In the words of a wise man by the name of Shaggy just say It Wasn’t Me.
Genesis, Chapter 4
Dude, Cain straight up lied to** GOD**:eek:
I hate to come across as the angry atheist, but it starts the moment most of us first walk into Sunday School.
I was 9 or 10 when I started realizing that the facts I learned in school weren’t jibing with the “facts” I learned in Sunday School. When I’d ask my Sunday School teacher to help me reconcile these things, I was always told that the evil scientists, working in cahoots with the Devil, were trying to trick me with their evil lies. So it’s no wonder that people reflexively downplay the importance scientific evidence. Even if a person doesn’t believe in the Devil, they’ve still been taught that faith-based knowledge is infallible, whereas scientific knowledge is always shrouded in doubt.
All good points, especially from a religious perspective, as to this day, I’m still fighting with Christians in my church who think atheists are possessed. I mean, what?? So that’s a very important bit of info to add to the discussion. Because if it goes back as far as those first instances of faith (Et tu, Cain?), then it’s as ingrained as human nature.
I think that’s a lot of it- when religious authorities position science as the opponent of religion rather than something separate and alongside, it tends to color people’s opinions of science in all sorts of insidious ways.
Essentially, rather than science and scientific thought being a an non-religious framework for discovering how the natural world works that could be complementary to religion, or at least non-threatening, these religious authorities slot it into the “Good Versus Evil” conflict on the side of evil.
I mean, there’s nothing inherently ungodly about researching new antibiotics, or how nerve cells regenerate, or in doing something as innocuous as following the scientific method to solve a problem. The only real objection most of these ignorant religious types have is when scientific discovery and inquiry disagree or disprove the letter of their religious teachings, and most of that is squarely because these people are explicitly taught what amounts to a rule that if the secular conclusion and the religious conclusion about something are in conflict, that the religious one wins out every single time.
There’s no element of evaluating both sides and coming to the conclusion that the Bible must be wrong, or must not be taken literally, because the Earth couldn’t possibly be 6000 some-odd years old. Nope, the teaching is that the Earth IS 6000 some-odd years old and any proof to the contrary is either put there by God, or by Satan to test your faith, and questioning this is questioning the Word of God.
It seems pretty dumb, and it is. Thankfully, many mainstream Christian denominations don’t believe this- only the more fundamentalist, dumb-ass ones like the Southern Baptists do.
This scenario has been described a lot recently, I don’t know if there is an official name for it or not, I’m not going to look it up right now, I think we have all seen it reported, etc.
IMHO, from my experience, I believe, that the mechanism at work is that people are responding to being challenged - period. The informational content of their belief or of the challenge is really immaterial to them. Instead it is the act of being challenged that creates such an emotional response in them that it makes them unable to receive the new information. Now, it is important to understand that the delivery of the challenge can be very non-confrontational and purely information oriented, even random and not directed at them specifically, but if they perceive it as a challenge, then their emotional response kicks in, “RED ALERT! I AM BEING CHALLENGED! RED ALERT!” And the contrary information does not get absorbed or processed.
So, for people predisposed to have this type of emotional response, it really is nearly impossible to change their minds with information.
I know that it kicks in irrationally in my own mind, and I have to beat that urge back and consider what’s being said without assuming I’m automatically and irrevocably right.
Who ya gonna believe, me or your lying eyes?
I think it has become more obvious now. But I had a boyfriend many many moons ago who tried very hard to convince me that he was not cheating on me, * when I caught him in bed with another girl.* but now the same tendency is still there, even with 24/7 video access.
And post away on your phone! Auto correct be damned!
I would say your self awareness and willingness and ability to combat the response puts you in the minority of people who have this response.
I will say that I find this response I am describing is not present in everyone, or even most people I encounter. But it is present in some significant people in my life, (paired with a lack of self awareness and unwillingness), which is a struggle.
There’s an old quote about man not being a rational animal, but a rationalizing animal.
People tie their beliefs into their identity and how the world should operate. It’s important to protect your ego. It’s embarrassing to admit you’ve been wrong about something for years and that your enemies are right.
I like how the page gives an unsourced quote at the end of the article, which is then followed by a bunch of notes describing that the quote seems to be fiction.
I can go one better than the kid who screamed in front of everyone and then denied it. I’ve seen a few students deny something while they’re still doing it. Me: I said to stop using the computer. Lying kid: I’m not using it. Meanwhile, kid is still typing away.
There have been dumb people around for a LONG time. P.T. Barnum (of circus fame) said “There is a sucker born every minute!”
The Society for Indecency to Naked Animals proved just how gullible people are when they objected to animals (dogs, cats, etc.) not wearing clothes in public and some people bought it hook, line, and sinker…
A good book on this is: Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds…
And more recently, a YouTube poster called “ThioJoe” has posted videos on such subjects as…
How to Instantly Charge your Phone
Upgrade Your Playstation 3 to PS4 for Free
Double Your Internet Speed for Free
(His more recent videos are serious.)
Read the comments to these videos. Some people actually think these things will work! (He is making fun of stupid people.)