@@ -73,4 +73,43 @@
Refer the wiki of the Church of Virus at http://www.churchofvirus.org/wiki/weyken for a formal definition of "weyken".
* The latter is of course worse, because it involves the deliberate use of a dishonest, pseudoscientific label to disguise an unsupported and unsupportable belief in a continuous act of creation by the proponent’s favorite god. Genetic shift means that if “Intelligent Design” purports to explain observed evolution, then it cannot refer to a single “act of creation,” but must rather be a continuous or near continuous act, performed by an invisible being, using unobservable and inexplicable processes, invokeable at will by students performing well understood experiments in genetics and even perhaps, when developing “irreducibly complex” circuits or programs using evolutionary design tools.
+
+[ "Mailing List / Memetics / Re: Weyken, a bright, shiny and needed word?", Hermit, 2006-09-13 | http://www.churchofvirus.org/bbs/index.php?board=53;action=display;threadid=34034;start=0 ]
+
+Words are ultimately either self-fulfilling or irrelevant. If sufficient people come to agree that 'weyken' has utility, then this will, in and of itself, ensure wider awareness and thus adoption of 'weyken' as a well-defined word. Please note that the usage of a word in the public record, or appearance in "published" works is what is required to guarantee its inclusion in dictionaries. Refer, e.g. http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Wiktionary:Criteria_for_inclusion. I and the editors of wiktionary currently disagree on the utility and attested status of 'weyken'. I am, for a number of mutually reinforcing forms, convinced that others will eventually come to agree with me:
+
+ First, necessity. I think that if civilisation does not come to a brutish end in the near future, that "weyken" or some other word indicating the same thing (in other words denoting deliberation as a cause for assigning a positive truth value and excluding irrational "belief), will eventually make the cut into general usage. If there is actually anything in the value of having a particular word to unambiguously mean a particular thing (and the history of language suggests to me that this is the case), then this is a desperately needed word. Without 'weyken' or its equivalent, whether deliberately or through happenstance, the fantastic 'beliefs' of lunatics, idiots and the deluded are indistinguishable from the rather differently derived 'beliefs' of scientists and philosophers; at least in the absence of careful examination of frequently inadequately provided context, subject, and speaker as well as the often limited (if not entirely absent) capacity for critical discernment held by the evaluator.
+
+ Secondly, aside from the "argument from necessity", there is also the "argument from use." I am personally aware of the following general usage:
+ o A large number of people who helped post-Katrina in New Orleans (engineering, military and insurance) who worked with me there are familiar with and using the word. This includes its use in a number of official reports which should make it into the public record at some time.
+ o I have used it, and defined it, during the course of providing expert witness testimony, making it part of court records. I will continue to do this. Hopefully this will eventually be picked up by Google.
+
+ Thirdly, it will almost certainly make it into print in the medium term. Certainly if, as seems quite likely, I publish more books or refereed articles, I will almost certainly include 'weyken' on the grounds that I know of no other word which conveys the concept of "Data internalized as supportable knowledge with a sustainable provisional truth value ascribed to it through the medium of critical rationalism and reasoning based on evidence (for example - and ideally, through the scientific method)" - meaning that - like any useful word, a large number of other words, many of them having 'subject specific technical connotations', are required to convey its precise meaning. Having a single word to express this important concept, means not only that one can avoid such lengthy discourse and pedantic definition excluding the common meaning of 'near synonyms', but the very existence of a word for such "critical rational evaluation based on evidence" forces recognition of the fact that the closest existing English words: 'belief'; 'think'; and 'recognize', do not, by any manner of means, even denote the process of determining why something is regarded by the utterer as being probably true, let alone providing any indication of conscious evaluation. While I grant that a rational person could quite legitimately not see the requirement for a word such as 'weyken', I think that even they will acknowledge that the only people to whom the existing confusion can possibly be advantageous are the aforementioned "lunatics, idiots and the deluded."
+
+
+I hope this addresses, at least on a temporary basis, your concern. Ultimately, the question of whether the need for such a word exists, and if the need exists, if 'weyken' is that word, will be decided by our successors. As I assert myself to consider ontology and accurately communicated 'meaning' significant, I have carefully adopted 'weyken' to fill what I perceive as a communication (and critical conceptual) gap. Given that the usage of "lunatics, idiots and the deluded" is unlikely to change if it shows them at a disadvantage, it will clearly have to be those to whom accurate communication matters, who will have to change theirs, if they agree with me about its importance. So far, this has frequently proven to be the case. Whether or not 'weyken' succeeds, as I suspect it will, I have at least 'nailed my colors to the mast'. Should you agree with me, all you need to do is to continue to use it. Such use will help to legitimize it.
