(August 7, 2014 at 11:21 am)Rhythm Wrote:As I understand it, we hold a whole lot of irrational beliefs. Our subconscious guides our actions and reactions to a considerable degree, and apparently it is all too easy to fill it with ridiculous ideas and notions which we nonetheless act upon. What's more, our need to make those actions fit into the person we perceive ourselves to be can lead to all kinds of rationalizations, which we accept even though they are almost certainly bullshit.(August 7, 2014 at 11:17 am)Napoléon Wrote: I'm just trying to further understand why an intelligent, rational person like DP, would hold an irrational belief.Because we're not rational, more like "rationalizers"? Intelligence truly confers no immunity.
Worst part? Knowing or understanding this doesn't make us any less likely to behave this way, because so much of who we are comes from that part of the brain that is filled to the brim with insane ideas and assumptions.
"Well, evolution is a theory. It is also a fact. And facts and theories are different things, not rungs in a hierarchy of increasing certainty. Facts are the world's data. Theories are structures of ideas that explain and interpret facts. Facts don't go away when scientists debate rival theories to explain them. Einstein's theory of gravitation replaced Newton's in this century, but apples didn't suspend themselves in midair, pending the outcome. And humans evolved from ape- like ancestors whether they did so by Darwin's proposed mechanism or by some other yet to be discovered."
-Stephen Jay Gould
-Stephen Jay Gould
