Thinking back on Danae’s earlier stories, I think I should not have called her that, but she does use some of the techniques of ‘woo’ (which, BTW, I include many “political” techniques) to make her point(s). A recent storyline (see F.’s comment) demonstrates that. I was fascinated by a recent storyline where Danae learned that ‘being good’ made one ‘invisible’… until she realized (with help) that she would only be invisible as long as she behaved.

J/P=?

“Well, as you know, Mars will be closer to Earth in August than in all of recorded history, so close that it will appear as large as the Moon! This may not occur again for another 60,000 years.”

Storyline, yeah… Guess which astronomer gets quoted in the comments.

Pre-conceptions (religious):
* Humans Are Cool, so we must have been ‘built’ rather than just morphed over time
* God exists
* God is infallible
* God made us in his own image, thus see first bullet
* We can’t explain everything, thus Goddidit
* Scientists are all teh stoopid, cuz they try to refute the above!

Pre-conceptions (science):
* We can’t explain everything… yet (thus, science continues)
* We can certainly explain a pretty good mess of things, based on what we’ve learned through science.
* If we can observe it, explain it, and predict it, we can make some assumptions and theories about it (success from second bullet)
* Nothing is infallible, including everything we think we know — and that makes the previous bullet better and better.
* If there’s no evidence that it exists, it probably doesn’t.

See http://www.chron.com/apps/comics/showComic.mpl?date=2009/6/1&name=Non_Sequitur_pan.

Nothing has shaken my faith in democracy and universal human rights more than the trend toward allowing comments on everything on the internet. It. Shows. Me. The. Stupid.

Fortunately, I’m in the process of becoming a high school biology teacher. So hopefully I can do my part to make people less stupid.

I liked it.

But then the beauty of art is that it can be interpreted in so many ways. Often differently than what the artist intended. I wouldn’t be surprised if a creationist had this on their refrigerator somewhere.

I must either be a lot smarter than some people, or a lot dumber…

I ‘got’ the strip (or at least I think I did…) without much problem, it really seems obvious…

Right?

@Alan: I’ve read the strip over the years and I get the impression that the author is poking fun at the loons – however, you need to ask a cartoonist because the cartoons often do not reveal much about the cartoonists themselves. I would have thought this particular cartoon fell in the “obvious” category, but looking at the responses that may not be so. It’s yet another manifestation of Poe’s theory that a parody of fundamentalism is indistinguishable from the genuine claims of fundamentalism.

Had to buy 5 ‘scopes to cancel that out.

I read NonSeq daily (ever since it was in a local newspaper, and I moved to reading it on the Web), and Wiley is definitely on the side of Reality. Danae (the little girl) is the personification of all the ‘wooists’, politically sneaky people (I wonder if she’ll wind up with antivax?) who spend their time making life difficult for reasonable people. There’s also a fisherman/boat captain who comes up with great stories of ‘sea serpents’ and such. Worth a read.

Speaking of cartoons, Brewster Rockit is ‘repairing’ the “Trubble Telescope” this week.
http://www.gocomics.com/brewsterrockit
Brewster is NOT an especially bright person, BTW.

J/P=?

Actually, what’s throwing me is the increasing tendency of IDers/antivaxxers/conspiracy theorists/etc. to say that their critics have preconceived notions that are unaffected by evidence.

J/P=?