Webcomic OTD: Beliefs vs Evidence

A student and a professor discussing claims about the age of the earth

Beliefs xkcd.com/154/

Transcript/description: a 6-panel comic using pen and ink illustrations, mostly with stick figures
Panel 1: a short person with very long hair (student) talks to a taller person with medium length hair (professor) while pointing to a figure in the distance
Student: Professor! That man claims the earth is 6,000 years old!
Professor: So? Just use your head and don’t concern yourself overmuch with what other people think.

Panel 2: focus in on the student and the professor
Student: But he says the fossils in the mountains were put there in a flood!
Professor: Evidence suggests that they were not.
Student: But he –

Panel 3: a full width panel showing a panoramic view of majestic mountains rendered in detail with shading and a blue sky full of distant clouds
Professor: A million people can call the mountains a fiction but it need not trouble you as you stand atop them.

Panel 4: the student throws ou arms up in the air as ou continues to complain to the professor
Student: But he believes the silliest things!
Professor: So?

Panel 5: the professor continues to attempt to calms the student
Professor: The universe doesn’t care what you believe. The wonderful thing about science is that it doesn’t ask for your faith, just for your eyes.

Panel 6: the student finally raises ou’s fundamental concern
Student: But he’s a US Senator!
Professor: Ah, then yes, we do have a bit of a situation.

This comic was linked in a Pharyngulite discussion of this week’s webcomic from Tom the Dancing Bug, referencing some very silly things said about global warming recently by current US Congressman Steve Stockman (R-Tex), who is inexplicably a member of the Congressional Science, Space and Technology Committee.


Bonus cynical quote OTD:

‘It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.’ – Upton Sinclair


It’s a while since I branched out to new webcomics. Any recommendations?



Categories: culture wars, education, Science

Tags: , , ,

1 reply

  1. http://everydayfeminism.com/2014/09/wage-gap-sexism/
    I have this one for you, from everyday feminism.

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