Why Respecting Others' Beliefs Is Bad

Fans of people getting along with each other, and fans of the subjective will often state that we should respect each other's beliefs. While I'm sure most of these people are well-motivated, those of us that prefer scientific discussion and objectivity often find ourselves in a different place. We don't want people getting into a "who can shout louder" contest, but we do wish to acknowledge that beliefs, whether trivial or important, often conflict, and that honest, rational dialogue often requires us to say that someone else is wrong.

In an effort to foster pleasant, rational discourse, then, we often will advocate the following approach: be respectful of the person you are talking to, but do not require yourself to be at all respectful of what they believe. Conversely, of course, people should not require their own beliefs to be respected by the person they are speaking to. For a more concrete example, suppose someone in your family is addicted to alcohol. Are you then required to respect alcoholism as a reasonable lifestyle? Of course not. It is also worth noting that even if alcoholism is stupid, intelligent people can and do allow themselves to fall victim to it. It is with this context in mind, and with great respect for the people I am talking to, that I sometimes show great disdain for their beliefs.

Disney World Is Fake Boobs

It is fun/pretty but very plastic and fake.

Miami beach, on the other hand, is real boobs. Literally. There were a bunch of topless girls. Isn't that illegal in the US? Shrug. I don't think it should be, but I don't really care either way if there are boobs around. Garnering further proof that I'm a 5-year-old, I was more interested in the water park and Go Karts.

I'm talking, of course, about my trip to Florida. You can see pictures here, but for those of you too lazy to click I give you my favourite, the multi-level Go Kart track:

Florida

I'm going to Florida for a week!

Wish me luck.

Hunger, Iraq, And Conspiracy

How much would it be worth to you to eliminate starvation and malnutrition and educate every child on Earth? I saw this wonderfully thought-provoking piece, and paying particular attention to pages 4 and 9, realized that some simple calculations were in order:

456bn / 1.2 = 380bn dollars per year spent on gas by Americans

(54bn + 30bn) / 380bn = 0.22

In other words, if America was to pay 22% more for gas than they do now, they could feed every hungry person and educate every child. In the entire world.

In the interests of full disclosure, I've never been one to advocate throwing food at the hungry, primarily for reasons of sustainable development. And Americans might object that if they had that kind of money kicking around, they'd prefer to use it for something else. But the thing is, they did have that kind of money, and they used it to fight a war that is in some ways an even bigger failure than Vietnam. About the only LESS defensible choice of how to use that money would have been to actively finance terrorism themselves.

And while I'm on THAT topic, a note to all the 9/11 conspiracy theorist people: mostly, you're nuts, mostly, your theories are obviously flawed, and mostly, I don't like encouraging you. Having said that, here's what I would look at if I was into such things: I have read that Osama bin Laden has publicly stated that he wants to financially bleed America dry by provoking a war. I have read that there are documented connections between the Bushes and the bin Ladens, specifically that both have had ties to the Carlyle Group. I have now read that Bush will likely spend $456 billion or more on the war. I have read that much of this money has gone to companies like the Carlyle Group and Halliburton.

Assuming that all of these are accurate, and putting it all together, we find that as a result of this war, George W. and Cheney either personally profit or can make their old friends personally profit, Osama bin Laden gets to advance his goal of financially ruining America, and their families are downright chummy. It's all a bit convenient.

Please note that the above conspiracy theory was authored at 3:00am and is largely unconsidered. I will not be shocked if it has huge flaws in it.

How Ordinary Germans Became Nazis

A very interesting, intelligent, and as far as I can tell, honest account.

Why Smart People Believe Stupid Things

Call me an egotistical bastard, but I've always had a reasonably high opinion of my own intelligence. I have also tended to believe that certain (quite common) beliefs are so obviously logically wrong that a child can often tell.

As an example, many people believe in a "perfect", all-powerful God that doesn't want us to suffer. The problem with this is that by any remotely normal set of definitions, a perfect being that didn't want us to suffer would immediately and permanently remove all suffering from existence.

Having said that, I am not sufficiently conceited to make claims like "Nobody who believes that is smarter than me." Obviously, I have been wrong about important things, and so has everybody else. This leaves anyone remotely humble with an obvious question: How can someone who is generally intelligent believe things that seem obviously stupid?

At first, it may be tempting to write it off to a lack of knowledge about the situation. But if it was that simple, a simple conversation between two intelligent people of conflicting beliefs would result in the two of them leaving with the same beliefs. So, there must be something else.

The answer hit me when religious people started getting inordinately offended by simple logical discussion. If you haven't happened to notice, people are very emotionally attached to their beliefs. This is somewhat understandable; when you put someone in the situation of choosing between "still on track for eternal bliss" or "the last 7 years of my life have been wasted worshipping a fantasy", it is easy to see why there might be emotional attachment. The corresponding problem, however, is that people allow their emotions to take over, and refuse to allow their brains at the problem.

I suspect this effect happens to people of all belief systems to some degree, but I also suspect that atheists and agnostics experience it less due to the lack of a strong reward in their beliefs.

Facebook

Yes, Facebook is cool for finding people you haven't talked to in a few years etc, but how many of the people on your list do you actually talk to THROUGH FACEBOOK? By my estimation, maybe 10%. Maybe. The rest of its appeal seems to stem from affirmation, vaguely stalker-ish status watching, and the occasional shared media. Is it worth having an account? Sure. Is it a haven for posers? I'm gonna say yes.

In the interests of full disclosure, I have added several people to my list that I haven't conversed with, so I am at least partially to blame. In my defense, when in Rome...