Posted on 07/21/2023 8:35:13 AM PDT by bitt
"As a rule, I have found that the greater brain a man has, and the better educated, the easier it has been to mystify him."
So said master illusionist Harry Houdini. He said it during his spat with Sherlock Holmes’ creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle over the latter’s belief in seances and fairies. Despite being a literary genius, Conan Doyle nevertheless had some foolish ideas.
He’s not alone. Researchers have even coined ‘Nobel Disease,’ referring to the tendency for some Nobel Prize winners to embrace unconventional beliefs. Charles Richet, for instance, won the 1913 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine but also believed in dowsing and ghosts.
Taken to the extreme, almost half of all German doctors in the 1930s joined the Nazi Party early, which was a higher rate than any other profession. Their education and intelligence did not shield them from madness – quite the opposite.
We are all deluged with attempts to manipulate us, from Big Tech and politicians to salespeople and colleagues. It is comforting to think that this is only a concern for the less intellectually gifted: we conjure up stereotypes of backwards ‘conspiracy theorists’ and ‘science deniers’ who need protecting from misinformation.
Yet the reality is that intellectuals are just as vulnerable to bias, if not more so. The scientific term is dysrationalia. Psychology professor Keith Stanovich researched it thoroughly and once concluded that ‘none of these [biases] displayed a negative correlation with [intelligence]… If anything, the correlations went in the other direction.’
Why might that be?
The first explanation is motivated reasoning, where logic is used to satisfy an underlying emotional motivation. Conan Doyle, for example, may have convinced himself of the truth of fairies and seances because he was struggling with the recent death of his son. With a deep psychological need to fill, Conan Doyle’s remarkable intellect simply provided the justification.
People reach the conclusions they want to reach, and then post-rationalise it – but smarter people are better at coming up with these justifications. To paraphrase George Orwell, some things are so absurd that only an intellectual could believe them.
...more
Agreed
ouch
Ilive in central Indiana.
You can dig a hole about anywhere and have a pond if you go down about 10 feet.
I think you nailed it.
"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge;
Fools despise wisdom and instruction." (Proverbs 1:7)
Socrates could not have said it better.
-PJ
Because they have NO common sense.
:)
Proverbs 4:4-10:
“He taught me also, and said unto me, Let thine heart retain my words: keep my commandments, and live. Get wisdom, get understanding: forget it not; neither decline from the words of my mouth. Forsake her not, and she shall preserve thee: love her, and she shall keep thee. Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding. Exalt her, and she shall promote thee: she shall bring thee to honour, when thou dost embrace her. She shall give to thine head an ornament of grace: a crown of glory shall she deliver to thee. Hear, O my son, and receive my sayings; and the years of thy life shall be many.”
I worked with a lot of smart people at that church organization
Couldn’t read the signs of the times for anything
They embraced liberal doctrines
They often rejected fundamentalist ways and readings
They often embraced liberal agendas and people like Manchurian Candidate Barack Hussein Obama
They rejected Scripture and virtually never mentioned it in company church meetings
My effeminate boss really hated me
And there is a hatred of the spirit of the Lord in you.
2 Corinthians 2:15-16:
15 “For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish:
16 To the one we are the savour of death unto death; and to the other the savour of life unto life. And who is sufficient for these things?”
I saw a couple get animated, physical, especially when I mentioned Scriptures.
And yes my effeminate boss.
I was being cancelled. And still experiencing it.
Please be in prayer - this happened last night - I may need angelic protection
https://freerepublic.com/focus/chat/4169896/posts?page=22#22
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Prayers up Ferris! The level of insanity and perversion is unbearable.
Thank you and God bless you
🛐🙏✝️
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