No need to get bent out of shape–after all, it’s difficult to defend the use of reason when you’re being irrational. In any event, I find the woo-woo reaction here amusing. It’s so sad that otherwise intelligent people refuse to employ critical thinking to understand the world, choosing instead to swallow myths and fairy tales uncritically. Still, con men and swindlers have to eat, too, and who are we to chase away their natural prey?
Hmm, perhaps I should reinvent myself as a channeler of angels, and start charging people to read my posts of “angelic wisdom.” My, but I do love the gullible.
Sorely tempting, isn’t it? Shades of L. Ron Hubbard. But could you manage to keep a straight face through it? I’m sure I couldn’t, so fleecing the creduloids isn’t a viable career path for me.
I’m still trying to figure out why people get so worked up about other people’s beliefs. What ever happened to “to each their own”?
Honestly, the only people I’ve seen that get so hostile (and in the OP’s case, downright nasty) about other people’s beliefs that do absolutely no harm whatsoever to themselves are people who feel somewhat threatened, for whatever reason.
If we’re not talking about the innocent/gullible/naive people who are conned into thinking their disease can be cured with a magic stone rather than relying on medical science, only because they have no other evidence, or maybe the conman won’t let them see any other evidence…
If we’re not talking about the hucksters/con men (Indian agents, vipers, snipers, sorry, got derailed) who take so much money each year from the same innocents…
If we’re not talking about the possibility and potentiality of these false beliefs holding back the real science…
then I guess you could say it never harms anyone to believe in these little fairy tales. But damnit, if nothing else at all, you people who believe in all these fairy tales, we could use you on the side of logic! If you would put half the imaginings you put into ghosts/UFOs/nuclear death sponges/GOD into finding a cure for AIDS, or cancer, or feeding the hungry, or WHATEVER, then we would probably be halfway to solutions for these things. These are harmful practices. As long as the human race continues to be devious and continues to harm one another then these will continue to be dangerous.
First, I submit that the nastiest posts in this thread, by a long shot, came not from the OP.
Turning to the question of harm, I can only speak for myself, of course, but it’s my contention that allowing ignorance to flourish does positive harm to civilization. It makes the world a much less desirable place to be. It impedes the advancement of knowledge and understanding, and that hurts all of us.
If you honestly don’t believe that there’s any value in fighting ignorance, why read or post on this board?
Actually, woo-woo beliefs do cause harm to other people. Faith healers who persuade diabetics to stop taking insulin; religious charlatans who swindle the elderly by exhorting them to give, Give, GIVE; spurious New Age healers who cause the seriously ill to chase after mythical wonder cures instead of consulting real doctors are just a few instances of the damage that is done every day by con men peddling superstitious nonsense to the credulous.
When people don’t employ critical thinking, they leave themselves open to exploitation by the unscrupulous. They get taken by Nigerian scammers, religious fakes, and political propagandists.
On this Web site, the testable claims of the paranormal and the miraculous should not be given a free pass. To be honest, though, many folks here seem to think that this site’s purpose is coddling ignorance, not combatting it.
Fine. If you’re tired of The “Learning” Channel and the “Discovery” Channel doing shows about ghosts and haunted houses, then maybe they should just go back to things you don’t want. Like learning and dicovering.
You know, about junkyard brides and monster sheds and Choppers in the ER.
Because if those stations didn’t give us pseudoscience, they’d give us no science at all.
Look, I’m all for taking down con artists that prey on those who believe in supernatural activity just the same as con artists who prey on the elderly, or the young, or whatever. However, I also believe there are scummy people out there more than willing to exploit the hell out of anything and don’t believe that gives reason to shit all over someone else’s personal beliefs.
I also find it curious that if anyone were to shit all over Christian or Muslim beliefs, they’d be shut down in an instant. Or at least lambasted for their insensitivity, post haste. Has Christianity brought technology to a screetching halt? What makes you think some (relatively) small school of thought is going to achieve that something the size of Christianity has not?
I just don’t get the double standard and why you don’t see people bashing some of the more ridiculous beliefs of Christianity with the same reckless abandon as you see some people here using.
Why is it okay to launch personal attacks on people who believe in the more “new age” religions, calling them stupid, self-deluded and ignorant, but it’s not okay to do the same to Christians?
I’m not trying to start a war here, I’m genuinely curious.
Maybe I’m whooshed, but HUH? How is giving us pseudoscience connected to science? It would be great if TLC and Discovery did shows debunking ghosts and haunted houses, but they don’t. They present credulous, non-critical presentations of these phenomena as if they had some factual basis. ditto for the Sci-Fi Channel, which used to present non-fiction science shows inbetween the old TV sho reruns but now just makes crappy miracle-mongering BS.
Oh, how true. And I’m always a bit surprised when someone pops in all pissed off and asks us to respect their beliefs in paranormal voodoo love potions. Anyone with more than 10 posts ought to know that this is the wrong place to pedal snake oil.
You want to believe in extraterrestrial crystal-weilding lepruchans, go right ahead, but don’t expect the rest of us to sit idly by.
I don’t think your premise is correct. I recall any number of threads in which those with religious beliefs have been called deluded and ignorant, and I don’t recall seeing them shut down.
What’s not allowed here is hate speech. It’s tough to know where the line is, of course, but I think that a thread that maintained that all Buddhists should be summarily executed, for the good of humanity, would be cut off pretty quickly. A thread that maintained that the beliefs of Buddhism are silly, and that anyone following them is a bit of a simpleton, I think would be allowed to unfold naturally.
You mean like Christian faith healers? They get slammed pretty hard.
You mean like Christians who try to get creationism to be part of public school ciriculum? I’ve seen them slammed a few times.
Moslems who believe the suicide bombing will get them 72 virgins in heaven? You get the picture.
Religion/weird beliefs as a life philosophy = OK. Religion/wierd beliefs that cause harm to others or that are opposed to rational scientific theory = idiotic.
If you are not dedicated to fighting ignorance you should either participate in that fight by seeking the truth or find somewhere else to post. Seriously.
