WC> Please advise the downside of the polio vaccine.
MR> Look, I was making a generalization in good faith.

wc> A generalization which is unwarranted and can not be
wc> referenced as you've edited that topic out of the reply
wc> now haven't you? So much for "good faith."
wc> Faith carries no weight with me whatever and you've
wc> presented no evidence for your faith that things
wc> happen for no rational reason either.

It's not a matter of faith to point out that things happen for
no _rational_ reason.  When a car's break lines break and an
out-of-control car crushes and kills one's child, the parent
might try to contrive a reason for why their child was taken
from them but there's no _rational_ reason; there's only physics.

    rational -- Having or exercising the ability to reason.
    Of sound mind; sane. Consistent with or based on reason;
    logical. Mathematics. Capable of being expressed as a
    quotient of integers.

And, well, there's also

    reason -- The basis or motive for an action, a decision,
    or a conviction. A declaration made to explain or justify
    an action, a decision, or a conviction. An underlying
    fact or cause that provides logical sense for a premise
    or an occurrence. The capacity for logical, rational, and
    analytic thought; intelligence. Good judgment; sound
    sense. A normal mental state; sanity. Logic. A premise,
    usually the minor premise, of an argument.

When primitive people lived on flood plains, when the river
rose and killed their children they sought a reason, something
that would give meaning to their loved one's deaths.  So they
contrived gods and goddesses, imbued them with rational
reason and thus denied the truth of the matter: Things happen
for no rational reason whatsoever.

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~*~  Just because he's causing us eternal torment doesn't mean he
     can't also be environmentally friendly. - Derek Clayton

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