[ale] [OT] Signature

[Jeff Lightner]

Occult's razor:

When all other explanations fail whatever remains no matter how reasonable is still wrong if it doesn't agree with the tenets of my faith. :-)

 

By the way the person that believed in gnomes and fairies was wrong.   Computers have dryads in them due to all the trees that have been killed over the years.   These dryads do get angry if you talk bad about the computer they're in so always be sure to speak well of your computer even when it acts up...

 

________________________________

From: ale-bounces at ale.org [mailto:ale-bounces at ale.org] On Behalf Of Michael B. Trausch
To: ale at ale.org
Sent: Wednesday, May 02, 2007 11:07 AM
To: Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts
Subject: Re: [ale] [OT] Signature

 

On Wed, 2007-05-02 at 09:48 -0400, Jim wrote:



Jeff Lightner wrote:
> Of course he asserts that view without evidence to support it... :p
>
> Unfortunately while I like the quote my experience with the crowd that
> believes in big supernatural beings is they use the "Book"s as
> "evidence" that the "Book"s are true.   Hard to fight with that kind of
> illogic - one might even say pointless.
>
>   
It's called "faith" and faith trumps logic every time. ;) 


Faith seems to give people an easy out when it comes to explanation or what-have-you.  One of the first questions I used to like to ask people when they would call me over to fix their computer is "Why was it working correctly before now, and what caused it to not work now?"  Nine times out of ten, they will come back saying "It just did, and I don't know."  Even though, probably 90% of the time, the user ought to know what caused the PC to not work, because it was probably the last thing that they did with it.

Asking logical questions to attempt to diagnose the PC, then, are somewhat pointless.  They won't get answered.  Didn't you know...?   Computers are MAGIC!  <grin>

Seriously, though, people use belief to try to explain just about anything that they don't have an explanation for.  I once encountered a person who seriously thought that little gnomes or f?ries or something were inside of the computer and that's how it was maintained.  What?!?!  >From what did that conclusion stem from?

Others will claim to have used logic to decide that their computer should be rotated 90? on their desktop, so that they can use the "coffee cup holder."  (Don't spew yours on your monitors and keyboards... those little gnomes and/or f?ries would have to work overtime...)

And when an attempt is made to provide a clear-cut, logical, rational explanation (albeit simplified as much as is humanly possible in some cases), it is rejected in favor of the more creative and appealing fiction... until I point out that if their fiction were true, I would've been able to fix their computer by waving a magic wand and saying "Hocus Pocus"... *shakes head*

    - Mike


--

Michael B. Trausch 

fd0man at gmail.com

Phone: (404) 592-5746 

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Demand Freedom!  Use open and free protocols, standards, and software!
"What can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence." -Christopher Hitchens 

 

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