wrong knowledge
Sep. 4th, 2008 12:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
miriam_eI 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?
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?
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no subject
Date: 2008-09-06 05:46 am (UTC)Good question. This is one of those falsifiability problems. The concept of a soul is usually framed in such a way that it can't be proved or disproved. But it is pretty easy to whittle away the likelihood of its existence to pretty-much zero by reframing the question. Is the soul the conscious "me" that observes the world and makes moral judgements and feels happy or sad. If that is the case then the soul definitely dies when my body does. I can go into more detail on this if you wish.
Yes. I agree with you about the word "belief". The language is part of the problem. We don't really have properly agreed upon words to distinguish between accepting something with reservations or basing your entire outlook upon something.
Another part of the problem is that people sometimes think that when I'm criticising their beliefs that I'm criticising them. I have a lot of friends with nutty beliefs, but I count myself very lucky to have them as friends. I don't think they are crazy. I think their beliefs are. It is difficult to distinguish between the two in casual conversation, but a few minutes chatting usually shows people how I really feel.
There is also a big difference between someone not discounting UFOs, and someone who passionately believes in a worldwide conspiracy to keep evidence of aliens hushed up. There is no evidence for either stance. The big difference is in intensity to believe without evidence and passionate commitment to dismiss any opposing evidence.
A person who reserves judgement in the case of UFOs, but says that considering the number of sightings there probably is something in it we should look at it more is, in my opinion, simply mistaken. That's OK. We all make mistakes. I'd suggest they look more at all the work that has been done by unbiased researchers.
A person who enthusiastically believes in UFOs and dismisses any opposing evidence with fantastical conspiracies is holding desperately to a crazy belief. They may be completely sane, well balanced, and normal (I'm thinking of one of the nicest guys I know here) but that doesn't change the fact that their belief is crazy.
I've considered adopting a less confrontational description of such beliefs, but there seems to be mounting evidence that tolerance of loopy thinking makes it worse. So I try to call it what it is.
It is risky because people can become so attached to their beliefs they can't see where their self stops and the belief starts and they get offended. I try to avoid that, but I won't say that something that is clearly wrong is OK... ummm... unless other evidence comes to hand to show me that I'm handling it wrongly... which I may be, of course... :)
no subject
Date: 2008-09-06 01:34 pm (UTC)Well okey, that helps me feel a bit better.
Personally I think you're very nice, and while I really don't agree with you in your assessment and conclusion round some subjects, I don't think you're crazy or dumb, I think you're understanding these things to the best of your ability from your particular perspective.
I'm guessing our experiences may be very very different.
And our perspectives too.
See I think it's valid to consider the stories that humanity has told since we've been telling stories. Considering doesn't mean they're all true of course but I'm just not okay with discounting them all either. Rather I hope to learn from them.
And beyond that I have my own experiences that lend to me thinking certain things are likely. And the experiences and stories of those who I've been very close to as well. I consider those.
I figure I'll know for sure if I have a soul when I die. In the meantime I feel that I do, and I won't deny myself a soul just cause I can't be certain yet.
"It is risky because people can become so attached to their beliefs they can't see where their self stops and the belief starts and they get offended. I try to avoid that, but I won't say that something that is clearly wrong is OK... ummm... unless other evidence comes to hand to show me that I'm handling it wrongly... which I may be, of course... :)"
Yah, I know, of course we are, we're people, we get attached to things.
I understand that you're trying to be honest with yourself. And that's cool by me. :)
no subject
Date: 2008-09-06 01:54 pm (UTC)Even so I can't quite explain how I see it. Sorry bout that. :)
But if you want, you can explain to me *when you're up to it and feel like it* why the soul as you describe it can be disproved. I'd like to hear it if and when you feel like explaining.
Take care you. :)