I HEREBY STEP DOWN FOR NOW

[Kishkumen]

You're using the word 'effort' in a sense that I don't mean it.

I'm using it in the premeditated sense of the word.

I attempted to allow for that in my response. It looks like I was not successful.

Certainly, when I was a kid. I grew up. It was easy to believe in Santa Claus and magic when I was a kid, too.

And maybe you will one day see your current beliefs as being the equivalent of Santa Claus and magic. It could also be that your sense of what Santa Claus and magic are all about is at the root of a problem you will one day overcome.

The point of my post is questioning why people hold on to beliefs if they get upset upon having those beliefs challenged. I'm not surprised by people getting upset. I suspect it's because we understand at some level there's something wrong with the belief, primarily because any time I've gotten upset over a cherished notion, it was because I was wrong about something. Of course it's our own internal experience and perception of the world around us. Nobody escapes that.

I'm not questioning why people get upset, but why they don't use it as a signal to question their beliefs.

Yes, it looked pretty self-congratulatory. I'll be honest. I do agree with you that getting upset ideally should move people to reexamine their assumptions and beliefs. At the same time, outgrowing Santa Claus and magic are not the only legitimate results. Outgrowing certain simplistic ideas about Santa Claus and magic may be legitimate alternatives to rejecting them completely.

At the very least they may be accepted as harmless alternatives in others even if they don't work for you.

It wouldn't surprise me, particularly. I follow scientific experts. The accuracy of anything comes down to the precision in which it's expressed, something else that evolves over time.

Evolves or is overturned when the limitations of old models make them unsustainable. Scientific experts are good for science, and science is not good for everything. The assumption that science is universally capable is an ideology, not science.

People do get worked up about the "non-existence of Divinity." They all have different reasons for it, but that's an accurate statement. Some get worked up at the suggestion there is nothing divine. I imagine many others get worked up because they have to contend with people believing in divinity, and everything that implies. Reasons will vary.

Again, my statement was intended to be read in both senses, but I see it did not succeed.

[Physics Guy]

Gravity is an interesting example of something in which to believe. If by "gravity" you just mean the tendency of things in everyday life to fall if unsupported, at least if they're not light enough to float around in the air, then I guess it's easy enough to believe in gravity. But there's a lot more to gravity than that. In a certain sense, at least, the belief that gravity is a tendency of things to fall toward the ground is actually a false belief, because although that tendency certainly exists under everyday circumstances, that tendency isn't really what gravity is.

According to general relativity, gravity is time flowing a little bit more slowly near the floor than it does near the ceiling.

That's really and literally true. That is, it's really and literally what the general theory of relativity says is really and literally true about gravity. According to GR, that difference in time flow is not just a weird but tiny consequence of gravity. According to GR, that time flow difference is gravity.

That takes some effort to believe. It takes effort first of all just to understand what it means. It takes effort to visualise it mentally. It takes effort to take it seriously as something other than philosophical mumbo jumbo or science fiction technobabble. It takes effort to understand what kind of evidence there could be for GR, and then it takes effort to examine that evidence and assess it.

That's not even counting the much greater effort it takes to gather the evidence in the first place. The first piece of evidence took centuries of precise observations of the planet Mercury. The second piece required traveling around the globe to observe some faint stars near the sun during a solar eclipse. A lot of the subsequent pieces of evidence were even harder to get. Just lately there have been these half-billion dollar interferometers.

Not every true thing is easy to believe.

[honorentheos]

That is for sharing this, Physics Guy. Fascinating post.

[Kishkumen]

I agree! Wow! Many thanks, PG!

[Dr. Shades]

To clarify, I didn't step down because I have too much going on in my personal life or because I needed a break for whatever reason. Things in both my personal and professional life have gotten much more tolerable, thank goodness.

I stepped down because too many people wanted me to. There was no other reason than that.

[Chap]

Things in both my personal and professional life have gotten much more tolerable, thank goodness.

Excellent news!

[Jersey Girl]

To clarify, I didn't step down because I have too much going on in my personal life or because I needed a break for whatever reason. Things in both my personal and professional life have gotten much more tolerable, thank goodness.

I stepped down because too many people wanted me to. There was no other reason than that.

Oh my freaking hell, Shades. You misread everything I, at least, wrote to you and about you. Everything. I contend that you misread or misinterpreted or are misrepresenting the very reasons you think that people wanted you to step down.

Just in case upon your return you should read this post and ask, "Does it matter?" My answer to that would be a resounding, "YES".

Your above claim could only be deduced from a selective reading of our many appeals to you for the past 8 months not to mention our collective concern for you.

[Marcus]

To clarify, I didn't step down because I have too much going on in my personal life or because I needed a break for whatever reason. Things in both my personal and professional life have gotten much more tolerable, thank goodness.

I stepped down because too many people wanted me to. There was no other reason than that.

So, you decided to have a group of people that you hand-picked decide moderation issues on a board with many participants rather than keep that power entirely to yourself. That’s just acknowledging that more than one brain making decisions is better than a dictatorship. Smart move.

[ceeboo]

Hey Shades

.....Things in both my personal and professional life have gotten much more tolerable, thank goodness.

That's really good to hear.

I stepped down because too many people wanted me to. There was no other reason than that.

To anyone who read the many posts on this board recently, this was obvious.

Taken is full context and measuring this against the enormous span of time we are talking about concerning the playground that you created and have provided for each of us (welcoming any and all to participate over many years) - I thought the way you have been handled and treated by some of the board members here was/is downright awful. In addition, to witness how flippantly and unthoughtfully you have been pressured to step aside (discarded/cancelled in my opinion) has been beyond sad to me. I am sorry that this has happened to you, Shades - I can't imagine what thoughts are running through your mind at this time.

Thanks for the many years that I have thoroughly enjoyed participating and playing in your playground.

[Jersey Girl]

To anyone who read the many posts on this board recently, this was obvious.

NO. It wasn't.