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Right, which is all the more reason to take the high road. To set a better example.

Also, because trading vitriol with religious fanatics and ignorants accomplishes nothing. Knowledge is the antidote to ignorance. Not smugness, defensiveness, or indignation (well-justified though all of those things might be).

A+

I know where it comes from, with my scientists hat on, I completely agree with the piece. But from a literary perspective, it is like being repeatedly bashed round the head by a moron with a length of 2x4.

This conceit can be done well. Mitchell and Webb's little old lady job-justification hearings are a particularly good example. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbXTBPN1HhA

Oh wow, that's pretty funny. These "gamblers" on the stock market do actually make the system work better and moves investment to places where it's likelier to have a good return. So they do help, although in a very abstract way and maybe not as much in practice as in theory but still. A better question than whether they help is how much and how much they should be rewarded for that help.

That isn't limited to Scientists my friend.