The end is nigh

[ashling]

[RKP5637]

1. I often think it's because the STUPID is so great in the US today that they

don't believe in science, because they lack the native intelligence to understand very much. I used to think it was conditioning, but anymore I really think it's hereditary factors at work.

[Kennah]

2. Denial is far easier than acceptance for simple minds

Denial is little more than saying "La-la-la, I am not listening to you."

Acceptance means have to react to and adapt. Accepting that one's lifestyle is going to be seriously impacted for years to come--probably all of them--is depressing if one is tightly connected to the material things.

Climate Change - "Al Gore isn't lying, and he's just as fucked as the rest of us?"
Evolution - "You mean all that fucking money I gave the Church is for shit?"
Math - "You mean Nate Silver was right because he went to school?"

[IDoMath]

3. It's nurture not nature

I know plenty of otherwise intelligent people with advanced degrees, liberal ideologies and intellectual personalities who have no more real understanding of what science is or is about than a Bob Jones U administrator. They accept it as true because they like their toys and advanced health care but if you were to put one of them up against a televangelist in a debate you would not hear science debating religion, you would hear two religions debating. It's pretty easy to turn science into religion or to assimilate pieces of science into religion.

It's not about the level of intellect, it's about applying whatever you have to the right focus.

[RKP5637]

4. Excellent point, especially your last sentence!