Fascinating article in The Conversation about how to demonstrate to conspiracy theorists, such as global warming deniers, the illogicality of their beliefs. Theres no point in showing them the latest scientific papers confirming human induced climate change as each of these, however cogent, is further proof of scientists engaged in a giant global conspiracy! It was suggested that the best way is to ask the conspiracy theorists what it would take to disprove their own theory. This is where the theory falls down as they have no scientific evidence to back their beliefs. It is just that- a belief, without foundation. This was what I was attempting to address in my talk at the Philo Cafe - is what you believe really true? As I said beliefs are 100% certain, science never is. The scientific method is designed to continually disprove hypotheses, whereas a belief is fixed. Belief systems tend to be tribal as was shown on Catalyst the other night. Birds of a feather flock together. I have a friend who is in the process of joining a fundamental Christian tribe and is already changing her terminology and for the first time condemning gays. She also no longer wants to be friends with us as we dont belong to her new tribe. She is adopting her new belief system unquestioningly. Theres no room for doubt. We all have a tribe of around 150 friends apparently, which was about the size of the old villages. My fellow tribalists tend to accept the overwhelming scientific evidence of human induced global warming, are tolerant of difference, compassionate, creative, care deeply about what is happening to the planet and want to do something about it in their own unique way.
Posted on: Sat, 11 Oct 2014 00:30:45 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015