Saturday, April 07, 2007

If a test occurs in the woods and no one's around...

"Oh yeah, name one!" the student challenges you.

"How about the various tests of astrology?" you counter. "Astrology working goes against almost everything we know about physics, but it's been tested all the time, and it's found wanting every time. You could say the same thing for homeopathy."

"Bah, those tests were heavily flawed."

"I haven't even told you of any speciic tests and you're already assuming they're flawed? Just because they don't agree with what you think, eh? I could give you paper after paper, and you'd be hard pressed to manufacture flaws for all of them. At least for scientific claims we actually have papers; it seems all too often that we get obscure references to some poor evidence for some claim."

"If you'll excuse me," the professor says. "We actually have a guest speaker today (against all my recommendations), and I don't think security can hold him back any longer."

"Very well," you say, and take a seat.

The professor walks off stage and is promptly (and quite surprisingly) replaced by celebrity nutjob, Tom Cruise. After introducing himself, he starts off is speach, "How many of you have ever had a question that no one could answer?" Everyone in the class raises their hand.

"What if you were guaranteed that whatever you asked, you'd get an answer. What would be the best question you could ask? Well, tonight, I'm giving you the opportunity. Through the revelations of Scientology, I'm able to answer absolutely any question you might pose. So, shoot away."

Taking your chance, you shoot up your hand. Your enthusiasm is noted by Cruise, and he calls on you first. You ask, "I've noticed a lot of very strange events going on today, and I'm sure others have as well. What's causing all of this?"

"Ah, I'm glad you asked," he replies. "Tonight is a project organized by the Church of Scientology in order to prove to people our validity. In order to do that, we've loosened the boundaries of reality, so a few extra things may slip in, but rest assured, we'll take charge of it all soon enough. Next question..."

Well, no reason doing anything else, you have your answer. Time to go back and report what's going on.

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