WHY DO
PEOPLE BELIEVE THE THINGS THEY BELIEVE?
Just because
you believe something doesn’t make it true, and confirmation bias on the social
media is worthless as proof.
Why do
people willingly buy into outrageous claims without a modicum of research or
thought experiments to question the validity.
I have a
friend, an intelligent man, who believes in Big Foot. I actually think he would like to believe in
Big Foot, and so doesn’t question the claims.
It is hard to prove a negative so the best argument against questionable
the circumstantial evidence is a thought experiment.
I first
heard of Big Foot when I was about twelve years old. We are talking seventy years ago. All animals die, and especially large
animals leave remains. Even humans that
were murdered, or were lost and died in the woods, there remains are almost
always found. In seventy years, no Big
Foot has ever wandered into the road and been hit by a car; died as a result of
an accident in the woods; been shot by an ammosexual, and the remains
found. No Big Foot big crap – no DNA
evidence has ever been collected. In my seventy years, there has never been any
physical proof of the existence a large hominoid wandering around the shrinking
wilderness regions of this country or any other. And just because some idiot with night
vision goggles posts a video of himself in the woods at night and excitedly
declaring “That’s godda be a squash we are hearing!” doesn’t make it real.
A number of
people I have known believe in ghost.
Again, you can’t prove a negative.
But a thought experiment might go something like this:
We are born
naked. Clothes were the invention of humankind
to protect his body from the elements, and later to hide the proof of the
smallness of his dick and to cover his mate to make her less sexually
attractive to more dominant men; and finally, by the religions that are paranoid
about sex. Let’s say for the sake of
argument that the vestige of a human could return after death. Why would they be clothed? Is there a gossamer wardrove that the dead
get to pick from for their return? Why
are ghost wearing clothes? They should
be naked; and that would be really scary.
No proof. The belief in ghost has
a religious origin.
Q Anon: you
have got to be a fucking nut case to buy into this. A cabal of Satan worshiping, cannibal,
pedophiles – make up of high-ranking Democrat politicians, led by Barack Obama
and Hillary Clinton and liberal Hollywood actors are running a world-wide child-sex-trafficking
network, and have plotted against Donald Trump to make sure he is not
re-elected President. Satan – again a
religious connection.
And then there
is religion. Christianity, Judaism and Islam
based on the writings of a two-thousand-year-old book, written at a time when a
wheelbarrow was considered cutting edge technology; with miracles confirmed by witnessed
– this time without night vision goggles.
It is not
necessarily a matter of intelligence, education, or affluence or lack thereof;
I think gullibility is imbedded in our DNA along with our ability to fantasize. Why else would so many people buy into religion
and other fantastic?
Just asking
the Ol’Buzzard
I am in complete agreement. I think there really is a gullibility gene, but the odd thing is that it doesn't necessarily relate to intelligence. I know some very intelligent (about some things) people who believe in outlandish ideas.
ReplyDeleteBack when I was in grad school, one of the professors who was a major skeptic about almost everything mentioned he did believe in Nessie, the Loch Ness monster. He knew one of the people who claimed to have documented it and he trusted the guy. He was absolutely devastated a few years later when his friend confessed to how they faked the photos. My conclusion? You're more likely to believe the unbelievable when you trust the person peddling the b.s. I think the only thing where we are all true skeptics is when a friend starts telling you about the one that got away -- the humongous trout, the 30-point buck, the gorgeous person at the club that you almost talked into bed.
ReplyDeleteSome people want and need absolute certainty about things so they can feel in control (and even better, superior to others). Religion and conspiracy theories promote such certainty, false though it may be.
ReplyDeleteEveryone should believe in something that stretches credibility or reflects a bit of cynicism. There are several official accounts I do not believe in their entirety. And my Irish/Scots ancestry has me believing in ghosties and ghoulies and long legged beasties and things that go bump in the night
ReplyDelete