thaiboxerken
Penultimate Amazing
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"Why People Believe Weird Things" by Michael Shermer is supposed to be really good.
I should read some of these books.. but here are a few of my personal opinions WHY people believe.
Survival Instinct.
Humans are the greatest survivors on the Planet. We are unique also in that we KNOW we will die. We can kill lions, grow food, make shelter and civilisation even kill each other to survive but we KNOW we will die eventually… How can you avoid the “final” death ???.. create an afterlife.
Religion INVARIABLY involves a chance to “continue” existence. ALL the major religions allow for humans to “live on” after death.
As the tenets of most religions have been challenged, debunked or just made plain foolish by science the WOO has crept in to replace it and the “need” for an “afterlife”. Don’t get me wrong WOO has been round for a long time too but NEVER so popular in the days of “less” religion.
Notice the most popular forms of WOO involve “talking to dead people”… if we can talk to them they live on.. which means we will too… whoo hoo !
Knowledge Gaps
Religion too is used for this. When people don’t know how something works they make up a God or a WOO to fill in the gaps.
Here is a great article on why people CONTINUE to believe against all logic and reason !
http://www.csicop.org/si/2000-11/beliefs.html
Survival Instinct.
Humans are the greatest survivors on the Planet. We are unique also in that we KNOW we will die. We can kill lions, grow food, make shelter and civilisation even kill each other to survive but we KNOW we will die eventually… How can you avoid the “final” death ???.. create an afterlife.
Religion INVARIABLY involves a chance to “continue” existence. ALL the major religions allow for humans to “live on” after death.
As the tenets of most religions have been challenged, debunked or just made plain foolish by science the WOO has crept in to replace it and the “need” for an “afterlife”. Don’t get me wrong WOO has been round for a long time too but NEVER so popular in the days of “less” religion.
Notice the most popular forms of WOO involve “talking to dead people”… if we can talk to them they live on.. which means we will too… whoo hoo !
Knowledge Gaps
Religion too is used for this. When people don’t know how something works they make up a God or a WOO to fill in the gaps.
Here is a great article on why people CONTINUE to believe against all logic and reason !
http://www.csicop.org/si/2000-11/beliefs.html
Garvarn
Thinker
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- 204
Thanks AT,
I agree in everything you say and the great WOO seems to fit the decline of religion in both the 19th and 20th century. Yet, the desire for an afterlife is only a slice of it, as is giving what we don't understand explanations we can at least comprehend, isn't it? Believed-In Imaginings dealt with some cases that don't appear to fit in to it -- alien abductions, RMS, and so on.
Anyway, I'll keep looking -- and I will read the link article.
Thanks again!
/C
I agree in everything you say and the great WOO seems to fit the decline of religion in both the 19th and 20th century. Yet, the desire for an afterlife is only a slice of it, as is giving what we don't understand explanations we can at least comprehend, isn't it? Believed-In Imaginings dealt with some cases that don't appear to fit in to it -- alien abductions, RMS, and so on.
Anyway, I'll keep looking -- and I will read the link article.
Thanks again!
/C
Interesting Ian
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Chateaubriand said:
Unbelievable? What's unbelievable?? If something is "unbelievable" that seems to imply a psychological problem on your part.
Chateaubriand,
Alien abductions DO fit with the “afterlife” scenario in a way.
If there exists a superior race they MAY (probably have) either defeated death or have extended life…
Either way it is ALL good… lol
II,
Your response was UNBELIEVABLE !
Alien abductions DO fit with the “afterlife” scenario in a way.
If there exists a superior race they MAY (probably have) either defeated death or have extended life…
Either way it is ALL good… lol
II,
Your response was UNBELIEVABLE !
Garvarn
Thinker
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Re: Re: Why do people believe -- any tips?
Hi Ian,
I regard flying pigs as unbelievable, as well as aliens visiting us at night snatching women, raping them and planting "scanners" in them, satanic sects performing human sacrifices, telepathy, telekinesis, and a lot of other things. Why is that a psychological problem on my part?
