RE: Ex theists: what did you believe?
April 18, 2015 at 9:52 pm
(This post was last modified: April 18, 2015 at 10:03 pm by Hatshepsut.)
(April 18, 2015 at 5:28 pm)wallym Wrote: What's the evolutionary purpose of people's certainty in their own critical thinking? Even objectively dumb people, who may even know they are dumb, are very confident in what we think of as common sense.
Back on The Flintstones in Bedrock, perhaps indecision was fatal once Bamm-Bamm started swinging his club. Of course it couldn't have been just a matter of reflexes and rapid response. Self-Confidence in Social Settings was likely a thing rewarded by Father Darwin by way of winning love. Meanwhile the artificial, highly abstract thinking situations we civilized folks have worked ourselves into weren't too common in the early days. Even our social world has gotten infected with a lot of complicated politics and shifting circles of friends that didn't exist when you lived your whole life with the same 25 people. There's different kinds of "smart" and "dumb" and being mathematically gifted or verbally eloquent, which is what usually goes for "smart" today, wasn't necessarily advantageous.
Besides that an opinionated sports fan who devalues the pro scouts may well be smart enough to listen to a doctor when sick.
That's my evolutionary "just so story," one of those awful storybook creations Stephen Jay Gould often condemned.
