Yesterday I went to the Leaping Hare Pagan convention and, apart from my hacking cough, had a nice time. There were just one or two minor niggles and here I want to put a plea out to Pagan speakers:
Steer the fuck clear of science unless you're a scientist. You only make yourself look like an idiot.
When you're talking about some energy you think spiritual entities might feed on, don't choose a well known form of easily detectable energy. Electro-magnetic energy might sound 'woo woo science kewl' to you and anyone who knows eff all about science but to anyone else (even me with my ickle bit of science) it makes you sound crazy.
If you're going to use the structure of the atom/structure of the solar system to make an 'as above, so below' point, you might want to know that electrons don't actually 'orbit' the nucleus in neat little ellipses like planets. In fact, steer clear of subatomic anything if you're doing the 'as above, so below' thing because the whole problem of Quantum science is that 'as above' doesn't work like 'below'.
So please, Pagan speakers either learn your science or steer clear. It's particularly disappointing when the speaker's reasonably credible from a religious point of view.
Oh and I know I broke my own rule because I'm not a scientist either. MrK's a science teacher and a lot of my friends are science types but my own qualifications run to a Physics A-level and occasionally reading New Scientist magazine. But what the hell, I'm not making easily disprovable claims.
2 comments:
Now what to comment on this.... I have to say that you were very patient with my increasing agitation at the use of pseudo science. I found the speakers shot themselves in the foot as far as I was concerned with some of the mistakes they were making.
I may need to rant a bit more before I completely calm down though. (For those wondering I'm a science teacher with a physics specialism and had to leave the room during the lectures in order to stop myself from ‘correcting’ the speakers). For me this sort of thing undermines pagans with non-pagans big time.
It's just safer if you leave and have a nice cup of tea! I think it's not just pagans though tbh, this kind of thing undermines religious people with non-religious people.
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