wrong knowledge

[miriam_e]

I have a lovely friend who phoned me up last night to tell me excitedly about a way to deal with my infection. She told me about medieval medical explanations of illness that have been disproven hundreds of years ago. Further she believed that bacteria, protozoa, viruses, fungi and prions could be banished from the body using what amounts to wishful thinking. I wonder why an intelligent person like her would believe such stuff.

One of the nicest people I have ever met enthusiastically believes all manner of nonsense about aliens and crop circles. When given the choice that the two guys who owned up to making the early crop circles for a bit of a drunken lark are telling the simple truth, or that aliens are among us and choosing to "communicate" with us by drawing stupid circles in fields, he unhesitatingly chooses the latter. Why?

Many people still believe in astrology. All claim to any validity has been demolished so many times it gets tiresome. Even Gauguelin, a professor of astrology, utterly disproved the field while attempting to give it scientific credibilty with a huge, careful study. But millions still opt to believe in the unbelievable. How can this be so?

I have many friends who believe in one or another religion. There is not one whit of evidence to support any religion. In fact, all of the thousands of religions clearly contradict the real world. What causes people to believe in something that runs absolutely counter to reality?

I have a number of otherwise intelligent friends who denounce all medical drugs (despite the fact that some actually are reliably useful substances) yet these same people will happily swallow "herbal" preparations based on nothing more than hearsay and containing ingredients they know nothing about. How can people be so skeptical of things that are known, yet be so uncritical of things unknown?

Why do people choose weird fantasy over the real world? Where is the sense in that?

What drives people to believe in myth, superstition, and flights of fancy instead of information right before their eyes?

Comments

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

People want to feel good, and there is nothing wrong with that.

I forgot to answer that point. It really get to the heart of the matter. I do think feeling good can be a big mistake if done some ways.

Here, let me illustrate with a few examples:

If you had been injured and wanted some aspirin to ease the pain it could kill you be preventing your blood clotting -- you bleed to death... in comfort.

Some horrid researchers have done experiments on rats where they implant electrodes into the pleasure region of rats' brains and let them self-stimulate. The rats happily starve to death.

Goebbles, Hitler's propaganda minister said that you could make people believe anything by repeating it often enough. We all know how harmlessly that worked out.

I'm sure you can come up with many more.

Ignoring reality by believing something simply to feel good is a dangerous thing to do.

Even "harmless" things like belief in UFOs can have dangerous run-on effects. It was the planetary scientists like Carl Sagan who went on to start SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) who became concerned about the greenhouse effect and global warming of our Earth. I've heard UFO-conspiracist friends discount NASA as covering up aliens. Discarding what those scientists' research endangers the whole planet.

The apparently harmless belief in an eternal soul was the rationale for the Inquisition torturing people to death in the Dark Ages. The idea was that our time here is fleeting compared to an eternity in heaven or hell, thus a confession elicited by any means helps the soul avoid torture for infinity. However there is plenty of concrete evidence to show that the soul does not exist. Those people died in harrowing pain for nothing but a fervently held mistake.

Generally speaking I'm all for people feeling good and being happy. It is my main motivator in life. But I understand that it is dangerous to feel good for the wrong reasons. Understanding what are the wrong reasons is the hard part and probably the subject of an even longer, more waffly post. (Sorry about rattling on so much.)
:)

[dorjejaguar.livejournal.com]

Ok, what I was saying was that there's nothing wrong with people *wanting* to feel good.
I didn't comment on how they go about trying to feel good.

"However there is plenty of concrete evidence to show that the soul does not exist. "
Where would that be?
So far I haven't seen anything convincing myself.

"Those people died in harrowing pain for nothing but a fervently held mistake."
Seems to me they died in pain cause some sadistic persons did that to em. It doesn't take believing in a soul to rationalize something vicious. The mind is infinitely creative, one could just as easily say because there is no soul that it doesn't matter one way or the other what they do.
I tend to think I have a soul and that others do too but I don't think it's okay to hurt people cause of it.

Certainly if holding certain beliefs is causing suffering I think that might be a good indicator that the belief ought to be examined. I'm not gonna argue with you there.

I know people have rationalized all kinds of unkindnesses with one belief after another.
The whole "Manifest Destiny" thing in the US was the rationalization for genocide of the native population. And that belief was just made up on the spot. Very handy made to order new belief.
Its what humans do. Not all the time but a lot of the time.

Some beliefs come about by experience though. No, not by scientific testing or out of a desire to rationalize some lack of compassion, but by experience. Certainly people will interpret their experiences in whatever way makes the most sense for them.

It may be you believe that some people are just experiencing hallucinations, delusions, psychosis, or that they're just compulsive liars.
I certainly won't blame people if they believe their own experiences though.

I don't mind you rattling on.
I mind people thinking I'm dumb or loony.
That's my problem though I guess. I'll have to process that.

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

I definitely don't think you are dumb or loony. I have a lot of respect for you. Over the period I've chatted with you on LJ you've consistently shown youself to be compassionate and thoughtful. I don't really know what your beliefs are or how strongly you hold them.

I have little energy these days because of the medication, so my postings to LJ have dropped off and I'm always too tired to read friends' LJs anymore. I should not really post when I become exhausted because I start to make stupid mistakes and sound brusque, even rude, and I hate the thought of that. My posting a little while ago was full of typos so I'm clearly getting exhausted. I should really log off and continue later. I hope I haven't unintentionally offended you. I'm a dope if I have. Sorry.

More later when I can think more clearly and stand up without falling over. :)

[dorjejaguar.livejournal.com]

"I definitely don't think you are dumb or loony. I have a lot of respect for you. Over the period I've chatted with you on LJ you've consistently shown youself to be compassionate and thoughtful. I don't really know what your beliefs are or how strongly you hold them."

Thank you. :)
Honestly it's rather hard to explain what I think is likely to be true, cause there's no one template (that I'm aware of) that completely explains. Which, well, I like it that way. I'm an exploring being, not a decided being. But it's true I could draw language from a variety of traditions to explain. But generally I'll share my understandings with people I'm close to if they want to hear it but otherwise I don't. I'm not out to proselytize. I just want people to be as happy as they know how to be and I really don't think my understandings are necessary for them to do that.

Yes, please do take care of yourself. No need to be falling over to provide me with more words.
I'm really not offended, you've made your understanding clearer to me and that helps.
Presently I've another friend who is speaking rather offensively about his desire to wipe organized religion off the face of the earth. That, that kinda offends me. So the subject is just a tad sensitive right now, but that's certainly not your fault.
I've learned a lot from the various traditions that are carried within various religions and I want to honor peoples right to choose what they do as regards their religion, beliefs, understandings, philosophy. The idea of some of us deciding for others of us what we have a right to believe, that's an ugly thought in my opinion. Certainly it's where some religions and philosophy have begun to harm others. I'm not okay with that inside or out of religions.

Anyhoo, yes, do take care of yourself. Please no falling over on my account. :)