The World Around Us

While religion might be a problem in the world, it is politics and divisions it creates in our world that in my opinion currently might just be the world’s biggest problem. When being on the ‘winning side’ in politics is more important than scientific truth, the consequences for our world might be dire indeed. Don’t believe me? Look at the climate change.

Lately, I have left science on one side and have been reading some philosophy because this is the field which has always fascinated me. I admire philosophers because they are deep thinking and ultra-smart people. The way you can disprove or make someone think about what they are saying using principles of philosophy is truly fascinating. And when it comes to atheism side of things, I have always found it fascinating that there are people who believe that they can – well, disprove claims of theism without even invoking 'evidence', by using philosophy, by thinking and reasoning deeply about their claims. 

One of the arguments I do not particularly like is the so-called - not as bad as - argument. I am sure you have it seen all over the internet.
It can take many forms in many situations, for example:

• Religion is very influential, but not as influential as in Saudi Arabia
• Trump is a dictator, but nothing compared to Stalin
• Women are paid less than men, but children are starving in Africa
• Women do not have equality in Europe, but women in Saudi Arabia have it even worse

Is this a good argument? Certainly, at the first glance, it could see that way, especially if applied to issues that are connected, for example, the status of women in the western world when compared to the status of women in Saudi Arabia or Afghanistan or somewhere else. It kind of does seem to have some argumentative power. But, does it really?

So, to continue what I started on June 24 – (not even three full months ago ) – I now return to the Chemtrails conspiracy. Last time together we took a look what are Chemtrails really.

To summarize quickly, just in case you are not interested in visiting the part 1., aircraft do leave trails behind. But they are actually a phenomenon that occurs when the byproducts of burning the aircraft fuel mix with cool air. The process of burning aircraft fuel leaves behind carbon dioxide and water. So, there is water vapour in the engine exhaust. This means that water droplets can form. How? Well, in essence, hot and humid air exits the engine. This is kind of like when you breathe out hot air from your lungs into the cold air outside. What happens? You provide moisture to the air, so condensation happens. This is not the whole story, as the contrail freezes in the cold air. By cold air it’s usually meant below -30°C. When you have air that cold, that means that those water droplets freeze very quickly. So, you now have ice particles. This is what the contrails are made from.

You know how the argument goes:

“If you can get drunk, get into an accident and then be responsible for decision to drive, why can’t you be held responsible for agreeing to have sex while drunk? Why is it rape?”

If you are looking superficially, the argument looks pretty solid. However, it is also invalid. Let’s see how.

I love Science. I feel science is the greatest enterprise humanity has engaged in. I am moved to tears by reading Carl Sagan or Stephen Hawking and realizing how far humans have come by using principles of science.

They give you one box, you type in your question or query and press Enter. You might think that there is absolutely no way to use that incorrectly, or that something bad might happen as a result of that search. Yet, you would be wrong.

The thing about search engines is that they use algorithms that were designed to try and find results that are most relevant to your query. Algorithm has a number of factors it considers when deciding how relevant something is. That all sounds good, doesn’t it? Well, for starters, those factors are not whether something was proven true or is something based on evidence, but they are things that search engine manufacturers have decided that are likely to produce quality results. Of course, theoretically those things can lineup, so that search engine really presents you with credible information, but that is not guaranteed in any way.