+
+
+[ "Mailing List / Memetics / Re: Weyken, a bright, shiny and needed word?", Hermit, 2006-10-26 | http://www.churchofvirus.org/bbs/index.php?board=53;action=display;threadid=34034;start=0 ]
+This gem, from [ Church of Virus BBS, General, Serious Business, The Stealth Holocaust - Genocide of the Gaps, Reply 3, Blunderov, 2006-10-26 | http://www.churchofvirus.org/bbs/index.php?board=60;action=display;threadid=36675 ], where he quotes, philangie2000@yahoo.com, may be enough to convince those who argue that the use of one word to mean two completely different things, to the exclusive benefit of propagation for the belief-systems of one set of users, to reconsider their position.
+
+"Only a society of numbed-out, reality-adverse imbeciles could believe[1] in the existence of smart bombs. In a related matter, recent public opinion surveys have revealed close to seventy percent of the population of the United States does not believe[2] in the Theory of Evolution, yet believes[3] that a mythological character called Satan is a literal entity.
+
+[1] The "belief" intended here represents a deliberate, dualistic usage, deliberately conflating both meanings of "belief", as a "rational belief" (or as we advocate a rational person should say, "weyken", meaning not just "rational", but reasonable to accept because of the use of a particular methodology to evaluate all of the available facts in order to reach a particular sustainable conclusion), and "irrational belief" (which, given that the "believer" whose ability to propagate his "beliefs" depends to an extent on this confusion will not change, should be left as "belief"). On the one hand, the term "smart bombs", while an oxymoron, has a compelling impact (especially as they detonate) which cannot be denied, and so must be accepted, in other words, "rational belief"; on the other, the implied idea established by the phrase "smart bomb", that a bomb can be smart enough to kill only the guilty and not harm the innocent is clearly erroneous, and acceptance of this implied concept requires "irrational belief."
+
+[2] The theory of evolution is a strong scientific theory which postulates the mechanism explaining the observation that in any population, allele frequencies change over time. The theory of evolution does not require "belief" to accept it, merely the capacity to evaluate its ability to explain and predict, the lack of any other theory providing similar explanatory and predictive capability, and the willingness to accept that which is supported by this investigation as true. So because "belief" is not required, "rational belief" is intended and given that the process to establish that the "rational belief" is indeed rational is that defined by "weyken", that the use of "weyken" is appropriate.
+
+[3] This "belief" in a mythical being requires the suspension of evaluation, and the willingness to accept that which is not, as nevertheless somehow being. For the "believer", there is no difference between a "real person" and "Satan"; for some believers, when they munch on the communion wafer, the "miracle of transubstantiation" really does change it into "the body of christ" and they really, truly, are cannibals. These "beliefs" clearly are not supported by anything which a rational person would accept as "reasonable" and so, while the believer may, and probably does reject the label of his "belief" as "irrational", are examples of "irrational beliefs".
+
+Clearly, it is only because the rational person does not differentiate between the different classes of belief, that the believer can conflate these two completely different meanings of "belief". In other words, it is only because the two classes are not differentiated that the believer can say, but why is "your belief" in the theory of evolution "better" than my belief in Satan. And it is only because rational people use the same word to describe a conclusion reached by two completely different processes that this conflation puts them on the awkward spot of having to try to explain why the two "beliefs" are different. As the believer might say, my beliefs are indistinguishable from yours to me, and seem just as good to me, and 70% of the people around me agree that my beliefs are rational (notice that this is not precisely ad numeram as he is arguing that they agree that he is rational, not that what he believes is true), so I think that you are the one being irrational here. In this way, correct or not, the ability to make this argument appears to help those defined by their "beliefs" as "believers" in propagating their worldview.
+
+So we have seen how the confusion above helps the propagation of irrational ideas. The use of "weyken" for "belief", when and only "weyken" is meant, seems to shut this door.
+
+The challenge to a rational person taking the other side in this discussion, arguing that a new word is not needed to separate belief and weyken, is to attempt to explain how the confusion of "belief" (reached through acceptance or "irrational belief"), with "belief" (weyken, data internalized as supportable knowledge with a sustainable provisional truth value ascribed to it through the medium of critical rationalism and reasoning based on evidence (for example - and ideally, through the scientific method)) benefits the propagation of a rational perspective.
+
+For Virians
+
+If weyken helps us to communicate more effectively, and if it helps us identify and avoid the accidental acceptance of "mystical delusions" by ensuring that they are differentiated from "reasonable delusions" or even "non delusions", then presumably we should adopt weyken without further ado. After all, defining and using weyken seems to be a concrete step towards our goals.
+
+Quoting from our [ web site | http://churchofvirus.org/about.html ], "Virus was originally created to compete with the traditional (irrational) religions in the human ideosphere with the idea that it would introduce and propagate memes which would ensure the survival and evolution of our species. The main advantage conferred upon adherents is Virus provides a conceptual framework for leading a truly meaningful life and attaining immortality without resorting to mystical delusions."
