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‘Tis the season for office holiday parties - The science and math party is on Monday, and I had to figure out what to bring. I don’t want to be the lazy drone who brings a six-pack or beer or some coo...18 hours ago
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Dr. Marty Makary: Mad Scientists, Biowarfare, Nazi War Criminal Doctors, Half Rat-Deer Carcasses, and How COVID, AIDS, & Lyme Came from A Lab. - Dr. Makary desperately wants everyone to know he is a brave, free-thinker, able to see the world objectively and without bias, smarter than 99% of his pe...2 days ago
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Cognitive Legos - We have all likely had the experience that when we learn a task it becomes easier to learn a distinct but related task. Learning to cook one dish makes i...6 days ago
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song - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1a-NRfXg1vFtueolqHBnurOHIAg51UDtL/view?usp=drive_link1 month ago
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Oameni Vrednici de Atentie - Oameni Vrednici de Atentie. Imi plac umanii care nu sunt anosti. Fiintele acelea care-si conecteaza limba la creier inainte de a spune ceva. Care nu deschi...2 months ago
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Multiplication of unlawful disjunctions - Charles B. writes: Apparently, birds are not considered wild animals by law. Reference here, where apparently feeding them in parks in permitted except if ...4 months ago
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Thanks for stopping by…. - I grew up in a wilderness area in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula in a town proudly proclaiming almost 300 citizens on its road sign. Life there focused on surv...6 years ago
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Guy in cheesy old Scientology promo looks kinda like Josh Timonen - Fast forward to about 3:00. I never met Josh so I can't say if it's him or not. Would be a few years younger in the promo.
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Couldn't all religions be classified as (more or less) dangerous cults? Surely the choice of one or the other is something of a false dichotomy? :-)
ReplyDeleteI hope your wrist is healing well :-)
Cult status is always relative to all the other religious sects competing for members in some community. Large, dominant sects can't be cults.
ReplyDeleteIn our environment of evolutionary adaptiveness, being right wasn't enough. Our ancestors also had to be quick. And so our brains come wired with a few shortcuts or rules of thumb that impose a feeling of the right answer before we've even got the slide rule out. "The majority are correct" is one such shortcut. "The alpha male is correct" is another.
We expect humans to accept the assertions of their enveloping culture without criticism. Few have the time or capacity to examine the basis of what passes for conventional wisdom. But as a corollary anyone who embraces a minority view --particularly if that viewpoint imposes significant cost or risk-- is expected to double and triple check the basis of their belief.
Lucky thing the majority and the alpha male are daft often enough else we'd never have evolved the capacity for science.