- #1
amadeus
Regardless of our particular views on science, religion, philosophy, every one of us (I include myself) seems to be convinced of a belief which, I'm afraid, lacks any substantial support. That would be the belief that we are the first generation of humans who are not deluded about the simplest things.
We look back at the past and find all sorts of absurd beliefs, often mistaken by knowledge, that people held for a long time until they realized it was sheer nonsense. Off the top of my mind I can think of exorcism, alchemy, astrology, to name just a few. What is striking about people's attitudes toward those things in the past was their naivete, their inability to realize the complete lack of substance to those things. Sure, in our day we have all sorts of ridiculous beliefs, such as New Age, UFOs, ESP, and so on, but these are not the ones I'm talking about, for we know them for what they really are, and we ignore or dismiss people who try to assert their validity.
Yet there was a time when kings and statesmen based their decisions on the advice of astrologers, when priests were seriously thought of as capable of curing schizophrenia, when scientists believed there was an easy way to turn everything into gold. The evidence from the past clearly shows that reason is not enough to prevent someone from believing in false ideas. So do you believe there are false ideas in our day which are taken seriously by most rational people? If you do, which ideas do you happen to think are false? If you don't, what reason do we have to believe we are less naive than our ancestors?
Another way to put it, do you think 2,000 years from now people will laugh about things we take seriously, just as we laugh about stuff people took seriously 2,000 years ago? And what would those things be, if any?
We look back at the past and find all sorts of absurd beliefs, often mistaken by knowledge, that people held for a long time until they realized it was sheer nonsense. Off the top of my mind I can think of exorcism, alchemy, astrology, to name just a few. What is striking about people's attitudes toward those things in the past was their naivete, their inability to realize the complete lack of substance to those things. Sure, in our day we have all sorts of ridiculous beliefs, such as New Age, UFOs, ESP, and so on, but these are not the ones I'm talking about, for we know them for what they really are, and we ignore or dismiss people who try to assert their validity.
Yet there was a time when kings and statesmen based their decisions on the advice of astrologers, when priests were seriously thought of as capable of curing schizophrenia, when scientists believed there was an easy way to turn everything into gold. The evidence from the past clearly shows that reason is not enough to prevent someone from believing in false ideas. So do you believe there are false ideas in our day which are taken seriously by most rational people? If you do, which ideas do you happen to think are false? If you don't, what reason do we have to believe we are less naive than our ancestors?
Another way to put it, do you think 2,000 years from now people will laugh about things we take seriously, just as we laugh about stuff people took seriously 2,000 years ago? And what would those things be, if any?