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talkpoliticsFaith vs reason, hmmm. Interesting. Instantly reminds me of the argument that too many people of faith and/or poor capacities in the thinking department, often like to use against science - that it can never achieve the "Final Truth", whatever that's supposed to mean. And that the more questions science purports to provide answers for, the more new questions stem from them afterwards. And since apparently every opinion is supposedly entitled to being taken just as seriously and be considered just as valid as the next one, well... Teach the controversy!
Say what you like, but let's call things with their true names, shall we? Pursuing science, you're likely to never get a "final answer" regarding the big questions of existence and mind - because that's not science's purpose and function in the first place. The problem with people of intellectual laziness (or specific anti-scientific, anti-reason political agenda) is, this would never satisfy them. The scientific process is essentially a process of searching, and delving into the unknown. So, if one's looking for comfort there, they certainly won't find it. The universe does not care about anyone's comfort, if we're to paraphrase a famous saying.
Naturally, this bugs a lot of people, particularly those who are not passionately curious. Some of them, who might have pursued scientific knowledge before, might even give up on that. Others would prefer to indulge in charlatanism to make profit at the expense of other people's gullibility and intellectual laziness. The likes of Deepak Chopra instantly spring to mind. One might argue that Deepak gave up on pursuing the path of scientific endeavor, and instead chose to use all he had learned up to the point of quitting his journey, to his benefit. Of course, he kept wearing his scientific credentials like a medal in order to promote and build his money-making business of fancy feel-good talk that means just about as much as Scientology.
It's all a business to that sort of people. A con. Layers upon layers of worthless bullshit built around a single issue. They're one-trick ponies trotting around on a foundation without any meaning. They know that full well. Scientologists know that, too. New Wave hipsters know that - they even smirk under their nose even while they're spouting it for the gullible. In a way, it works by the same principles by which political populists do their thing. They start with a meaningful issue, exploit the questions that still need answers, and then claim to have a solution to them by selling their feel-good bullshit, neatly wrapped in poetry of wordplay that the ignorant gullible intellectual sluggards would readily swallow without giving a second thought about it - because it sounds nice.
It's amazing that there are people who could take claims like, "Let's dip our minds into the quantum and find the singularity within our souls" seriously. It's akin to saying, "Let's dip our minds into the combustion engine and find the spark plug of our souls" to a mechanic and arguing your vehicle could be fixed by positive thinking because you sucked at being a mechanic and this sounds easier. It sounds almost as if someone has used the Random Sentence Generator or something. Only, in this case it must have been the Random Thought Scrambler inside their brains. Which mustn't have been that difficult, since there weren't many thoughts inside that brain to scramble, to begin with. Imagine going to law school and declaring, "Law matters not, let's no longer exclude the middle of our hearts and let's all hold hands now, cuz if everyone holds hands right now, no one will ever commit a crime ever again, and everybody will be happy forever!" Same goes for populists. Let's say no to our creditors and stop paying our debts, and we'll be on the highway to prosperity. Or conversely, governments are evil and can't do a thing right, so if we get rid of them and rely on people's good will instead, we'll all be just fine. The stars are talking to us. There's a guy in the sky judging me for my decisions. Atoms have consciousness. My ass. Some people's minds may be the size of an atom, granted, but that's another story.
Say what you like, but let's call things with their true names, shall we? Pursuing science, you're likely to never get a "final answer" regarding the big questions of existence and mind - because that's not science's purpose and function in the first place. The problem with people of intellectual laziness (or specific anti-scientific, anti-reason political agenda) is, this would never satisfy them. The scientific process is essentially a process of searching, and delving into the unknown. So, if one's looking for comfort there, they certainly won't find it. The universe does not care about anyone's comfort, if we're to paraphrase a famous saying.
Naturally, this bugs a lot of people, particularly those who are not passionately curious. Some of them, who might have pursued scientific knowledge before, might even give up on that. Others would prefer to indulge in charlatanism to make profit at the expense of other people's gullibility and intellectual laziness. The likes of Deepak Chopra instantly spring to mind. One might argue that Deepak gave up on pursuing the path of scientific endeavor, and instead chose to use all he had learned up to the point of quitting his journey, to his benefit. Of course, he kept wearing his scientific credentials like a medal in order to promote and build his money-making business of fancy feel-good talk that means just about as much as Scientology.
It's all a business to that sort of people. A con. Layers upon layers of worthless bullshit built around a single issue. They're one-trick ponies trotting around on a foundation without any meaning. They know that full well. Scientologists know that, too. New Wave hipsters know that - they even smirk under their nose even while they're spouting it for the gullible. In a way, it works by the same principles by which political populists do their thing. They start with a meaningful issue, exploit the questions that still need answers, and then claim to have a solution to them by selling their feel-good bullshit, neatly wrapped in poetry of wordplay that the ignorant gullible intellectual sluggards would readily swallow without giving a second thought about it - because it sounds nice.
It's amazing that there are people who could take claims like, "Let's dip our minds into the quantum and find the singularity within our souls" seriously. It's akin to saying, "Let's dip our minds into the combustion engine and find the spark plug of our souls" to a mechanic and arguing your vehicle could be fixed by positive thinking because you sucked at being a mechanic and this sounds easier. It sounds almost as if someone has used the Random Sentence Generator or something. Only, in this case it must have been the Random Thought Scrambler inside their brains. Which mustn't have been that difficult, since there weren't many thoughts inside that brain to scramble, to begin with. Imagine going to law school and declaring, "Law matters not, let's no longer exclude the middle of our hearts and let's all hold hands now, cuz if everyone holds hands right now, no one will ever commit a crime ever again, and everybody will be happy forever!" Same goes for populists. Let's say no to our creditors and stop paying our debts, and we'll be on the highway to prosperity. Or conversely, governments are evil and can't do a thing right, so if we get rid of them and rely on people's good will instead, we'll all be just fine. The stars are talking to us. There's a guy in the sky judging me for my decisions. Atoms have consciousness. My ass. Some people's minds may be the size of an atom, granted, but that's another story.
(no subject)
Date: 9/9/15 20:26 (UTC)