/C
Interesting Ian said:
Hi Ian,
I regard flying pigs as unbelievable, as well as aliens visiting us at night snatching women, raping them and planting "scanners" in them, satanic sects performing human sacrifices, telepathy, telekinesis, and a lot of other things. Why is that a psychological problem on my part?
/C
Interesting Ian
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Re: Re: Re: Why do people believe -- any tips?
Because reality can be what it likes. If things exist which you find "unbelievable" then that's a problem on your part.
Pigs flying goes against what we understand about physical laws. Aliens visiting us is extremely unlikely because where would they come from? The nearest star apart from the Sun is 4.2 light years away. I fail to see why psi is unbelievable though.
Chateaubriand said:
Because reality can be what it likes. If things exist which you find "unbelievable" then that's a problem on your part.
Pigs flying goes against what we understand about physical laws. Aliens visiting us is extremely unlikely because where would they come from? The nearest star apart from the Sun is 4.2 light years away. I fail to see why psi is unbelievable though.
Garvarn
Thinker
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Why do people believe -- any tips?
No, reality cannot be what it likes and the things I mentioned do not exist -- although there are a lot of people who want them to exist, but that's a horse of a diffferent color. So I guess I have no psychological problem on my part.
So, the psychological problem is really on your part...
/C
Interesting Ian said:
No, reality cannot be what it likes and the things I mentioned do not exist -- although there are a lot of people who want them to exist, but that's a horse of a diffferent color. So I guess I have no psychological problem on my part.
Interesting Ian said:
So, the psychological problem is really on your part...
/C
Ian,
Well psi encompasses a lot of things it seems but ALL of them ARE unbelievable.
What mechanism does the human brain possess to “transmit” anything ???
Secondly IF psi was in any way shape or form “real” it would have manifest itself in some easily measurable and quantifiable form by now…
It is either so pathetically inconsequential (as to be almost invisible) or it doesn’t exist !
Either way it stretches into the UNBELIEVABLE.. IN fact I am FAR more likely to believe aliens exist than psi does !
Well psi encompasses a lot of things it seems but ALL of them ARE unbelievable.
What mechanism does the human brain possess to “transmit” anything ???
Secondly IF psi was in any way shape or form “real” it would have manifest itself in some easily measurable and quantifiable form by now…
It is either so pathetically inconsequential (as to be almost invisible) or it doesn’t exist !
Either way it stretches into the UNBELIEVABLE.. IN fact I am FAR more likely to believe aliens exist than psi does !
Interesting Ian
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Why do people believe -- any tips?
What compels it to operate according to your expectations?
Oh right, so people have experienced them throughout history, across all cultures, there is a great deal of scientific evidence suggestive of their existence, yet you confidently assert they don't exist.
Ummm right. Another complete idiot.
You're a loony.
You have proved your idiocy. Now go away. I have had enough of your inanities.
Chateaubriand said:
What compels it to operate according to your expectations?Oh right, so people have experienced them throughout history, across all cultures, there is a great deal of scientific evidence suggestive of their existence, yet you confidently assert they don't exist.
Ummm right. Another complete idiot.
You're a loony.
You have proved your idiocy. Now go away. I have had enough of your inanities.
Correa Neto
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Why do people believe -- any tips?
Interesting Ian said:
Interesting Ian
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Why do people believe -- any tips?
I mean that reality need not correspond to how we feel it ought to be. Nothing to roll your eyes about with that. It is extremely clear.
Correa Neto said:
I mean that reality need not correspond to how we feel it ought to be. Nothing to roll your eyes about with that. It is extremely clear.
Batman Jr.
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This doesn't contend the general idea of your post, but I'd think that distinction is better fit for bugs. Take the cockroach for example. That thing has seen the birth and demise of so many creatures supposedly "superior" to it by our standards. Or better yet, take simple microbes. The more rudimentary a life form gets, the greater longevity that life form seems to have.Aussie Thinker said:
Batman,
Hehehe.. I guess you are right…
Perhaps I should have said best survivor of complex sophisticated animals…
What I REALLY meant was we KNOW that we will die.. I am sure an ant has no concept of its own mortality.
