"Mike Rapoport" wrote in message
ink.net...
I disagree, as long as you allow yourself to think that droughts are a
product of sin or witches, then you will never learn about things like el
nino and its weather affects. Believing things without any evidence gave
us
the dark ages.


"I worry that, especially as the Millennium edges nearer, pseudo-science and
superstition will seem year by year more tempting, the siren song of
unreason more sonorous and attractive. Where have we heard it before?
Whenever our ethnic or national prejudices are aroused, in times of
scarcity, during challenges to national self-esteem or nerve, when we
agonize about our diminished cosmic place and purpose, or when fanaticism is
building up around us -- then, habits of thought familiar from ages past
reach for the controls.

"The candle flame gutters. Its little pool of light trembles. Darkness
gathers. The demons begin to stir." -- Carl Sagan "The Demon Haunted World,"
1995.

I read this prophetic passage in the light of 9/11, the xenophobic reaction
of the political right, the resulting attempt to grab power at all costs on
the part of the political left, the rise of New Age mysticism and violent
religious fundamentalism, the polarization of the country over abortion, the
environment, nuclear power, etc.; the incredible acceptance of junk science
in the court room, people fearful of little airplanes dropping nuclear
weapons on them....

Well, I have to wonder how long it will be before we sink into the long
night of another dark age.