<story><title>Isaac Asimov on Security Theatre.</title><url>http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2011/10/isaac_asimov_on.html</url><text></text></story><parent_chain><item><author>timwiseman</author><text>After spending an entire semester in a course on the philosophy of religion and revieing things like the Scopes Monkey Trial during law school, I see arguments both for an against the existence of God.&lt;p&gt;I think there is no proof either way.  I personally believe in God and am in fact Christian, but that is a personal choice based on faith and I have great respect for people who have chosen other faiths or who believe that there is no God.&lt;p&gt;This however is different.  It can be shown that certain security measures actually are quite useful (sturdy, locked cockpit doors separating pilots and passengers for instance.)  It can be shown that others are completely ineffective at their stated goals and seek only to avoid &quot;donothingism&quot; and fall into security theater</text></item><item><author>dlikhten</author><text>Forget terrorism. This is EXACTLY the same as God and Elevators. Think about it. Lets start easy:&lt;p&gt;I see people every day come into an elevator and press the door close button like it is the only way to get air. Nobody realizes that the button does nothing. Furthermore many do, but they do it any ways on the off chance that it saves them an extra millisecond here or there of waiting. It never gives any benefit. However &quot;may as well do it just in case it works&quot;. Trivial to disprove but still.&lt;p&gt;God: People worship. Why? Do we know god does exist? no we don&apos;t. In fact all signs point to got not existing. Why worship though? On the off chance that god does exist and we won&apos;t go to hell. It does not matter that there is no god, people will still worship.&lt;p&gt;Both examples are ways for people to feel better about something they can&apos;t control and makes them feel that they can.&lt;p&gt;Now the TSA is exactly the same. It makes no difference, or it does, all signs point to the TSA being complete horsecrap, but people want it just in case there is a possibility they can prevent an act of terrorism and save 10 people at the price of insane expenses, time expenses, people unalbe to travel, personal rights violated, etc.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>brlewis</author><text>For purposes of keeping the discussion on topic, can we just assume dlikhten&apos;s comment is specifically about people whose belief in God is based on Pascal&apos;s wager, and not about believers in general?</text></comment>
<story><title>Isaac Asimov on Security Theatre.</title><url>http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2011/10/isaac_asimov_on.html</url><text></text></story><parent_chain><item><author>timwiseman</author><text>After spending an entire semester in a course on the philosophy of religion and revieing things like the Scopes Monkey Trial during law school, I see arguments both for an against the existence of God.&lt;p&gt;I think there is no proof either way.  I personally believe in God and am in fact Christian, but that is a personal choice based on faith and I have great respect for people who have chosen other faiths or who believe that there is no God.&lt;p&gt;This however is different.  It can be shown that certain security measures actually are quite useful (sturdy, locked cockpit doors separating pilots and passengers for instance.)  It can be shown that others are completely ineffective at their stated goals and seek only to avoid &quot;donothingism&quot; and fall into security theater</text></item><item><author>dlikhten</author><text>Forget terrorism. This is EXACTLY the same as God and Elevators. Think about it. Lets start easy:&lt;p&gt;I see people every day come into an elevator and press the door close button like it is the only way to get air. Nobody realizes that the button does nothing. Furthermore many do, but they do it any ways on the off chance that it saves them an extra millisecond here or there of waiting. It never gives any benefit. However &quot;may as well do it just in case it works&quot;. Trivial to disprove but still.&lt;p&gt;God: People worship. Why? Do we know god does exist? no we don&apos;t. In fact all signs point to got not existing. Why worship though? On the off chance that god does exist and we won&apos;t go to hell. It does not matter that there is no god, people will still worship.&lt;p&gt;Both examples are ways for people to feel better about something they can&apos;t control and makes them feel that they can.&lt;p&gt;Now the TSA is exactly the same. It makes no difference, or it does, all signs point to the TSA being complete horsecrap, but people want it just in case there is a possibility they can prevent an act of terrorism and save 10 people at the price of insane expenses, time expenses, people unalbe to travel, personal rights violated, etc.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>burgerbrain</author><text>What evidence is there that supports the existence of a supernatural being?&lt;p&gt;No, I think the TSA and religion are quite similar.</text></comment>