April 24, 2009
Creationists and Tax Protestors: A Study in Crackpottery
Some folks have taken issue with my use of the word “insane” to describe young-earth creationism (“YEC”); the view that the Earth — in fact, the entire universe! — is 6,000 years old. I try to run a polite, respectful ship here, but I honestly don’t know of another word to describe this kind of belief. To put this into perspective, here are a few everyday things that a young-earther thinks are older than the known universe:
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Bayes’ Theorem and the Argument from Design
Mark Reid has a great article up analyzing the Argument from Design using Bayes’ theorem. The focus is not on whether the Argument from Design is true, but rather explaining how one’s evaluation of Argument from Design depends upon prior beliefs about the supernatural generally. His conclusion validates that:
Bayesianism therefore has an explanation of why religious folk are more ready to accept the argument by design than skeptics.
The whole article is definitely worth a read.
Pareidolia: It’s Not Just For Christians
Mohammed on a fish, Allah in an eggplant, and more. Interestingly, since Islam forbids iconographic representations, their pareidolia generally takes the form of arabic script (as in the link).
There’s a serious point here, too: our experiences are shaped by our expectations. It’s why near-death experiences reflect the cultural traditions of the patient, for example.
