A friend and I were talking about climate change the other day. I lamented that both sides of the argument have not employed enough scientific rigor when framing the debate, alternatively exaggerating or downplaying the potential consequences of continuing on our present course without doing enough research to back up their claims. He responded that sometimes people need to have the potential consequences of failure exaggerated to them in order to be motivated to take action. While I still think it's critical to gather as much data and do as much research as possible, his point was valid. My mind took an unexpected leap: "Perhaps what you're saying is that people need religion."

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I posted this message on the blog of a libertarian who was arguing against all forms of entitlement programs on the basis of their not having been consented to. I feel that many people are unaware of the political theory behind consent and government force. I'm no expert on this subject, but I did at least pay attention in my Poli Sci 101 class.

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Here is a recent response of mine on Facebook regarding the so-called "globalist" conspiracy that some conservatives buy into. 

Any similarity between Benson's raving conspiracy theories and the present circumstances are purely coincidental. The world is so different now from anything that these men could have imagined. We certainly have plenty of problems, but they are far more complex than any of the conspiracy theories can account for. Conspiracy theories are attractive because they are simpler than reality. Simple minds want all the pieces to fit together. The real world is much more complex than that.

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"We will not be afraid to speculate, but we will be careful to distinguish speculation from fact." (Carl Sagan, 1934-1996)

(A Facebook friend asked this question. Here is my response.)

Depends on what kind of truth you're talking about. There are truths that are not influenced by people's beliefs, but even then, it is not always clear which truths belong to this category. For example, for centuries, "man cannot fly" was a true statement. Since the Wright Brothers' first flight, this truth has undergone a certain degree of revision, because the sum total of human experience has begun to demonstrate that under certain limited conditions it doesn't always hold. Perhaps there will come a day when our mastery of technology will be so complete that, for almost all intents and purposes, this statement is not true.

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