational thought would make it clear that there is
absolutely no
> reason whatsoever for believing any such thing.

Not sure exactly why you say that -- unless you mean only
the latter statement which I agree fewer people would
believe just _in general_.              ...tonyC

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