Statospheric Reaction to Kansas Re-definition of “Science”
It’s not quite a Sleepers nightmare, but it’s a step on the road to hell.
The Kansas electorate didn’t know they were doing it, but they made Kansas more fun. They thought they paving the way for forcing “Intelligent Design” into their science curriculum by creating a loophole in the definition of science: it would no longer be restricted to natural explanations for observable phenomena.
As a result, all magick use in Kansas costs one less minor charge (minimum cost is still 1). The downside is that you have to be in Kansas.
Given the personal nature of adept magick, I think it shouldn’t be affected, rather this is a public perceptions thing, and so ought to be more related to avatar magic. Moreover given that it is primarily an attempt by religion to subsume and then change science, I suggest it should really strenghten all ‘religious’ archetypes and weaken any ‘scientific’ ones.
Indeed now would seem to be the perfect time for a reinterpretation of either type to take into account this shift. Hmmmm, perhaps that is what this is, an opening gambit in a bid for a reinterpretation of The Believer.
I think the law in one state is too limited to have such a grandiose impact on the Statosphere.
Perhaps this law is the result of the Clergy tampering with Human belief or possibly the backlash of a battle between the ascended Scholar and the Savage
Or more likely the Magus and the Scholar
Either way, it can’t be tolerated. These fools must be shown the error of their arguements. Since logic doesn’t work on them, I’m afraid there’s going to have to be a certain amount of… violence.
But hey, at least we all know it’s for a good cause!
Nah: the paradigm is personal, but the resistance is statospheric. But given the “clockmaker deity” theme behind Intelligent Design, it may just be that Mechanomancy works better (two minor charges for each day of tinkering or something).
As for a grandiose effect, it’s not that grandiose, no magick is free, and it stops at the Kansas state line. The other major factor in it, at least for UA way of looking at things, is the press coverage the change recieved.
As for paradigm-specific bonuses, this isn’t M:tA. In “To Go” we read how changes in the balance of the statosphere can alter costs in a paradigm-specific way. This isn’t that — this is just a state deciding and announcing that things don’t have to add up to be real. That greases the palm of MoJo-slingers across the board.
http://www.ksbe.state.ks.us/Welcome.html
This is the Kansas Board of Education site.
The new science standards are on the right of the page, near the top, under “Hot Topics.” I’d suggest that everyone read them before repeating the claim that they somehow “force” Intelligent Design on schools, re-define science, and/or kill kittens.
Taken from the Approved Science standards link:
“We also emphasize that the Science Curriculum Standards do not include Intelligent Design, the scientific disagreement with the claim of many evolutionary biologists that the apparent design of living systems is an illusion. While the testimony presented at the science hearings included many advocates of Intelligent Design, these standards neither mandate nor prohibit teaching about this scientific disagreement.”
The problem which people have with this is that Intelligent Design is NOT a scientific theory. It really just isn’t and in refusing to condemn the notion of teaching it alongside evolution they are attempting to give it a scienctific credibility it lacks. This is not “forcing” it upon the schools, true, but it is nearly as bad. It is certainly a blow for scientific education in Kansas and this is enough for me at least to wholeheartedly condemn their clearly and unjustifiably biased policy.
Ever read the tax laws? They all start with “there is no deduction for ______” and then go into where there is an exception.
The board created a minor loophole. The standards used to explicitly require scientific explanations be natural ones. That would have barred ID’s super-natural “Higher” intelligence idea that appeals to people who prefer to think that human existence can’t be a crap shoot, even given a few billion suns rolling the dice for a few billion years.
If tjhey left “natural explanations” in, while tossing the whole observable/testable thing, they could have been teaching something along the lines of Sheldrake’s “Morphogenic Field” theory (sort of a non-conscious “habitual universe” based on thermodynamicly efficient re-manifestations), but instead they wanted to leave the door open to “Science” including an old man who thinks like us, but bigger.
Highly relevant, and irreverent, link
http://www.venganza.org/
Yeah, the Pastafarians are great 🙂 Everyone should see that.
Everyone thinks the FSM is a joke until they look at a plate of spaghetti while tripping on UPS.
I think it’d be pretty fun to set a game in 2005 with a whole bunch of whacked-out dukes converging on Kansas because they THINK magick is gonna be cheaper, now.
But it isn’t. And all the cliomancers who cobweb farm the prime sites from the “Bloody Kansas” days start to get nervous.
Okay, it’s more than half a decade later, and nobody really came to a concensus, but I don’t care. This pertains to my interests.
So. It’s 2012. Let’s assume that for the last 7 years the proposed house rule is in effect and has been the whole time.
Now what?
What effects has this statospheric phenomenon had on Kansas? Is there a higher rate of mental illness and/or violent/unexplained crime? Are trigger events on the rise, or decline? Have the Sleepers been losing their shit ever since, have they declared the entire state a war zone, or did they keep a handle on things? If the last, then where did they get the resources? Are there environmental effects that are just now coming to light, or is there something about to explode that nobody has noticed, yet?
Brain candy. Let’s get a sugar rush off of this.