aelf wrote:
visagrunt wrote:
I bears noting that science is based on faith.
More to the point it bears noting that the science-worshipers act just like the religious dogmatists they rail against.
It's ironic too, that the latest scientific research indicates that in the majority of cases emotion is the motivating factor that precedes most decisions that we "believe" are rational.
http://www.bclocalnews.com/vancouver_island_central/nanaimonewsbulletin/opinion/122362659.html?mobile=trueQuote:
Conventional wisdom has long understood that people do not form their opinions in a rational way, and a recent Mother Jones article by Chris Mooney provocatively titled The Science of Why We Don’t Believe Science tells us that “new discoveries in psychology and neuroscience have further demonstrated how our pre-existing beliefs, far more than any new facts, can skew our thoughts and even colour what we consider our most dispassionate and logical conclusions.”
High-speed emotions precede rational thought, “We push threatening information away; we pull friendly information close.” Yale Law School professor Dan Kahan and his colleagues classify people as either “individualists” or “communitarians,” and as either “hierarchical” or “egalitarian” in outlook.
I interpret the new information as a useful explanation of the phenomenon of prejudice, or pre-judging. As a fine teacher explained prejudice to me: “First you choose what you want to believe, then you pick out only the data that agrees with that choice.”
The new information reaffirms what we already knew instinctively: if you want to influence ‘the other side’, develop a trust relationship and find the common ground.
Don’t rant and rave and scold and accuse.
27 Jul 2011, 6:31 pm
