N.Wells
Posts: 1836
Joined: Oct. 2005
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| Quote (Cubist @ June 22 2014,15:48) | | Some Creationists have value because their misconceptions/lies/errors/effluvia provoke competent, educated people to provide valuable responses when correcting said misconceptions/lies/errors/effluvia. Gaulin, however, is a horse of a different gear ratio; his misconceptions/lies/errors/effluvia are wrong on such an elementary level that there's damn near zero value in correcting Gaulin's many (many, many) misconceptions/lies/errors/effluvia. I suppose Gaulin serves as a near-ideal type specimen of This Is Your Brain On Creationism, but other than that largely-gratuitous 'benefit'… |
I disagree. The question of how to get people who have totally bought into a mistaken belief to change their minds is a really interesting one. Logic, data, peer pressure, arguments from authority, gentle but persistent persuasion, maximally in-your-face-arguments, ridicule, destruction of their arguments, focussing on their mistakes? Gary is interesting in that he is smart enough to see through most creationist BS and to write complicated computer programs, and he is not in this because of religious beliefs or political convictions but because he is trying to pursue his ideas along primarily intellectually justified lines, even if in completely incompetent and wrong-headed ways. He doesn't seem to be in this because he wants eternal reward or fears divine punishment, so we don't have the deliberate "lying for Jesus" complications that are so often encountered among the better-informed creationists. He's self-blinkered for different reasons: his self-image is totally dependent on his ideas and his importance, and he's convinced himself of a holistic "explanation" that is so obvious for him that he can't see when his words don't say what he means and he can't understand when people disagree with him or don't grasp his ideas.
Also, yes, I know, http://xkcd.com/386............386
:)
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