Why do scientist believe in creation if there is no evidence for it ?
Why Do Smart People Believe Weird Things?
Carl Sagan, in his last book Demon-Haunted World, expressed his growing concern in the growth of belief in the paranormal such as astrology, witchcraft, spiritualism, Loc Ness Monster, Bigfoot, etc. Many academics bemoan the fact that Americans, including their students, seem unable to distinguish science from pseudoscience, history from pseudohistory, or sense from nonsense: “The dumbing down of America is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30-second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations of pseudo-science and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance” (25-26). Sagan laments, “If we teach only the findings and products of science—no matter how useful and even inspiring they may be—without communicating its critical method, how can the average person possibly distinguish science from pseudoscience?” (21). Michael Shermer’s Why People Believe Weird Things may offer some insights into understanding why humans believe the things they do.
More than any other reason, people believe what they want to, despite evidence to the contrary. Shermer elaborates with four explanatory reasons these beliefs persist:
immediate gratification
simplicity
morality and meaning
hope springs eternal
Why do these irrational beliefs persist even among many college students despite an emphasis on critical thinking in the classroom? In other words, why do smart people believe weird things?
Intelligence doesnÂ’t seem to necessarily shape oneÂ’s beliefs.
Often smart peopleÂ’s intelligence is domain specific.
Smart people are not necessarily less prejudiced and authoritarian, but educated people are less so. Unfortunately students today are often taught what to think but not how to think. (“Science is more than a body of knowledge; it is a way of thinking” (Sagan 25).
Believers tend to be high in external locus of control, whereas skeptics tend to be high in internal locus of control. People with high external locus of control believe that circumstances are beyond their control, i.e. things just happen. Those with a high internal locus of control tend to believe they make things happen. So the former tend to be more superstitious and believe in ESP, precognition, witchcraft, spiritualism, etc.
Smart people are better at defending beliefs arrived at for non-smart reasons since even they are corrupted by intellectual attribution bias and confirmation bias that we all suffer from. Intellectual attribution bias occurs when we identify environmental or personality causes in our own favor, that is we take credit for our good actions and blame a situation for our bad ones.
Confirmation bias is the tendency to seek or interpret evidence favorable to already existing beliefs and to ignore or reinterpret evidence unfavorable to already existing beliefs. Thus we see people convinced of weird things such as Area 51, Bible codes, alien abductions, Loch Ness and Sasquatch monsters, Atlantis and Lemuria, etc., despite evidence to the contrary.
Why Do Smart People Believe Weird Things