Judy: > Actually, quite a few very interesting things happened > world-peace-wise back when the numbers were high--the > fall of the Berlin Wall, for example. Could have been > just coincidence, of course, but a number of promising > events took place around the world during this period > that took analysts by surprise and for which they had > trouble finding an explanation.
It is more than just that it COULD have been coincidence. No causality was proven. It was just asserted. What they attempted to prove with statistical maneuvering is simultaneity. But they claim much more because people get confused about the difference between the two. > > The interesting thing is how hard non-TMers have worked > to attempt to debunk the various studies that have been > done on the positive effects of the big World Peace > Assemblies. One might almost wonder if *they* were the > ones wrestling with cognitive dissonance. It takes nothing to "debunk" this type of claim. The claimed benefit is too vague, so of course some "better" things happened during any period of time. It is a classic case of preying on our lack of intuition dealing with statistical matters. To see through this attempt at grandiose claims isn't due to cognitive dissonance. It is due to our familiarity with the nature of such bloated claims about the magical special power of a small group of people. It is on the same level of a group of people praying for someone they don't know or who doesn't know they are being prayed for. If you shift from the claims and the world back to the believer we know a lot about the nature of such beliefs. We have many groups to study and we have learned a lot about them in the last few decades. Humans have this cognitive flaw that they find it pretty easy to believe claims about their special superiority. Especially today when it is couched in sciency sounding language. We also know how stubborn people get once they have latched onto such a belief. Panaceas for the the whole wide world! All problems solved with NO effort! And WE are the ones solving all the problems by doing NOTHING! I was born at night, but it wasn't last night. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "authfriend" <jstein@...> wrote: > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, turquoiseb <no_reply@> wrote: > > > > Being a big fan of the book "When Prophecy Fails," I love > > days like today, when True Believers all over the world > > awaken to find not the Rapture they were hoping and > > praying for > > So how many "days like today" have you experienced, and > when was the most recent before this one? > > Also, just for the record, no believers awakened this > morning to find that the Rapture had not occurred. They > knew it before they went to bed last night. > > (Editorial note: Writerly flourishes tend to be a lot > more effective when they don't contradict the known facts. > If they do, readers quickly realize you're writing for > yourself, not for them, and it lessens their investment > in whatever point you wanted to make.) > > <snip> > > This should be a familiar pattern to everyone who has > > followed the ever-changing "magic numbers" necessary for > > TMSP butt-bouncers to bring about world peace. First it > > was one set of numbers, and they were achieved and damn! > > -- no world peace. > > Actually, I don't believe the specified numbers were > ever achieved on the sustained basis necessary to usher > in world peace. The "Taste of Utopia" course in '83, for > example, which did hit the prescribed numbers, lasted > only three weeks. > > > The solution was obvious. Not enough butt-bouncers, so the > > "magic number" was raised. And achieved. > > Not achieved, actually. > > > And still nothing happened, world-peace-wise. > > Actually, quite a few very interesting things happened > world-peace-wise back when the numbers were high--the > fall of the Berlin Wall, for example. Could have been > just coincidence, of course, but a number of promising > events took place around the world during this period > that took analysts by surprise and for which they had > trouble finding an explanation. > > The interesting thing is how hard non-TMers have worked > to attempt to debunk the various studies that have been > done on the positive effects of the big World Peace > Assemblies. One might almost wonder if *they* were the > ones wrestling with cognitive dissonance. >
