[ExI] de Waal

[John Clark]

On Sat, Mar 3, 2018 at 12:49 PM, William Flynn Wallace <foozler83 at gmail.com>
wrote:


>
> * ​> ​Let me see some data on how far-out ideas don't change. *
>

Ideas don't get much further out than Christianity, an omnipotent being is
unable to do something, unable to forgive the human race because one of
them ate a apple unless​ they torture His son to death. So answer me this,
do you think this comically stupid idea could have survived for generation
after generation for 2000 years if it was customary for people to receive
no religious instruction before the age of 17? I mean, its already
customary for people to receive no calculus instruction before the age of
17, so why not religion too?


> ​> ​
> *To John - all I meant by free will was that a person could examine his
> beliefs in light of the evidence of his experiences and his reading and
> other sources of information, and change them. *
>

​
That's the scientific method but it doesn't come naturally to us, even
scientists have to struggle to make sure they adhere to it because, unlike
a gene to believe that what adults say is true, Evolution did not provide
us with a scientific method gene and its easy to see why. If I refused to
believe what adults said about which fruits were good to eat and which ones
were poisons and insisted on seeing for myself by eating one strange fruit
after another one by one and noting the physiological effects it had on me
I'd soon end up dead.

John K Clark    ​
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