I mean, scientific materialism also denies a large part of reality. Or at least I knew that really, really well the last time I did mushrooms
Comment on New ATHEIST community.
surewhynotlem@lemmy.world 2 weeks agoWhen a person believes in a religion, they have trained their brains to ignore part of reality. Once you’ve trained your brain to do that, manipulative people can more easily abuse your brain into thinking other incorrect things.
And that’s how you get MAGA
So the purpose is less about evangelizing atheism, and more about fixing other people’s brains for the betterment of society.
blarghly@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
the_crotch@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Every religion thinks they’re “fixing” people by evangelizing
surewhynotlem@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Maybe. But the scientific method and logic are provably functional. You see a thing, you replicate the thing, you can then do more things.
So it’s not a huge stretch to say that getting people to follow those methods is an improvement.
blarghly@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
No one uses the scientific method in their day to day lives. This includes all scientists, and atheists. The rationalists tried this, and their conclusion was
(1) Psychological research shows that using heuristics is what we do 90% of the time. This is an evolutionary preference that is more or less baked in, as rational though requires much more time and energy.
(2) Using rational thought for day to day tasks or important life decisions is indistinguishable from the control - ie, giving a shit and trying.
(3) Even people dedicated to seeking truth as fully as possible are highly susceptible to cognitive biases. Eg, the placebo effect still works even when you know about the placebo effect and know you are taking a placebo.
(4) When people don’t take a moral stance to seek truth at the expense of their deepest beliefs, they tend to use rationality to reinforce their existing beliefs.
(5) Research shows that you change people’s minds by being friendly and supportive and showing that your worldview and lifestyle lead to good outcomes. Logical refutation of people’s beliefs tends to just make them dig their heels in more. This is why missionaries dig wells in impoverished nations.
(6) Communal/tribal ties are far stronger than logic. If everyone you know and identify with believes something, you will almost certainly also believe that thing, even if presented with clear evidence to the contrary.
(7) Religious people are perfectly capable of being intelligent and rational. There are many highly successful religious people, including in engineering and hard sciences. In fact, being religious seems to have numerous practical benefits in multiple aspects of life, from having a community to being more successful in your career to having a general sense of well being.
(8) Trying to form an identity around feelings of persecution for your not-religion was pretty cringy and we all regret it.
the_crotch@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
That really depends on how they follow them. For example, eugenics is scientifically sound. It’s morally depraved in practice, but the scientific method doesn’t account for ethics.
surewhynotlem@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Is it though? Time and again it’s been shown that having a very wide basic genetic options is the healthiest for a species. Evolution favors adaptability.
Now if you’re talking about weeding out and genetic issues, diseases, and known problems, yes. We do that today.