Hello. I have just become a member of this group and therefore would
like to introduce myself.
My name is Alexandre Couto de Andrade. I am interested in taking part
in debates and exchange information
regarding secularism, science, reason, and humanism.

Best regards,
Alexandre Couto de Andrade
http://sciencereason.blogspot.com/

"Alexandre"  wrote
> Hello. I have just become a member of this group and therefore would
> like to introduce myself.
> My name is Alexandre Couto de Andrade. I am interested in taking part
> in debates and exchange information
> regarding secularism, science, reason, and humanism.

Hi,

Welcome! Please feel free to start some threads. We've probably talked about 
quite a lot already here, but a lot of it would be interested to revisit.

Steve M

On May 30, 11:05 pm, "Steve Marshall" 
wrote:
> "Alexandre"  wrote
>
> > Hello. I have just become a member of this group and therefore would
> > like to introduce myself.
> > My name is Alexandre Couto de Andrade. I am interested in taking part
> > in debates and exchange information
> > regarding secularism, science, reason, and humanism.
>
> Hi,
>
> Welcome! Please feel free to start some threads. We've probably talked about
> quite a lot already here, but a lot of it would be interested to revisit.
>
> Steve M

He has started threads by posting to his blog. Doesn't mean we can't
continue them here :-) Alexandre says:

"The German philosopher Theodor Adorno believed that science and
technology were mere instruments for opression and domination. He
condemned them for horrors like the holocaust (that he has witnessed),
for instance. Eugenics, the A-bomb, amongst many other evils would
never have existed without them.
This is fallacious."

No it's not. If Einstein, or someone else, had not made advances in
physics the A bomb would not have been invented.

On May 31, 3:17 pm, Paul Grieg  wrote:
> On May 30, 11:05 pm, "Steve Marshall" 
> wrote:
>
> > "Alexandre"  wrote
>
> > > Hello. I have just become a member of this group and therefore would
> > > like to introduce myself.
> > > My name is Alexandre Couto de Andrade. I am interested in taking part
> > > in debates and exchange information
> > > regarding secularism, science, reason, and humanism.
>
> > Hi,
>
> > Welcome! Please feel free to start some threads. We've probably talked about
> > quite a lot already here, but a lot of it would be interested to revisit> > Steve M
>
> He has started threads by posting to his blog. Doesn't mean we can't
> continue them here :-) Alexandre says:
>
> "The German philosopher Theodor Adorno believed that science and
> technology were mere instruments for opression and domination. He
> condemned them for horrors like the holocaust (that he has witnessed),
> for instance. Eugenics, the A-bomb, amongst many other evils would
> never have existed without them.
> This is fallacious."
>
> No it's not. If Einstein, or someone else, had not made advances in
> physics the A bomb would not have been invented.
>
Many other evils include parking meters, speed cameras, VAT (without
computers it is unlikely anybody would have been able to administer
this wicked tax), plebvision, cluster bombs, mcshite (you need
technology to produce 'mechanically recovered ''meat"').

Much technology, like the atom bomb, simply speeds up the delivery of
evil. The dropping of the bombs on Nagasaki and Horoshima achieved in
a few seconds what it took the Nazi gas ovens months to manage.

"Paul Grieg"  wrote
> "The German philosopher Theodor Adorno believed that science and
> technology were mere instruments for opression and domination. He
> condemned them for horrors like the holocaust (that he has witnessed),
> for instance. Eugenics, the A-bomb, amongst many other evils would
> never have existed without them.
> This is fallacious."
>
> No it's not. If Einstein, or someone else, had not made advances in
> physics the A bomb would not have been invented.

Isn't the point that science is not a mere "instrument of oppression"? 
Science offers us so much more!
It is Theodar Adorno's comment that was fallacious. Science has given us 
many advances and improvements in lifestyle.

Steve M

Paul Grieg wrote:
> On May 30, 11:05 pm, "Steve Marshall" 
> wrote:
> > "Alexandre"  wrote
> >
> > > Hello. I have just become a member of this group and therefore would
> > > like to introduce myself.
> > > My name is Alexandre Couto de Andrade. I am interested in taking part
> > > in debates and exchange information
> > > regarding secularism, science, reason, and humanism.
> >
> > Hi,
> >
> > Welcome! Please feel free to start some threads. We've probably talked about
> > quite a lot already here, but a lot of it would be interested to revisit.
> >
> > Steve M
>
> He has started threads by posting to his blog. Doesn't mean we can't
> continue them here :-) Alexandre says:
>
> "The German philosopher Theodor Adorno believed that science and
> technology were mere instruments for opression and domination. He
> condemned them for horrors like the holocaust (that he has witnessed),
> for instance. Eugenics, the A-bomb, amongst many other evils would
> never have existed without them.
> This is fallacious."
>
> No it's not. If Einstein, or someone else, had not made advances in
> physics the A bomb would not have been invented.

Yes, no getting around it as far as that last part goes (theoretical
and applied science in the late 19th and 20th century). But the first
part is sweepingly broad enough in its judgement to be countered /
debated.

Invention didn't suddenly begin during the last 150 years, so to be
utterly without technology would mean never advancing beyond hunter-
gatherer times. Actually, the "homo family" has never been without
tools.

And "purist" science going back to ancient times would largely have
consisted of only cataloging the empirical world --hardly a bringer of
doom. (Despite the quantitative descriptions and relations, even
Galileo and Newton's predictive work was still confined to the motions
of everyday objects and visible celestial bodies. Classical atomism
and corpuscularianism were metaphysics.)