h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Astrology - Just A Bit Of Fascist Fun... - A19918461
Author: Little Richardjohn - U1244517

Astrology requires political quietism.

Then again, we could just dismiss it as harmless nonsense.

Go on, you're a closet horoscope reader on the quiet, aren't you?

I'd advise having a look at the guidelines for the edited guide, and then seeing how your entry fits / doesn't fit wiht them

tjm (astrophysist)

You must reword "I wonder why" -- remove the first person.

devine > divine

I can understand the quotes around 'science' but not those around 'courses'. You can have real courses about fake subjects.

You do not explain fascism at all, you merely use it as a derogatory term.

Not all Christian denominations teach predestination; this is the specialty of the more extreme Reformed churches. Catholics on the other hand teach that prayer has the power to change God's mind.

On the other hand science also allows the possibility that all events are in principle predictable. The only reason that they are not in fact predicted is the excessive complexity of the calculations required. Like weather forecasting.

Overall this Entry is a polemic (rant) and its point could be made better with a little less angry muttering.

"science also allows the possibility that all events are in principle predictable. "

Which science says that?

You're going to have to organize this a drop before it can make the EG. Right now it strikes me as a cross between a ramble and an essay.

Well, all science.

Science accepts all possibilities after all. It then works to endorse some and debunk others. The proposition that all events are predictable in principle is one so large as to be hard, if not impossible, to debunk. It is a philosophical rather than a scientific one.

Even among those that accept and work with quantum theory (with its built-in bits of unpredictability) a lot of their work consists in making predictions and testing them. What happened just after the Big Bang for instance. Between the first thousandth of a second and the first 400,000 years their predictions (which are truly predictions, even though the events are in the past) are extremely well borne out by observation. After that the predictions become too complex for modelling; which is my point.

A theory makes certain predictions, not necessarily of "what will happen" but of "what will be found", and scientists then test these predictions against observation. In fact it is a basic premise of science that all the things we study are in principle predictable.

And how does this apply to human lives?

Human lives are included in "all events".

human lives are obviously predictable.

Every decision that we make is based on the balance of chemicals in our brains at that momnet. This balance is detemined by things such as genetics & outside enviorment.

Thereofre all human interaction, is just based on previous interactions and genetic make-up of the people involved.

Therefore, the hourney to everything that will happen has already started.

Sit back and endure the ride

Are they now?

So if Max Plank says that oppression is inevitable, that should be good enough for the oppressed and they should simply learn to accept their fate?

This is getting very tedious now. Would you please do as the nice people ask and remove this from PR? Or, at the very least, read the Writing-Guidelines so you understand what makes a suitable EG entry and what doesn't?

I agree with Felonious, but to give Little Richardjohn a courteous answer, the inevitability of oppression historically occurring does not justify any instance of it. The same counterargument applies here as in the case of religious predestination:

Action is not damped down by the theory, since it is equally possible that the very action in question (to take arms against a sea of troubles) was itself inevitably predestined.

In other words predestination makes no difference whatever. So you are right to rubbish belief in fortune-telling. The Entry needs some work though.

There has to be a line drawn between predicting the return of Halley's Comet, and predicting that injustice, famine, war and hatred are with us forever, or that an individual choice is predetermined by cosmic laws in any but the most pedantically obvious ways. Between the physical world and the creations of humanity.

Resorting to Heisenberg and Plank and to resurrect mysticism is to jump the gun on Quantum physics, which even the scientists admit, the more they study it the less they understand it.

I don't see where or how such a line can be drawn. Honestly.

Even physical things like the weather are unpredictable beyond gross outlines and short-term forecasts. The butterfly effect is enough to cover both this and human affairs -- too much complexity -- without positing any extra factor for the creative nature of human action, or even quantum intervention.

"inevitability of oppression historically occurring does not justify any instance of it. "

1. Is it inevitable?

2. Saying it is does in fact justify it. It removes the incentive for action. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy.

inevitablity = if you keep avoiding the fact that this entry in it's current state is not suitable for PR these things will happen.

1) Only a few scouts and other interested parties will see it, not actaully bother reading much of it and just point out that it is not suitable for the Edited Guide in it's current state

2) After some time of this circular conversation, one of us will get fed up and ask the eds to move it back out of PR, where it will been seen by almost nobody

===

Alternativly, you could read the guidlines, and have a look around other entries in the Edited guide and see what the type of entries we like are, and think about how you could alter your entry to fit within the guides.


PR is not the place for a philosophical discussion, partly because it is meant to be for polishing entries on their way to the edited guide, but mostly because people in PR don't regard people who ignore the rules very highly

And also because the likes of Recumbentman and others will have you for breakfast.

"the fact that this entry in it's current state is not suitable for PR"

So do I have some kind of 'deadline' for doing this?

Or can I do it when I please?

'Not suitable'...

You have two months between your last posting in this thread and the entry's removal, IF it is suitable for entry into the EG. If it isn't, two Scouts get to decide as to whether it should be removed.

If I were you, I'd give yourself an easy time of it and submit it to <./>ThePost</.>.