Part of it is that. But it also that someone could be so divorced from modern science that it wouldn’t occur to them that earth varies in nature. Or that they hadn’t heard that water is hydrogen and oxygen. Or if they have heard that, they didn’t try to reconcile it at all with the claim about water being elemental. The notion that there are people out there who are that uncritical not for any motivated reason (as some religious individuals are) but out of simply humdrum everyday lack of thinking. And that such people would then go on to teach other people?
I guess I shouldn’t have found this as disturbing as I did. But I generally have a low opinion of humans, and it seems like no matter how cynical or pessimistic I am, I’m sill surprised by their behavior.
Part of it is that. But it also that someone could be so divorced from modern science that it wouldn’t occur to them that earth varies in nature. Or that they hadn’t heard that water is hydrogen and oxygen. Or if they have heard that, they didn’t try to reconcile it at all with the claim about water being elemental. The notion that there are people out there who are that uncritical not for any motivated reason (as some religious individuals are) but out of simply humdrum everyday lack of thinking. And that such people would then go on to teach other people?
I guess I shouldn’t have found this as disturbing as I did. But I generally have a low opinion of humans, and it seems like no matter how cynical or pessimistic I am, I’m sill surprised by their behavior.