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Sam Is Not A Troll, In My Opinion

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Posted by Richard Ruquist on October 10, 2002 04:29:10 UTC

Based on the definition that Harv offered, my belief is that Sam is not a troll. It seems to me that a troll must be deliberately insincere in what he/she posts. It seems to me that Sam is very sincere and is doing the best he can to defend a faith that he and probably all his family and peers endorse.

I agree with Harv that the belief contradicts science and as a result it seems foolish to us to try to use science to defend it. But nonetheless, I think Sam makes an honest attempt to defend his belief and because of that honesty, he is not a troll.

Furthermore, it seems foolish to me to expect that something we say on this forum will change someone's belief system. Perhaps all that we say will be a subtle influence that will come to fruition say in college when his peers suddenly are all believers in science rather than creationism. But then he can protect himself for this ordeal by attending the many colleges that support his beliefs.

Besides as a creationist myself, the only problem I have with his beliefs is that he thinks the universe was created some 6,000 years ago. All his unscientific rationalizations come from trying to defend that idea.

So let's give the guy a break and respect his need to defend his beliefs even though we think they are irrational. Personally, I think that irrationality needs to be defended. Afterall, the supposedly superstitious and irrational belief systems of American and African natives was used as an argument to wipe them out, to at least wipe out their belief systems. Sometimes irrational belief systems turn out to be true. For example, the earth is not flat but the universe is. Not a great example. But as another example, shamanism rejected and wiped out by christianity during colonialism turns out today to be practically worshiped by new agers.

Almost every religion rejects all other religions as irrational. Same goes for creationism. They think conventional science is irrational. The problem is that if we reject everything we think is irrational, we may be in grave error because out rationality could be unfounded.

So let's defend everybody's right to be irrational for they and not us may turn out to be rational as we come to a greater understanding of how the universe operates.

Respectfully submitted,

Richard

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