Posts by Bart Janssen
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Hard News: Belief Media, in reply to Steve Barnes,
I’m sure any scientist would tell you that if you look into the nature of absolutely anything deep enough, you will find a point beyond current knowledge and understanding.
People with faith don’t have this particular problem.While it's true that science probably has a higher percentage of agnostics and atheists than other professions there are a significant number of scientists who have faith in some kind of god AND enjoy the wonder of looking as deep into reality as they can.
For me it creates a cognitive dissonance but that isn't true for all scientists by any measure.
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Hard News: Belief Media, in reply to Steve Barnes,
I didn’t know that.
It's one of those safety habits most scientists get taught. If you wear a lab coat it's because what you are working with has some potential hazard OR what you are working with should be contained in the lab. It then becomes obvious that you don't wear the same lab coat out of the lab, say, to pick up and hug your kids. So good lab practice has lab coats never leaving the lab, it does depend a little on the kind of work you are doing.
But for someone with my training it's something instinctively "wrong".
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Hard News: Belief Media, in reply to Steve Barnes,
When I discovered that Petra Bagust was a Christian, the Devil in me thought
“What a shame”When she walked into the lift at work I thought "she is really tall" and then "WTF is she wearing a lab coat for ... and doesn't she know they should not be worn in the lift"
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I have always felt that by the time someone has reached their late teens (I'm approaching that now) they've established a world view that either does (most people) or does not (a minority) allow them to function as part of society.
Dealing with those who have not established a world view that works for them it takes a skilled professional to help them find a path, it's not a job for amateurs.
For me that leads very simply to the concept that actively trying to disrupt someones belief system is not a nice thing to do to someone. That's where I get grumpy with organised religion as an entity. I have no problem with anyone believing anything if it makes them happy and does no harm to others. But if they try and convert another person ... then I don't think that's a nice thing.
I know my parents loved the religious freedom they had when they immigrated, in their case the freedom to have no religion. And while I have no religion, I like that in my suburb (Mt Roskill) there is just about every religious group you can think of, and they all seem to get along and cook for each other. As an aside why do we only have a cross on Mt Roskill, why aren't there 27 other symbols up there, or none?
To me that's an important part of being a New Zealander (whatever that is), the idea that it's OK if your neighbour thinks something different from you so long as your kids can still play together without causing too much damage to the vege garden.
If that diversity and tolerance plays out in the media then that has to be a good thing, doesn't it?
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It doesn't take long in Newmarket to see that being a retailer in the self proclaimed golden mile is not an easy row to hoe. Back street shops open up presumably because the lease is cheaper on the back street. Maintaining a main street medium sized store seems to require a rock solid product line and very deep corporate backing to cover any fluctuations.
I like parts of Newmarket but I really don't see any need for more than one street like that in Auckland. I'd much rather see Queen street become something different.
Perhaps having Queen street become something even uniquely New Zealand with a blend of cultural approaches to shops might not be the worst thing to happen. Heck a really adventurous council could actively encourage it.
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Hard News: One man’s Meat Puppets is…, in reply to Tom Beard,
Then this should reach it quickly.
Made it to the 1 minute mark
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Holy 28 pages Batman!
I've already had it determined that my musical taste is crap, so listing what I hate is perhaps moot.
But I have one experience that seems relevant. I've found as time goes by that songs that I loved, passionately loved for a long period, can become songs that I just don't want to hear again. It's as if there is an absolute number of times I can hear any song before I will eventually hate it - no matter how much I loved it when it first released. As a result there are some radio stations I just can't listen to at all.
The other thing I've noticed is that the more times a lyric is repeated within one song the quicker that song reaches my threshold of tolerance.
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I overestimated the competence of the police.
This for me is the saddest part of the whole mess.
I don't know what those folks were doing in the bush and probably will never know. But I had hoped the police would have had a better idea of what was going on and a more appropriate response than behaving as if they were in a hollywood movie. To compound their (over)reaction with shear incompetence is just downright disappointing.
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Hard News: A fiction of unalloyed darkness, in reply to 3410,
Why would anyone expect a theatre piece to be literally true?
No really, Martin Sheen is NOT the president.
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Hard News: A fiction of unalloyed darkness, in reply to Russell Brown,
it’s reasonably easy to try and buy ethical food
But it's actually quite a bit harder to succeed.