Common Sense

[The Silver Shadow]

Ramadan, only when there's no classes. Haj, I'll try but not now. I think the only way I could define a lapsed Shia Muslim would be the fact that they don't drink too often, acknowledge the existance of Allah and consider pork to be a useless meat, but will have it from time to time...

 

[Horatius]

Sounds reasonable! Thanks!

 

[T.A.M.]

Silver:

Now that I know you are Iranian, and Muslim, I can state in advance, that if you ever see me post things about the Islamic Extremists, and the Jihadists, that the comments are not of racist intent, and hopefully will not be taken as such. I would just as easily call to accountability white catholics, if they had hijacked planes and ran them into the WTCs in the name of Jesus.

TAM

 

[The Silver Shadow]

Oh right, I should also put in that having a relationship is cool, but they couldn't care if they had a boyfriend or girlfriend at the moment.

 

[The Silver Shadow]

Silver:

Now that I know you are Iranian, and Muslim, I can state in advance, that if you ever see me post things about the Islamic Extremists, and the Jihadists, that the comments are not of racist intent, and hopefully will not be taken as such. I would just as easily call to accountability white catholics, if they had hijacked planes and ran them into the WTCs in the name of Jesus.

TAM

Don't worry, there are militants of every religion you can think of. The "Muslims" in this case were heavily brainwashed and part of a breakaway sect.

 

[Belz...]

That's the thing, though...without corroborating evidence, we don't KNOW whether we have great memories or not. We might THINK we do, but then when we look at the evidence, we may realize we've gotten it spectacularly wrong.

I've always thought I had an excellent memory, and I guess I do. I have learned, however, not to be surprised if I find out my memory is in error. A good test is watching a movie that has some good lines in it, and seeing how well your memory of the lines matches the actual dialogue.

Agreed. And as an example, I was watching a series I hadn't seen in over ten years, last year, and while watching an episode that I may have seen twice back in 1993, I was saying the characters' lines before they did. Scary.

 

[Belz...]

[qimg]http://img444.imageshack.us/img444/4606/02028rea3.jpg[/qimg]

Sweet. Could've done without super-dog, but sweet.

 

[Belz...]

Actually, yes I can. =D I've been reading the posts of this forum for a couple of days with great interest. You see, those conspiracy theorists are the same everywhere, regardless of their nationality. Recently I participated to an intense debate that eventually covered about 350 pages before the conspiracy theorists finally disappeared for some time to lick their wounds.

Heh. Welcome to the forum, Ô flame of the west.

(But it's not only with conspiracy theories where they show their insanity; in other discussions they often prove themselves to be practically brainwashed leftist extremists who have strong sympathies towards islamic terrorists in Palestine, Afghanistan and Iraq and they also share the terrorists' enormous hatred towards Western politics and Israel. Their ignorance goes down to levels where it's hard to believe that most of them actually are grown-up adults and not just teenage rebels without a clue.)

I'm not sure that beign a leftist has anything to do with sympathising with terrorists, but then again I never understood exactly what people mean by "right" and "left", politically speaking.

The rest of your paragraph is right on the money, of course.

 

[Architect]

I think accusing the CTers as being left wing, socialist, or other similar titles is both unfair and inaccurate. As far as I can see we have a good smattering of anti-government, right wing nutcases as well as those who hate the Israelis, hate the Republicans, hate authority, and unfortunately despise logical reasoning.

 

[Andúril]

Silver:

Now that I know you are Iranian, and Muslim, I can state in advance, that if you ever see me post things about the Islamic Extremists, and the Jihadists, that the comments are not of racist intent, and hopefully will not be taken as such. I would just as easily call to accountability white catholics, if they had hijacked planes and ran them into the WTCs in the name of Jesus.

TAM

Just to avoid misunderstandings, I must say that my reasons are exactly the same as T.A.M.'s. I'm not a racist - I don't care about people's religion, race or colour. All I care is how they act: do they allow political or religious ideology to restrict the use of common sense? Sometimes my emotions burst a bit when I see extreme stupidity that's blind to all possible reasoning (after CTists, this occurs most often with christian creationists, however...), but don't take it wrong, folks.

Heh. Welcome to the forum, Ô flame of the west.

Aa, thank you.

I'm not sure that beign a leftist has anything to do with sympathising with terrorists, but then again I never understood exactly what people mean by "right" and "left", politically speaking.

Well, as I said above, being "leftist" very likely has a bit different meaning here where I live. As Finland (unfortunately) is a neighbour of Russia, here many leftists (and greens) really are very close to communists. When the Soviet Union collapsed, the major local communist (or actually stalinist) parties broke up and their members silently infiltrated among actual leftists, greens and social democrats. They are easily recognized by their more or less covered, extremely hateful attitude against especially everything where the U.S. is involved. Luckily they are in the minority now, but the seeds of evil they spread around during the decades of the Cold War still affect many people's thoughts.

