US ambassador killed over a film

[kandrathe]

So because of one or two bad apples we should discontinue the scientific method as a way of understanding our world and making progress, and go back to listening to the Church or Temple and taking their word for it? I guess no one is stopping you. I refuse though.

You are the one making this an all or nothing proposition. The claim is that X and Y are incompatible, regardless of the countless number of successful renowned practitioners of X & Y. In those cases, the claim is that they are brain washed by their parents and incapable of exercising their vast IQ toward extirpating that residue of fuzzy thinking from their psyche. Which, speaking as a parent, vastly overstates our ability to shape a child's psyche, and vastly understates a geniuses capability to change their minds.

The third alternative you won't consider is that these science geniuses have carefully considered the situation, and made a rational choice -- one you don't understand, but nevertheless their choice. Most importantly for a plural society is that we respect... no, we should celebrate their freedom to be both X and Y, even though some don't understand it. But, I fear you are unable to allow yourself the possibility that a smart person maybe made a choice that was right for them. Would you also try to de-program the Dalai Lama -- another obviously brain washed product of parental authoritarianism.