Jeff Ricker wrote:
> After I sent this, I realized that what we would really want
> to answer is the question of why most humans have such beliefs. There are
at least two
> answers: (1) there really is such a transcendent realm (and the evidence
for it cannot
> often be obtained from the natural world); (2) there is an extraordinarily
strong
> motivation in most humans to develop false beliefs about such a realm.
What Ken sees as
> intellectual laziness when thinking about the paranormal, I see as a
rational lack of
> motivation to investigate possibilities other than the transcendent ones:
if one
> accepts such beliefs, then supernatural explanations for certain phenomena
appear
> obvious (and often desirable). And what Paul sees as the corruptive
influence (I hope I am
> not putting words in his mouth) of the mass media, I see as the mere
reflection of
> what is commonly accepted by the majority of people.
"Corruptive influence" fits my intent reasonably well. But of course I did
not mean to imply that influence to be solely responsible for the
persistence of belief in the supernatural (were that so, a test would be
very easy to set up). I believe that there is a "extraordinarily strong
motivation in most humans to develop false beliefs about such a realm". But
I don't think that motivation is specific to this kind of belief, nor is it
internal to the person (ala the sometimes purported need for religious
belief). Instead, I suspect it's simply one manifestation of the motivation
to belong to a group. Spirituality is a _very_ pervasive value in U.S.
culture, and few people are likely to willingly marginalize themselves by
rejecting paranormal beliefs in general.
I also don't think there's any undue "intellectual laziness" involved. Our
mental abilities are selected for their effectiveness at keeping our genes
in the gene pool, and there's a LOT of self-delusion required for that. :)
It's easy to slip into the belief that our mental abilities are designed to
produce true beliefs, but that's only true as long as those true beliefs
help us pass along our genes. I'm reasonably sure that truth is a relatively
unimportant characteristic, if not an outright liability in that arena. In a
very important sense, "being right" is unnatural.
Paul "Nobody likes a smarty-pants" Smith
Alverno College
Milwaukee
P.S. - I certainly don't mean any of this to be taken as a criticism of the
Harry Potter stuff. I've never read any of it, but I'll bet I would have
were I that age now. If it gets kids reading, great. If it starts their
imaginations going, even better. I watched plenty of cartoons with talking
dogs and mice when I was a kid, and I don't remember ever believing that
dogs or mice could really talk (cats, on the other hand...).
