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Today's Atheist Meme of the Day:
Our minds are wired by evolution to see intention and patterns, even where none exists. So we have to be careful about assuming that a pattern or intention is really there, just because it seems like it. And that holds for God and religion as much anything else. Pass it on: if we say it enough times to enough people, it may get across.
I'm particularly at risk for this, it seems. So I have to remind myself, I have to write things down, I have to double check, and I have to ask for outside opinions to make sure that the pattern I'm seeing really is a pattern and not pareidolia creeping in to a random happenstance (especially for a small sample size or a short time frame, etc.) and that I'm not falling victim to confirmation bias.
But this seems to be the very basis of supernatural belief. I dreamt it and it came true, therefore I'm psychic. I prayed and it happened, therefore god intervened.
Read "How We Believe" by Michael Shermer, "Why People Believe Weird Things" by Michael Shermer, & "How We Know What Isn't So" by Thomas Gilovich (and pretty much any other book on the Skeptic's Reading Guide over at The Skeptical Pervert).
Our minds are wired by evolution to see intention and patterns, even where none exists. So we have to be careful about assuming that a pattern or intention is really there, just because it seems like it. And that holds for God and religion as much anything else. Pass it on: if we say it enough times to enough people, it may get across.
I'm particularly at risk for this, it seems. So I have to remind myself, I have to write things down, I have to double check, and I have to ask for outside opinions to make sure that the pattern I'm seeing really is a pattern and not pareidolia creeping in to a random happenstance (especially for a small sample size or a short time frame, etc.) and that I'm not falling victim to confirmation bias.
But this seems to be the very basis of supernatural belief. I dreamt it and it came true, therefore I'm psychic. I prayed and it happened, therefore god intervened.
Read "How We Believe" by Michael Shermer, "Why People Believe Weird Things" by Michael Shermer, & "How We Know What Isn't So" by Thomas Gilovich (and pretty much any other book on the Skeptic's Reading Guide over at The Skeptical Pervert).
