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Wednesday, January 14, 2009 12:00 AM

Obama's early stumbles

Readers ask, Camille dishes: On Democratic woes, the Weather Underground, Kanye West, Freud, alleged gay genes and "the long sleep."

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  • Wednesday, January 14, 2009 09:53 AM

    Another reason why it's a dumb argument

    The first mass extinction we know of occurred when a certain kind of bacteria that breathed carbon dioxide, and exhaled oxygen, exhaled so much oxygen that it poisoned itself. Any sufficiently knowledgeable person on the subject knows this story, in addition to those who remember 7th grade science class. This theory isn't controversial (any more), and is yet another proof that organisms can destroy their environment (as if that really needed a proof).

    But if you believe humans are special organisms ordained by God with the right to tear up the house, and not just another part of the animal kingdom, you start to make up these stories and "arguments" that sound good to someone else similarly ignorant, but are in diametric opposition to the actuals.

    If you believe further believe it is foretold to be destroyed, a certain nihilism invades all of your thoughts, until you decide that even if those crazy scientists who invented the computer and sent a man to the moon (or did they?) just might be right, who cares because you know it's gonna be destroyed anyway, 'cause it says so right in the book.

    If a majority of society has these feelings that humans are special and can't be destroyed, it starts to invade the thoughts of even rational thinking people. Even they might begin to make arguments like, "The earth has warmed and cooled over time, therefore humans cannot affect the earth's temperature," which is an honest decomposition of the supposed logic of many.

    Expressed that succinctly, the statement is so obviously false that few who make this argument express it that way, it being a fight with their subconscious to not admit believing something dumb.

    This argument is, however, one of the most pervasive I've encountered amongst the ignorant. If you disagree with the science, I respect you, because it means that you've learned some really complicated mathematics, if nothing else. Most people who argue against human-generated global warming don't even understand the concept at a conceptual level, much less the mathematics.

    To imply that, "most geologists," would agree with that statement is also ridiculous, and contrary to the facts. Geologists in fact discovered the first mass extinction event I spoke of earlier.

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