In ancient times “everybody” KNEW that everything in the human body was composed of one or more of the four “humors” – four fundamental fluids: blood, choler (yellow bile), phlegm, and black bile – and when you were sickened, it was because they were “out-of-balance” in your body…
The “fact” that aliens have never been seen other than as weird lights in the sky, or from the bottom of a bottle, is telling – I don’t altogether dismiss their existence but, until actual, independently verifiable PROOF is produced, I DO remain a sceptic… (and quotes such as "my cousin Clem swears that when he was out hunting, he saw… ") don’t cut it either!
Most of us start out believing “facts” without proof (say, the existence of God) and some degenerate from there into believing anything anybody we like and trust says…
This is wrong-headed – “facts” without verifiable proofs are just bed-time stories for the children within us all, and most of what we believe should be predicated with some variation of, “Once upon a time…”
Incidentally, I find the “Vulcan Salute” one of the characters is giving is demeaning and unnecessary, though typical of stereotyping…
In ancient times “everybody” KNEW that everything in the human body was composed of one or more of the four “humors” – four fundamental fluids: blood, choler (yellow bile), phlegm, and black bile – and when you were sickened, it was because they were “out-of-balance” in your body…
The “fact” that aliens have never been seen other than as weird lights in the sky, or from the bottom of a bottle, is telling – I don’t altogether dismiss their existence but, until actual, independently verifiable PROOF is produced, I DO remain a sceptic… (and quotes such as "my cousin Clem swears that when he was out hunting, he saw… ") don’t cut it either!
Most of us start out believing “facts” without proof (say, the existence of God) and some degenerate from there into believing anything anybody we like and trust says…
This is wrong-headed – “facts” without verifiable proofs are just bed-time stories for the children within us all, and most of what we believe should be predicated with some variation of, “Once upon a time…”
Incidentally, I find the “Vulcan Salute” one of the characters is giving is demeaning and unnecessary, though typical of stereotyping…