"Tesla" scam.

[dsm363]

As much as I'd like to comment, I'm not sure getting into a religious discussion is the best idea, even in an off topic area. This never turns out well.

[jerry33]

As much as I'd like to comment, we really shouldn't be getting into a religious discussion, even in an off topic area. This never turns out well.

Agreed. Sorry for the off-topic post.

[daniel]

Some people NEED faith in something. Some need to believe...

Believing something because you feel a need to believe, rather than because there's evidence for that belief, is the opposite of critical thinking. Critical thinking pushes belief towards evidence. Religion serves many useful social purposes, but it is the opposite of critical thinking because it teaches that knowledge comes from mystical experiences (often someone else's claimed mystical experiences) or old books rather than from evidence.

It's relevant because the thought processes that allow people to accept religious beliefs are exactly the same processes that allow people to believe in medical scams and free-energy scams. Once you accept that there is a "spiritual" world that is more real than the physical world, then homeopathy and acupuncture and perpetual motion machines make sense and the physical laws that exclude them become irrelevant because they rely on "spiritual forces" rather than physical ones.

Evidence is how we learn about the world. Once you reject evidence, you become vulnerable to every sort of scam.

The Catholic Church was a great patron of science. Right up until science began to contradict church dogma. The Roman church accepts more of science than the evangelical and charismatic churches do, but all of them still assert that their own dogma is more valid than any scientific findings that happen to contradict that dogma, and this is a rejection of critical thinking. They all demand uncritical acceptance of their particular beliefs, which vary from one to another.

There are, of course, exceptions. The Unitarian Universalist Church has no dogma. And there are some churches that read their scriptures as allegory, and have no problem accepting evidence. But most still promote beliefs that a neutral observer would regard as irrational, and base those beliefs on an unquestioning and uncritical acceptance of a "spiritual" world that interacts with the physical world in ways that cannot be tested or measured or influenced by physical means. And they accept those ideas because they feel a "need to believe," rather than because they fit any available evidence.

[NigelM]

Maybe the title of this thread should be changed to "Daniel's Blog".....

[daniel]