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~zampano

Thanks for the thoughts!

I understand where the stereotype comes from, definitely, and think your guesses are correct. I just don't think that should be our default; sort of a variation of "assume good faith." But where I object is where there's an assumption that poverty, and even a lower-than-average IQ, correlate to a lack of curiosity and thus a lack of knowledge. I just dislike treating people as inferior in some way without specific evidence that they need the extra "help" (i.e. need a simpler vocabulary to be used in our communications with them).

For science: I didn't mean to suggest that science has failed in its stated purpose, but I think too often it gets used for things it's not intended to do, like a replacement for the spiritual part of our lives. This doesn't have to be religious, but we have to recognize that there's plenty that science can't tell us about the world and/or our places in it. The tl;dr is that people need to read some Hume. But in slightly more words, science can only do what science can do, and we forget the uncertainty involved to our peril. And that's without getting into things like the replication crisis striking some disciplines, or the very real politicization of the whole thing. As for trustworthiness, I'm generally inclined to trust scientists' motives, but sometimes things happen that make me wonder. Cf. that recent instance of a vape manufacturer buying up an entire issue of a scientific journal. The profit motive corrupts once again.

For religion: I don't think the ultimate truth is actually the issue. For now, at least, we won't know the truth of our beliefs until we join the choir invisible, but that doesn't mean its effects on our lives aren't very real. It ties into my discussion of science in that there are aspects of ourselves that we need religion or spirituality to nurture, even if that just means going for a hike and enjoying unspoiled nature without over-analyzing it from time to time. I'm very much a "big tent" person when it comes to religious beliefs, and I'm not convinced we're all called by the Divine to believe the same thing (or at the least, we're given the freedom to interpret our experiences differently).

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~tiernan wrote (thread):

Those are some good points.

Do you have the link to the vape manufacturer issue? That seems like something I'd like to read about.