Believing in germs has a pretty big effect, yet most people have no problem believing in germs (or atoms, or electricity, or the Earth moving around the sun). All they need is a couple of scientists to say “there are these invisible things that cause disease” and they’re perfectly happy to believe the scientists.
It may be that scientists themselves had trouble believing in continental drift or germs when they were first introduced, but we’re not talking about scientists here; we’re talking about everyday people who get their knowledge from authorities. Everyday people have no trouble believing in germs or atom bombs when told by an authority, and evolution isn’t any more absurd-sounding than those. They only think evolution “sounds absurd” because it contradicts their religion.
A lot of those average people also have no problem believing that homeopathy or acupuncture works. Part of the problem of evolution is that’s in direct competition with other models of explaining the world. It’s perfectly possible for the average person to believe in Germs causing disease and in bad chi causing it which is to be treated via acupuncture.
This is perfectly true. But it doesn’t much matter, because the point here is that when these people reject the idea of evolution, for these kind of reasons, they use feelings of “absurdity” as a metric—without critically assessing the reasons why they feel that way.
The point here isnt that the lady was using sound and rational reasoning skills. The contention is that her style of reasoning was something a rationalist shouldn’t want to use—and that it was something the author no longer wants to use in their own thinking.
The point was to compare a religious believer saying “evolution sounds absurd” to a rationalist saying “talking snakes sound absurd”. But the situations are not comparable. The religious believer only claims that evolution sounds absurd because he applies different standards for absurdity to things that contradict his religion and things which don’t. The rationalist claims that talking snakes sound absurd using consistent standards (though not the same standards as the religious believer).
Believing in germs has a pretty big effect, yet most people have no problem believing in germs (or atoms, or electricity, or the Earth moving around the sun). All they need is a couple of scientists to say “there are these invisible things that cause disease” and they’re perfectly happy to believe the scientists.
It may be that scientists themselves had trouble believing in continental drift or germs when they were first introduced, but we’re not talking about scientists here; we’re talking about everyday people who get their knowledge from authorities. Everyday people have no trouble believing in germs or atom bombs when told by an authority, and evolution isn’t any more absurd-sounding than those. They only think evolution “sounds absurd” because it contradicts their religion.
A lot of those average people also have no problem believing that homeopathy or acupuncture works. Part of the problem of evolution is that’s in direct competition with other models of explaining the world. It’s perfectly possible for the average person to believe in Germs causing disease and in bad chi causing it which is to be treated via acupuncture.
This is perfectly true. But it doesn’t much matter, because the point here is that when these people reject the idea of evolution, for these kind of reasons, they use feelings of “absurdity” as a metric—without critically assessing the reasons why they feel that way.
The point here isnt that the lady was using sound and rational reasoning skills. The contention is that her style of reasoning was something a rationalist shouldn’t want to use—and that it was something the author no longer wants to use in their own thinking.
The point was to compare a religious believer saying “evolution sounds absurd” to a rationalist saying “talking snakes sound absurd”. But the situations are not comparable. The religious believer only claims that evolution sounds absurd because he applies different standards for absurdity to things that contradict his religion and things which don’t. The rationalist claims that talking snakes sound absurd using consistent standards (though not the same standards as the religious believer).