‘I'm sure they are settled. Until they aren't‘
sounds like a nice slogan for a politician or something, but unless you specify what exactly you think is going to change, it’s just that.. an empty slogan.
In your own personal life experiences, can you think of any instances where you were SURE of something, and it turned out to be wrong? I mean REALLY sure. I'll bet you can. I'll bet you can think of more than one even.
I don't need to specify. You know from your own life experiences it's true. If it's an empty slogan, it would have never happened to you.
For me, it's quite the opposite of empty. It's full. It's full of examples. I know from my own life experiences (and those around me) that there will always be times when you (or someone you felt you could trust) were SURE of something, and it turned out to be completely false.
So yes, things may seem settled. Until they aren't.
of course it happened to me and so i learned to put a certain level of confidence in every peace of information that i absorb. i think we all do, it doesn’t take much because it mostly done at the subconscious level without having to cogitate about it. of course different individuals can have varying levels of confidence in the same thing. even more so, sometimes i choose to be gullible about certain things, and super skeptic about others.
hopefully this clarifies why i asked you to be specific. i’m trying to understand what exactly you’re contesting. is it that our activities cause warming? is it that warming cause changes to the climate? maybe the severity of the changes? the price spike for energy? i genuinely don’t know so we can’t have a healthy conversation which is fine, but if you want to converse, please be specific instead of throwing general slogans at me.
so again.. my statement was that the saying ‘the science is settled’ means that we are 99.9% confident that human activities cause a rise to the average global temperature, and that global warming cause changes to the global climate. thats it, and nothing more. (it’s tempting to add more to it, like the problem of acceleration, but then i’ll have to start dropping the level of confidence, so let’s leave it at that)
..note that i already left a little bit of room for errors. and so your slogan may apply to that little tiny bit that is in question.. so what is it that you’re contesting, or afraid is going to change exactly?
It doesn't matter what I'm contesting. What matters is the ability to recognize that even the very best experts, the ones you absolutely trust, will be wrong from time to time. I think you recognize that.
The specifics don't matter. What matters is that the specifics, the examples, that YOU have experienced made an impact. My specifics will never matter to you. Yours probably wont matter to me. When someone says "the science is settled" it makes no difference what they are talking about specifically. In general, that's a declaration of faith. Because a mind that closed leaves no room for improvement or learning.
Me personally, I have my faith also. We all do. I just don't have THAT much faith. I cannot honestly say there is no room for improvement or learning or modifications to what is generally accepted as "settled". That said I do think we are on the same page when it comes to realizing climate changes, and there are things to be justifiably skeptical about.
but the specifics of what you contest do matter because some science is settled and some is not. so how can we even have a conversation without specifying what we’re talking about? saying that science in general is settled or unsettled is just silly because some of it is, and some isn’t. and don’t misunderstand me, i’m not asking you about specifics that require knowledge in chemistry or physics like complex interactions between greenhouse gasses. look at my previous question, all i was asking you is if you agree that human activities cause global warming and climate change as a result. and you still haven’t answered me.
now you say that we are on the same page when it comes to some ‘settled science’ that is justified to be skeptical about. sure, there’s a lot to be skeptical about, we can definitely agree on that and more so, i agree that many people cross the line and adopt funny faith in what they believe to be science but truly is philosophy of science, and all sort of subjective interpretations of it. they often can’t even tell the difference. but than again, unless you are specific on what you are skeptical about, i have no idea what you are talking about either. am i making sense?
I've never needed backup. You're the one who needs backup. I enjoy talking to someone on here I've known for a month or two and if it gives you the chance to invent something to complain about, so much the better.
You're on the same intellectual level, so that makes sense, but let's not pretend you are not constantly seeking allies because you cannot handle your own end of things successfully.