The Unbelievable 'Truth'

Thursday this week saw our 4th event when over 50 people came along to The White Horse to see Stephen Law talk about why perfectly sane people can come to 'believe bullshit'.

Stephen contends that if we are not careful it is easy to get sucked into wacky belief systems, what he calls 'intellectual black holes', due to the mechanisms used by proponents of such nonsense.  At this talk Stephen chose to focus on the example of Young Earth Creationism (YEC) and the 'Because It Fits!' mechanism.

YEC believers claim that the Earth is only 6,000 or so years old, all species were created in a few days, that the Noah's Ark story is true. They also believe that the theory of evolution is false and can be proved to be so.  Stephen quoted a survey that 46% of Americans believe in YEC and that 19% of UK students had been taught YEC as fact in schools. 

When confronted with the problem of the fossil record (dinosaurs and humans are not found together in the same geological layer and so cannot have lived at the same time) people like Ken Ham  claim, amongst other things, that the more stupid animals drown first and so were the first in the fossil record and the more intelligent animals were able to survive longer and so were laid down later in the fossil record. They also state that radiometric dating is unreliable. 

Stephen claims that it is possible to construct any 'theory' to fit the available evidence.  He showed this by constructing a 'theory' that dogs were spies from the planet Venus intend on invading Earth. The main message was that Science is not about constructing and endlessly gerrymandering your 'theory' so that it fits the evidence.  Just because your 'theory' fits the evidence does not mean that the theory has been confirmed.  Stephen explained the essential criteria for a proper theory.

Stephen pointed out that what followers of YEC think is it's strength: that it makes no firm predictions and is, therefore, hard to discredit - is actually it's greatest weakness. Real science takes risks, the risks of being proved wrong.

Stephen went on to explain that anyone who does not share the views of YEC is regarded as having a 'perceptual deficit'.  They are unable to see the truth due to sin.  However, the idea of 'perceptual deficit' applies equally to many other belief systems such as a believe in the ideas of Freud where those who don't believe cannot see the truth due to their unconscious and thus need Freudian therapy to cure them.  Equally, Stephen cited Marxism explaining that anyone who could not see the full truth of Marx's theory as obviously blinded by bourgeois thinking. 

So how to tackle such thinking? Stephen thinks that a 'head on attack' is fruitless. Anyone inhabiting a 'Black Hole' belief system will have constructed, or had constructed for them, answers that will justify those ideas to themselves.  The best approach is to get them to think about how they think.  If you can use the example of another belief system that you both hold to be false and then point out the similarities between that system and their own and ask "What's so different about the way you think?"

In closing, Stephen explained that it is also important that we look at our own beliefs, however rational and evidence based we may think they are, and ask if we have applied the same rigour in reaching them that we demand of others.

After a short break Stephen took questions.  One punter asked if the use of the phrase 'bullshit' was too flippant and played down the disastrous consequences following such ideas can have?  Stephen thought it wasn't and was well aware that some of this 'bullshit' could end the world. He cited President Reagan, a man with his finger on the nuclear button, consulting astrologers.  Another audience member asked if the term 'theory' was bandied about so much that just about anyone could claim to have a theory. But the true scientific definition of theory is lost on most of the general public. 

Stephen's talk only touched on a few aspects of the ideas expanded on in his book 'Believing Bullshit - How Not To Get Sucked Into An Intellectual Black Hole'.

Stephen's also has a blog and can be followed on Twitter - @stephenlaw60 

Want help spotting dodgy belief systems?  Here's Stephen's 'Field Guide To Bullshit' 

(Above) - Video of Stephen speaking about 'Bullshit' at the British Humanist Association Conference in 2011.

So another stimulating night drew to a close and our audience made their way home.

Please do join us again on Thursday 21st March - 7 for 7:30 at The White Horse when Dr.Andy Russell will be taking about Climate Change & Skepticism.