America’s Addiction to Belief and Rejection of Rationale
From Good Shit:
America Addiction to BeliefBrian Trent is fed up with the moon landing conspiracy theorists, Obama birth certificate deniers, and natural selection naysayers. In his article appearing in the July issue of The Humanist, Trent laments how Americans “have come to be belief’s poster children[1]. Reactionary, emotional, and almost blissfully willing to ignore facts if they contradict a cemented position.”According to Trent, we have evolved (or devolved, I guess) into a “culture that thrives on the false principle that ‘all opinions are equal,’ even those without a shred of factual data, documentation, or reasoned methodology.”
The oftentimes scathing tone of the article exemplifies the frustration and astonishment many people experience when faced with certain demoralizing statistics, including that “20 percent of the American people believe NASA faked the Apollo moon landings” and “half of the population believes the world was made in six days.”
Lumping creationists in with members of the 9-11 “Truth Movement” is certainly a bold move, and one that some religious individuals would undoubtedly object to, but Trent tackles this thorny issue with dexterity:
6 comments:
I'm reading Walter Laqueur's "The Terrible Secret" about the early suppression of reports of mass killings of Jews in 1941-43 and noted this comment in his introduction:
"What is the reason for the inclination among otherwise normal, sometimes even highly intelligent, human beings to deny reality, however glaring? Clearly it is a question of judgment rather than the intellect. Judgment can be affected by a great many factors: ideological prejudice may be so strong as to exclude all unwelcome iformation; a mood, such as unwarranted optimism or pessimism, may influence it and there are a great many other possibilities. Whatever the reason, such behavior is still mysterious and the mystery deepens if the issues at stake are not events of marginal importance or in some far-away country but very real dangers to the survival of one's group or oneself."
If someone believes the world was created in literally 6 calendar days, that is an issue which is personal. If that individual attempts to establish that belief by law as part of the educational curriculum of a public school system, then the issue becomes the abuse of governmental authority and is now an issue in which the public has the right to intervene.
Personally, I do not see how questioning Obama's religious affiliation fits into this "belief" category since there is more than enough objective, public evidence to raise the question. Same goes for the eligibility issue. It is obsessing with these issues to the exclusion of more important ones that I think is unwarranted.
The question is not so much why people believe things, but why they believe, or refuse to believe, that for which there is objective evidence. That has to be essentially an emotional issue.
Could these fanciful tales be evidence of a healthy, but highly uneducated, distrust of those that claim to present truth? Might they like the terrible twos pass as a populace unpracticed in self-awareness does become more comfortable in thinking for themselves?
Could be, Macus, but it seems to me, from what I know of history, Americans have always had crazy ideas like these.
I do think, however, that our native distrust of authority brings about our mighty Faith in Freedom, God, Goodness, and Justice, as well as our more crazy conspiracy theories.
Americans come up with the craziest things like computers, internet, cell phones, air-conditioning, microwaves, televisions etc along with conspiracy theories.
I think its the freedom to think whatever you want and express it the way you want it that we have the technology we do in this modern world of ours.
However, I would just like to say that everyone has the right to their own opinion but not to their own facts. By that I mean, conspiracy theorists are wrong.
And I also like that America provided me with this platform that I can actually share it with the rest of you guys.
Woah I am random!
You may be random, but you make absolute sense to me, AND, I think you're correct.
:)
Conspiracy theories are a way of dealing w/uncomfortable events much the same way that religion over the centuries has salved the hearts and souls of believers. Irrational belief in a conspiracy in spite of facts to the contrary, requires a large degree of faith. The whole system has its sacred texts, prophets, and preachers.
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