[ExI] Rationality and Irrationality

[Samantha Atkins]

On Dec 18, 2007, at 7:45 PM, spike wrote:

>> bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf Of Kevin Freels
> ...
>>> 1. Perhaps this is caused by lack of emphasis on science education?
>>>
>> My kids have learned all about global warming. In 1st grade my  
>> daughter
>> was scared to death that we were going to die when the planet died.  
>> Why
>> teach a kid this?...
>
> Kevin this is one of the most important lessons your daughter will  
> receive:
> healthy skepticism.  First grade now, so she's about six.

The trouble is the "program" is not taught with any room for  
skepticism.  It is taught the same way Jesuits taught religion, young  
and integrated into as much as possible.  It is taught along with  
ABCs.   This is a crime imho.

> Ten years from
> now when kids gain the capacity for critical thinking, she will find  
> that
> the beach is still in the same place as it was when she was six.

This you do not know.

>
>> ... What we need to teach more of is critical thinking...
>
> Although perhaps not the intended lesson, your daughter's teachers did
> exactly that.
>

No.  She taught a dogma to a defenseless mind.  And I say that as  
someone who believes GW is real and dangerous.  But I don't believe it  
is predominantly caused by human activity or that curtailing certain  
human activities is an adequate or even doable way to address it.

- samantha