 

[Vincent Vega]

This is very much a common sense question. Our typical experiences are that insulation decreases heat transfer between two regions. Common sense tells us that insulation always does this (because that is what it is designed to do and because we have no experience of this not being the case). This true/false question challenges that idea. If the answer is FALSE, then common sense holds and insulation always insulates. If the answer is TRUE, then common sense is wrong because there are cases where insulation does the opposite of insulating. Which is it?

Which of my true/false statements are true and describe cases where common sense fails? Which are false, meaning that common sense is correct and I simply made up the claim?

You also are missing the whole point of the test. I want to demonstrate one of the key reasons why common sense and intuition are not valid scientific explanations. Common sense and intuition rely upon personal experience, are subject to personal bias, often are only applicable on a specific scale, can oversimplify complex events, and completely fail when faced with counter-intuitive truths. This is why people become experts in various fields. Experts apply science so that they can make decisions and determinations based on verifiable evidence, not intuition. If an expert is forced to speculate, he does so with in-depth experience and knowledge that can make his speculation more accurate than those of someone who is not an expert in the applicable field.

In short, you are not an expert. Your "common sense" is not applicable to the events of 9/11.

Great post! Experts? We don' need no stinkin experts! We got common sense!

 

[Vincent Vega]

True enough

I think accusing the CTers as being left wing, socialist, or other similar titles is both unfair and inaccurate. As far as I can see we have a good smattering of anti-government, right wing nutcases as well as those who hate the Israelis, hate the Republicans, hate authority, and unfortunately despise logical reasoning.

In fact I think the original CT'ers were Right-Wing Anti-Semites. As opposed to left-wing anti-Zionists.

 

[ArmillarySphere]

Holy resurrection, Batman!

 

[pagan]

We've heard it again and again from the 'truthers':

"Common sense tells us......"

You know the drill: Present them with facts which are contrary to their view of the world and they start on about common sense being just as good as expertise.

So I started to wonder, what other examples of the real world can we present which are counter intuitive to common sense?

My favourites would be:

1. Speed of light

How can something have a constant speed regardless of how fast I am moving in relation to it? Surely common sense tells us that if I am travelling 'very fast' while carrying a torch, then the speed of the light coming out of that torch will be c + 'very fast', right? Just common sense.

2. Flying objects

http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Evolution_of_Technology/lifting_bodies/Tech29G1.htm

How can these 'planes' fly when the wings are so short? Surely common sense tells us that the wings would have to be bigger to provide lift?

3. Strange Creatures

http://www.ocean.udel.edu/kiosk/bsmoker.html

How can creatures live in complete darkness and temperatures of 400 deg centigrade? Common sense tells us this is impossible, right?

Have at it

Common sense is the most important thing of all. It proves that 911 was a inside job.

If you don't see that, you are a moral loser or a Dubya loving, Arab hating, oil stealing bastid.

 

[stateofgrace]

Common sense is the most important thing of all. It proves that 911 was a inside job.

If you don't see that, you are a moral loser or a Dubya loving, Arab hating, oil stealing bastid.

I'm sure nobody will mind if I nominate this as a stundie, thanks.

 

[FactCheck]

Common sense is the most important thing of all. It proves that 911 was a inside job.

If you don't see that, you are a moral loser or a Dubya loving, Arab hating, oil stealing bastid.

I think conspiracy theorists are used by Rove to make all liberals look like kooks. At least there is more evidence for that. Heh!

 

[pagan]

I'm sure nobody will mind if I nominate this as a stundie, thanks.

You are welcome.

It's time for me to win the stundie. Psst... Do you really think this will make it...? Hope so anyway.

 

[pagan]

I think conspiracy theorists are used by Rove to make all liberals look like kooks. At least there is more evidence for that. Heh!

I don't exactly know what you are getting at here? Me, a republican?

Hey, I am European SOB. Nothing republican in me. If I was an American I would vote for the Dems. Or more correctly on the libertarians.

 

[stateofgrace]

You are welcome.

It's time for me to win the stundie. Psst... Do you really think this will make it...? Hope so anyway.

I doubt it, but time is on your side. I am sure that in the future you will surpass your already unsurpassable level of ignorance.

 

[chipmunk stew]

I don't exactly know what you are getting at here? Me, a republican?

Hey, I am European SOB. Nothing republican in me. If I was an American I would vote for the Dems. Or more correctly on the libertarians.

And Mr. Rove will exploit this admission to paint liberals and Dems with the kook brush.

You may as well be a Republican for all the good you're doing for the liberal/Dem image.