Fool Yourself
“The first principle is that you must not fool yourself—and you are the easiest person to fool.” — Richard Feynman
In our current age, we rely a lot on science, which is meant to be our modern, secularized civilization’s salvation against the sin of religious faith. People have noticed this tendency and its odd resemblance to religion, and hence we have the term for the profession of faith in the totems of Reason and Science: Scientism.
As humans, we are prone to believing in lots of things. And as living creatures, we spend a lot of our time trying to conserve energy, much of which is consumed by our disproportionately large human brains. Thinking is costly, so we avoid it when and wherever possible, preferring shortcuts instead.
Our modern societies prefer Science over Religion. Religion is considered unfashionable by modern elites, because it evokes images of the irrational over the scientific. It is thought to know nothing about data, to take the lack of evidence for unimportant, and to enjoy the appeal of comforting thoughts as sufficient. As humans, we are consistently on the lookout for comforting thoughts. We need all of them we can get. They make life so much more enjoyable than worry and mental anguish. Besides, what have those two done for us lately? Anything useful?
The problem is that science, if pursued as something more than a replacement belief, requires a lot of thought and endless questioning. A scientific explanation is temporary: it will eventually be replaced with something better. Until that time, it must undergo constant testing, questioning, and challenge. It will be good enough, but only temporarily. In the meantime, some of its proponents and fans will take this temporary belief to be truth in the most dogmatic sense. They will dismiss the mere suggestion of challenge, because to them the idea of science is itself a religious dogma. Without realizing it, they will be treating a scientific theory like religion, which is so much easier and more comforting to do.
Our minds want to help us live in comfort, in a place where thought isn’t engaged in without absolute necessity, or else replaced by certitude. That is where scientists fool themselves (and at some level, we’re all scientists). That’s how scientists become advocates for an idea rather than people exploring nature.
I drove over to rural Greenfield yesterday to visit with Pam's parents. Janet has a 2nd (followup) blood test today, then a visit in two weeks with a Dr. The Dr. believes she has some form of leukemia, but is running extra tests (Pam had leukemia).
Janet is in good spirits, grinning a lot. When she grins I can tell Pam was her daughter, same facial expressions. Two jokes from our conversation
"One benefit of leukemia as a cancer is that it is mostly painless, it primarily makes you more tired. I'd say you'd sleep more, but is that possible with you"? She grinned at that. I told Bob that drugs like Gleevac have multiple documented cases of allowing patients taking it to live another 11 years. He said that'd be great, her pacemaker only has 13 years left on the warranty. She grinned at that as well. Bob announced instead of finding her a retirement home he's trying to get her into prison: cheaper, and just as good".
Later in the afternoon, between two naps (she nods off regularly) Janet asked me "Pam never really had a chance, did she"? This was after the Gleevac comment, which wasn't to market before Pam died.
On the trip home I pulled into Walnut Ridge, and drove past her gravestone. I got out, and looked at it for a minute. Someone earlier in the winter had let some flowers. My daffodil I planted fall 2022 hasn't appeared yet, but perhaps the ground is too cold (or a squirrel ate it).
Maybe my brain is foggy because I spend too much time thinking about things! Thank you, Marque. I know I’m not here very often lately, and it’s always a pleasant place compared to a lot of the online conversations lately.
I’ve tried to avoid saying too much in the TD comments sections, but occasionally I’ve gotten pulled in, especially now that everyone is arguing over why we must vote for Biden! People have become extremely disagreeable as they try to insult others into “doing the right thing.”