My answer to (1) is “This article changed my mind . . .”. Not because I’m entirely convinced of the article’s thesis, but because it provided enough evidence to update my prior about the role of the historical Catholic Church.
I had sort of assumed that would be the consensus definition of “changed my mind” around these parts.
It’s quite possible to have the prior that the Catholic Church was not out to quash science and spread ignorance without knowing most of the arguments of the article.
There are atheists who believe “the pre-modern Catholic Church was opposed to the concept of the Earth orbiting the Sun with the deliberate purpose of hindering scientific progress and to keep the world in ignorance” as their prior belief but I don’t think that’s the prior of a majority of LW. There are reasons why two people called it a strawman.
“it successfully challenged some of the biases I held about it.” has some quality of “I have stopped beating my wife” to it.
Is there a way to edit it? I’m fairly new and inexperienced in the mechanics of this forum.
I guessed that the third option already covered everything not in the first two. I would happily include an “Other” option if it was possible.
No “most of the arguments are already known” doesn’t cover everything. It’s perfectly possible to not know most of those arguments and still not believe that the Catholic Church had the agenda of hindering science and propagating ignorance.
The assumption that everybody who doesn’t know the arguments believes that is baseless.
I also previously believed the case showed that the Catholic church didn’t care much about science, rather than having a consciously anti-science agenda. I believe it had a strong bias towards staying in charge.
The first question really needs an “Other” option in (1). I would guess that for a majority of people on LW neither of the options is accurate.
My answer to (1) is “This article changed my mind . . .”. Not because I’m entirely convinced of the article’s thesis, but because it provided enough evidence to update my prior about the role of the historical Catholic Church.
I had sort of assumed that would be the consensus definition of “changed my mind” around these parts.
The core issue is the prior.
It’s quite possible to have the prior that the Catholic Church was not out to quash science and spread ignorance without knowing most of the arguments of the article.
There are atheists who believe “the pre-modern Catholic Church was opposed to the concept of the Earth orbiting the Sun with the deliberate purpose of hindering scientific progress and to keep the world in ignorance” as their prior belief but I don’t think that’s the prior of a majority of LW. There are reasons why two people called it a strawman.
“it successfully challenged some of the biases I held about it.” has some quality of “I have stopped beating my wife” to it.
Is there a way to edit it? I’m fairly new and inexperienced in the mechanics of this forum. I guessed that the third option already covered everything not in the first two. I would happily include an “Other” option if it was possible.
No “most of the arguments are already known” doesn’t cover everything. It’s perfectly possible to not know most of those arguments and still not believe that the Catholic Church had the agenda of hindering science and propagating ignorance.
The assumption that everybody who doesn’t know the arguments believes that is baseless.
If I remember correctly, unfortunately no.
I also previously believed the case showed that the Catholic church didn’t care much about science, rather than having a consciously anti-science agenda. I believe it had a strong bias towards staying in charge.