Freethought & Rationalism Archive

avalanche:ix · 03-06-2003, 06:31 AM

Quote:

Well, I've given this a little more consideration. After reading avalanche:ix's posts, I'm in full agreement with actively removing the 'stupid' gene.

oooh.

me annoying me not stupid
but me annoying make people call me stupid.
oooh.

The Other Michael · 03-06-2003, 08:43 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by avalanche:ix
i thought this was an intelligent forum of freethinkers where we didn't panick or get offended when we saw certain 'things', not some censoring conservative breeding hole.

i thought this was a mature place where we didn't have to hide our thoughts and feelings and dog-forbid, reality, because it scares us or is offensive.

were you *asking*? or were you being yet another censoring moderator with a touch of fascism? not an insult, just an honest question. though i doubt you'll see it as that and delete it anyway.

that would just dissapoint me in this place.

The SecWeb has rules of behavior. If you are going to participate in MF&P discussions you are expected to follow those rules.

From the SecWeb Forum Rules:

Quote:

The Secular Web discussion forum strives to be an intellectually stimulating environment in which discussants exchange ideas in the spirit of discovery. Poisoning that environment with acrimony is highly discouraged. Please exercise tact and refrain from insulting others or disrupting ongoing discussions with inflammatory speech.

These rules on civil discourse are generally more stringently enforced in the "higher" fora, of which MF&P is one.

If you wish to discuss my moderation of this or any other thread in MF&P, or whether you should be expected to follow the rules as quoted above, you'll need to open a thread in the "Bugs, problems, complaints and suggestions" forum. Any additional posts in this thread on the topic of moderation will be deleted as inappropriate.

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Ensign Steve · 03-06-2003, 03:07 PM

First:

Quote:

Originally posted by lunachick
Well, I've given this a little more consideration. After reading avalanche:ix's posts, I'm in full agreement with actively removing the 'stupid' gene.

:notworthy

Second:

Quote:

Originally posted by DavidH
But in anycase there are a lot of people of lesser intelligence that are completely content and are a lot happier than a lot of people of higher intelligence.
Originally posted by avalanche:ix
they're also often completely incapable of surviving without supervision. besides, what kind of argument is that?! "oh, stupid people are often happier than smart people, so i want my kids to be stupid".

David didn't say that parents want their kids to be stupid (strawman). At the risk of putting words in his mouth, he was merely bringing up a point that it is possible to lead a happy and productive life without a high IQ, so lack of intelligence may not necessarily be a defect. That does not mean that parents should automatically have stupid kids, it is just something to consider when making the judgement.

I got into it with my mom because a few years ago they isolated the gene that causes dwarfism, and a lot of dwarves were getting all bent out of shape that this might result in no more dwarves being born, and their people would become extinct. I was like "That's dumb, who wants to be a dwarf?!" My mom asked me how would I feel if they isolated some gene that causes homosexuality, and all the parents were making sure to only have straight kids. I of course said "Well, that's different" but I did not have a leg to stand on in that argument. What society or individual parents may consider to be a "defect" in their baby is often seen as a blessing by the person who has it. It makes them the unique individuals that they are.

Jen

Neilium · 03-06-2003, 03:35 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Mageth
James Watson, the co-discoverer of DNA...

Give credit where credit is due. Watson and Crick unravelled DNA's structure. Friedrich Meischer discovered DNA, some 80 years before Watson and Crick's work.

Yup. Also, it was Rosalind Franklin's x-ray crystallography that confirmed Watson and Crick's hypothesis. She didn't receive any part of the Nobel prize, but somehow her boss, Maurice Wilkins, did.

To add insult to injury, she's dealt a handful of rather tasteless, sexist remarks in Watson's book, The Double Helix.

-neil

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