Eugene Leitl says, among other things: "Faith = absence of data."
I don't know a single devoutly religious person who would say that the mainstay of their life is their absence of data about God. Makes for good bumper sticker ideas though: "I have absence of data about Jesus being my best friend." "There is no God but Allah, and Mohammed had absence of data." "Waiting for Data about Rapture." "Theoretically Higher-Powered." "Jesus (if he exists) Saves (if he does)" On the other hand, someone once defined faith as "not knowing, but going ahead anyway as if it were true." That I can swallow. Yes, let's see if we can find life on Mars. Curiousity. The human spirit. Whatever. Let's do it. But "absence of data," no, sorry. I have absence of data about whether the local convenience store is sold out of nylon stockings, but that's not gonna send me out in the rain tonight to check. For one thing, the peer-review processes for such findings are byzantine, and reportedly feature a brutal gauntlet for the non-specialist. -michael turner [EMAIL PROTECTED] ----- Original Message ----- From: "Eugen Leitl" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, March 25, 2004 10:50 PM Subject: Re: Standing Body of Water Left Its Mark in Mars Rocks == You are subscribed to the Europa Icepick mailing list: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Project information and list (un)subscribe info: http://klx.com/europa/