You could also argue that insects are GREAT survivors in total but thousands of singular species get wiped out all the time.. Man has remained pretty much unchanged for 2-300,000 years.
Hehehe.. I guess you are right…
Perhaps I should have said best survivor of complex sophisticated animals…
What I REALLY meant was we KNOW that we will die.. I am sure an ant has no concept of its own mortality.
You could also argue that insects are GREAT survivors in total but thousands of singular species get wiped out all the time.. Man has remained pretty much unchanged for 2-300,000 years.
Garvarn
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Why do people believe -- any tips?
Reality cannot be what it likes -- reality has no desire. Its alternative is only to be non-reality and then it is no longer reality. I do not suggest that it operates according to my expectations, but that it would be able to be what it likes is not the option to that alleged suggestion. Reality simply is. Now, your line of argument -- or attitude, rather -- implies that what you're actually saying is that you want reality to be what you like, because you are not happy with how reality is or you are unable to deal with or face reality as it is.
It is true that people throughout history have told that they have experienced unbelievable things, but that tells us nothing about whether unbelievable things exist or not, it only tells us that people claim that they have experienced them. But I understand, in the light of what you imply above, that you wish that to constitute reality. Further, there is not a great deal of scientific evidence suggesting that these unbelievable things exist -- in fact, there is no such evidence. This again shows that you are incapable of dealing with or facing reality as it is, so you create your own reality or lean on the created reality of others.
Again, you are creating your own reality -- a reality that you can handle. You have a safe and universal reaction to those who challenge the reality you have created -- they are complete idiots.
If that will keep you from breaking down, I will be a loony -- just for you!
No, I have proved no such thing. I will go away, in the sense that I will consider you to have the same intellectual capacity as a vegetable of your choice, and since you are obviously not mentally stable, I will ignore you from here and on. But I sincerely urge you to seek professional help. Reality will always be what it is and it would improve your life if you learned how to deal with it.
Take care!
/C
Interesting Ian said:
Reality cannot be what it likes -- reality has no desire. Its alternative is only to be non-reality and then it is no longer reality. I do not suggest that it operates according to my expectations, but that it would be able to be what it likes is not the option to that alleged suggestion. Reality simply is. Now, your line of argument -- or attitude, rather -- implies that what you're actually saying is that you want reality to be what you like, because you are not happy with how reality is or you are unable to deal with or face reality as it is.
Interesting Ian said:
It is true that people throughout history have told that they have experienced unbelievable things, but that tells us nothing about whether unbelievable things exist or not, it only tells us that people claim that they have experienced them. But I understand, in the light of what you imply above, that you wish that to constitute reality. Further, there is not a great deal of scientific evidence suggesting that these unbelievable things exist -- in fact, there is no such evidence. This again shows that you are incapable of dealing with or facing reality as it is, so you create your own reality or lean on the created reality of others.
Interesting Ian said:
Again, you are creating your own reality -- a reality that you can handle. You have a safe and universal reaction to those who challenge the reality you have created -- they are complete idiots.
Interesting Ian said:
If that will keep you from breaking down, I will be a loony -- just for you!
Interesting Ian said:
No, I have proved no such thing. I will go away, in the sense that I will consider you to have the same intellectual capacity as a vegetable of your choice, and since you are obviously not mentally stable, I will ignore you from here and on. But I sincerely urge you to seek professional help. Reality will always be what it is and it would improve your life if you learned how to deal with it.
Take care!
/C
Jeff Corey
New York Skeptic
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Re: Re: Re: Why do people believe -- any tips?
Another factor leading to weird beliefs ( mentioned by Shermer) is the confusion of correlation with causality. The post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy. Further, confirmation bias serves to support superstitious beliefs when people only look for such support and avoid attempts at falsification.
Not to quibble, but that one is within the realm of possibility. With all the nutty things people do, I would believe a well documented case of this.Chateaubriand said:
Another factor leading to weird beliefs ( mentioned by Shermer) is the confusion of correlation with causality. The post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy. Further, confirmation bias serves to support superstitious beliefs when people only look for such support and avoid attempts at falsification.
