Skeptics's Disease

[Todd-'o'-Vision]

Scot Adams, God's Debris p.73-74

"I have some friends who are skeptics," I said. "they're in that Skeptics Society. I think they'd tear you are apart."

"Skepitcs," he said, "suffer from the skeptics' disease---the problem of being right too often."

"How's that bad?" I asked.

"If you are proven to be right a hundred times in a row, no amount of evidence will convince you that you are mistaken in the hundred-and-first case. You will be seduced by your own apparent infallibility. Remember that all scientific experiments are perfomred by human beings and the results are subject to human interpretation. The human mind is a delusion generator, not a window to truth. Everyone, includeing skeptics, will generate delusions that match their views. that is how the normal and healthy brain workds. Skeptics are not exempot from self-delusion."

"Skeptics know that human perceptions are faulty," I argued. "That's why they have a scientific process and they insist on repeating experiments to see if results are sonsistent. Theri scientific method virtually eliminates subjectivity."

"The scientific approach also makes people think and act in groups," he countered. "They form skeptical societies and create skeptical publications. they breathe each other's fumes and demonize those who do not share their scientific methods. Because skeptics' views are at odds with the majority of the world, they become emotionally and intellectually isolated. That sort of environment is a recipe for cult thinking and behaviour. Skpetics are not exempt from normal brain functions. It is a human tendancy to become what you attack. Skeptics attack irrational thinkers and in the process become irrational."

~~~~~

I wonder if there is any one on this board that might be very good example of that final paragraph

I love this book, thank you for loaning it to me, I haven't started the other one yet, I am going to read this one twice , first.

 

[SINthysist]

You need to read Hesse's Magistre Ludi.

Maybe even Kafka's Trial and Castle...

 

[Todd-'o'-Vision]

You need to read Hesse's Magistre Ludi.

Maybe even Kafka's Trial and Castle...

If you sned them to me, I'll read them and send them back

 

[SINthysist]

Too big to cut and paste.

I checked them out from the library when I was challenged to go to college by the head of the English Department at the local university.

Seems muscle needs mind...



And I graduated.

He was one hell of a mentor, but

He was fond of the Russian writers whom I found to be way too long-winded, but had thier counterpoint in Hemmingway, who was way much more readable, but not as impactful.

What a massacre of the language, but Jim Beam is typing...

 

[Black_Bird]

"Skeptics know that human perceptions are faulty," I argued. "That's why they have a scientific process and they insist on repeating experiments to see if results are sonsistent. Theri scientific method virtually eliminates subjectivity."

"The scientific approach also makes people think and act in groups," he countered. "They form skeptical societies and create skeptical publications. they breathe each other's fumes and demonize those who do not share their scientific methods. Because skeptics' views are at odds with the majority of the world, they become emotionally and intellectually isolated. That sort of environment is a recipe for cult thinking and behaviour. Skpetics are not exempt from normal brain functions. It is a human tendancy to become what you attack. Skeptics attack irrational thinkers and in the process become irrational."

[I say:]"Explain this happening!"
[One says:]"It must have a 'natural' cause."
[The other says:]"It must have a 'supernatural' cause."
Let these two asses be set to grind corn

May, might, must, should, probably, may be, we may safely assume, aught, it is hardly questionable, almost certainly - poor hacks! Let them be turned out to grass!

Proof is only possible in mathematics, and mathematics is only a matter of arbitrary conventions.

And yet doubt is a good servant but a bad master; a perfect mistress, but a nagging wife.

"White is white," is the lash of the overseer; "white is black" is the watchward of the slave. The Master takes no heed.

The Chinese cannot help thinking that the octave has 5 notes.

The more necessary anything appears to my mind, the more certain it is that I only assert a limitation.

I slept with Faith, and found a corpse in my arms on awaking; I drank and danced all night with Doubt, and found her a virgin in the morning.

--- The Book of Lies, Chapter 45.

Please hit me for quoting that, Dhalgren.

 

[Todd-'o'-Vision]

huh???

 

[Black_Bird]

huh???

Do you need a line by line translation? Or can you figure it out on your own?

 

[SINthysist]

I cannot doubt that I am doubting...

 

[Todd-'o'-Vision]

Do you need a line by line translation? Or can you figure it out on your own?

I need something

each line seems so far disconnecting from the previous and the preceeding, its warping any congruity that there might be in there

 

[Black_Bird]

each line seems so far disconnecting from the previous and the preceeding, its warping any congruity that there might be in there

Take each line and understand it by itself... then look at each line and see how one thought could flow into the next.

 

[SINthysist]

I am the Walrus...

 

[Todd-'o'-Vision]

bump for the day crew

 

[Guest]

Do not judge others, and God will not judge you; do not condemn others, and God will not condemn you; forgive others, and God will forgive you.

Why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but pay no attention to the log in your own eye? How can you say, "Please, brother, let me take that speck out of your eye" and yet not even see the log in your own eye? Take the log out of your own eye and you will be able to see and take the speck out of your brother's eye.

 

[phrodeau]

Scot Adams, God's Debris p.73-74

"I have some friends who are skeptics," I said. "they're in that Skeptics Society. I think they'd tear you are apart."

"Skepitcs," he said, "suffer from the skeptics' disease---the problem of being right too often."

"How's that bad?" I asked.

"If you are proven to be right a hundred times in a row, no amount of evidence will convince you that you are mistaken in the hundred-and-first case.

This is counter to the scientific method, and has no merit as a statement. Can it be proven?

You will be seduced by your own apparent infallibility. Remember that all scientific experiments are perfomred by human beings and the results are subject to human interpretation. The human mind is a delusion generator, not a window to truth.

The human mind provides both, and accepts delusion only when truth is absent.

Everyone, includeing skeptics, will generate delusions that match their views. that is how the normal and healthy brain workds. Skeptics are not exempot from self-delusion."

"Skeptics know that human perceptions are faulty," I argued. "That's why they have a scientific process and they insist on repeating experiments to see if results are sonsistent. Theri scientific method virtually eliminates subjectivity."

Not merely "virtually" but entirely.

"The scientific approach also makes people think and act in groups," he countered. "They form skeptical societies and create skeptical publications.

This is stereotypical and prejudicial. I'm a skeptic, and I've never been involved in such groups.

they breathe each other's fumes and demonize those who do not share their scientific methods. Because skeptics' views are at odds with the majority of the world, they become emotionally and intellectually isolated.

Non-sequitur. How does this follow in the argument?

That sort of environment is a recipe for cult thinking and behaviour. Skpetics are not exempt from normal brain functions. It is a human tendancy to become what you attack.

Again, stereotypical. What possible basis exists for this generalization?

Skeptics attack irrational thinkers and in the process become irrational."

I wouldn't dream of it. However, I may attack irrational thought. How can that cause me to become irrational?

Oh, and for the unregistered Jesus, try saying something original.