[ExI] Why is there Anti-Intellectualism? (re: Atheism as somehow different than other religions)

[Mirco Romanato]

Il 24/12/2009 22.14, jameschoate at austin.rr.com ha scritto:
> http://www.uwgb.edu/dutchs/PSEUDOSC/WhyAntiInt.htm1
>
> "Unsatisfied curiosity is nagging, and there is a sense of comfort
> and relief when it's satisfied. Carl Sagan related how dissatisfied
> people were when he answered that he did not know whether there were
> extraterrestrial civilizations. People kept pressing him "But what do
> you think?" The ability to accept uncertainty requires extraordinary
> intellectual discipline. Medieval maps were full of spurious details
> simply because their makers couldn't tolerate blank spaces. There is
> abundant evidence that most people prefer the appearance of immediate
> certainty to the existence of uncertainty, even if uncertainty
> carries with it the certainty of getting closer to the truth later.
> Many people prefer religions that promise theological certainty, even
> if based on demonstrably spurious reasoning, rather than a religion
> that reasons soundly but accepts uncertainty or ambiguity. Having
> acquired a feeling of certainty, people naturally resist any attempt
> to re-open inquiry, because it will require effort and because it
> will subject them anew to that nagging feeling of uncertainty."


Anti-intellectualism is, here, regarded as something inherently wrong. 
It is described as the will to not think about some unsatisfied or 
unsatisfiable curiosity. The description appear as "If they don't think 
like I like, they are stupid and anti-intellectual".

 From what appear, the anti-intellectualism is more pronounced inside 
the social domain. The unwashed masses don't like social, moral, 
ethical, political and often economics intellectualism, where I find 
very few people having problem with hard science and technological 
intellectualism.

The reason common people distrust intellectualism and intellectuals in 
social matter is their propensity for believing silly apparently novel 
ideas and their eagerness to experiment with them using the common 
people hides. This is a new phenomenon, as until a few decades ago, 
intellectuals were kept in high consideration from all stratas of 
society. Under we could have a reason for this.

Clever Sillies - Why the high IQ lack common sense
http://medicalhypotheses.blogspot.com/2009/11/clever-sillies-why-high-iq-lack-common.html

After many decades of intellectualism, the common people have developed 
(evolved?) a healthy distrust of the intellectuals, mainly of the social 
intellectuals. In the future this distrust will probably grow stronger, 
as we will reap the fruits of many silly ideas implemented as policies.

Mirco
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