“It is absolutely safe to say that, if you meet somebody who claims not to believe in evolution, that person is either ignorant, stupid, or insane.”
It’s an interesting characteristic of human language that the word ‘ignorant’, which I find pretty innocuous if used on its own, comes across as a lot harsher when put in the company of ‘stupid’ and ‘insane.’ Some kind of context-building I guess, the brain automatically assuming that the author’s point is simple and uni-faceted.
Obviously, that doesn’t mean that’s the right way to read that sentence, or that it’s constructive to get offended by it. I’m not offended by it now. It’s perfectly possible for one of my friends to be one of those three things and still be a kind, generous, awesome person to hang out with. Maybe I made that distinction less when I was in high school, which is when I read “The God Delusion.”
Come to think of it, I read ‘The God Delusion’ before I’d even heard of Less Wrong, or cognitive biases, or ways in which words could be misinterpreted… I might find it illuminating to read it again.
It’s an interesting characteristic of human language that the word ‘ignorant’, which I find pretty innocuous if used on its own, comes across as a lot harsher when put in the company of ‘stupid’ and ‘insane.’ Some kind of context-building I guess, the brain automatically assuming that the author’s point is simple and uni-faceted.
I think what happens when I read the word in this context is that my brain automatically inserts the word “willfully” before “ignorant.” I mean, it’s trivial to say that, for instance, members of uncontacted tribes are ignorant of evolution, but that’s usually not what people are talking about when they use the word like this.
Yes, interesting point of view. I do remember in my earlier days of reading stuff that at the time was emotional in some way, but now, having re-read it many years later and with (hopefully) more science-based knowledge on-board, seems benign. What was all that fuzz about, really? And really, I think the fuzz was the sound of preconceived and poorly thought-out ideas in my head shredded.
I think the outrage and negativity attached to criticism can be measure in how much you treasure those beliefs. Now that I don’t hold many beliefs at all (I think I can boil them down to some scientific workflow platform), there’s less for me to get upset about. We humans put a strange personal identity on mere ideas, and a critique of ideas are far too often thought of as a critique of the person who holds those beliefs, probably linked to our sense of self.
I think Dawkins and Hitchins (and people like them) have a short way of dealing with stuff that has had a tradition of being dealt with in longer terms. This abrupt and concise way of dealing with issues can have a shocking effect. Sometimes the shock is awakening, other times it can be painful, hurtful and offensive. It comes down to how well we deal with shocks of revelation about our own mind, and many, many people don’t like to face the ugly truth about themselves (which is also why we love herd thinking and the removal of the personal responsibility of our thinking and actions, even when we claim not to do ‘like everybody else.’. Oh yes, you do. :) )
It’s an interesting characteristic of human language that the word ‘ignorant’, which I find pretty innocuous if used on its own, comes across as a lot harsher when put in the company of ‘stupid’ and ‘insane.’ Some kind of context-building I guess, the brain automatically assuming that the author’s point is simple and uni-faceted.
Obviously, that doesn’t mean that’s the right way to read that sentence, or that it’s constructive to get offended by it. I’m not offended by it now. It’s perfectly possible for one of my friends to be one of those three things and still be a kind, generous, awesome person to hang out with. Maybe I made that distinction less when I was in high school, which is when I read “The God Delusion.”
Come to think of it, I read ‘The God Delusion’ before I’d even heard of Less Wrong, or cognitive biases, or ways in which words could be misinterpreted… I might find it illuminating to read it again.
I think what happens when I read the word in this context is that my brain automatically inserts the word “willfully” before “ignorant.” I mean, it’s trivial to say that, for instance, members of uncontacted tribes are ignorant of evolution, but that’s usually not what people are talking about when they use the word like this.
Yes, interesting point of view. I do remember in my earlier days of reading stuff that at the time was emotional in some way, but now, having re-read it many years later and with (hopefully) more science-based knowledge on-board, seems benign. What was all that fuzz about, really? And really, I think the fuzz was the sound of preconceived and poorly thought-out ideas in my head shredded.
I think the outrage and negativity attached to criticism can be measure in how much you treasure those beliefs. Now that I don’t hold many beliefs at all (I think I can boil them down to some scientific workflow platform), there’s less for me to get upset about. We humans put a strange personal identity on mere ideas, and a critique of ideas are far too often thought of as a critique of the person who holds those beliefs, probably linked to our sense of self.
I think Dawkins and Hitchins (and people like them) have a short way of dealing with stuff that has had a tradition of being dealt with in longer terms. This abrupt and concise way of dealing with issues can have a shocking effect. Sometimes the shock is awakening, other times it can be painful, hurtful and offensive. It comes down to how well we deal with shocks of revelation about our own mind, and many, many people don’t like to face the ugly truth about themselves (which is also why we love herd thinking and the removal of the personal responsibility of our thinking and actions, even when we claim not to do ‘like everybody else.’. Oh yes, you do. :) )