As someone who is both into the skeptics movement and the atheist movement i’m not sure what skeptics “wouldn’t dare mutter” about. It seems to me that skeptics and atheists just have and interest in those things and want to stop the harm caused by them.
Also, i must be ignorant about all these other horrible delusions you are talking about.
Further you must be talking about instrumental rationality because i’m not sure how this is evidence against epistemic rationality.
I may have been too harsh on the skeptics, some of whom occasionally do attack nonsense in a way that riles up not just crackpots, but also some highly respectable and even academically accredited ideologues and charlatans. However, the problem I see is the main thrust of the movement, which assumes that dangerous nonsense that should be attacked and debunked is practically always purveyed and followed by people outside the official, respectable, accredited mainstream, with the implicit assumption that the latter is maybe imperfect, but still without any deep and horrendous flaws, and in matters where it produces strong consensus, we have nothing much to worry about.
This is where my Titanic analogy comes in. When I read about skeptics debunking people like, say, Uri Geller or Erich von Daeniken, clearly I have no objection to the substance of their work—on the contrary. However, if such people are left unchecked, it’s not like they will tomorrow be awarded high places in the government and the academia, and be given the power to propagandize their views with high official authority, both in classrooms and in mass media that would cite them as authorities, to write laws and regulations based on their delusions, to promote (and aggressively impose) their views through international institutions and foreign policy, etc., etc., with all the disastrous consequences that may follow from that. Therefore, shouldn’t a rational person be more concerned with the possible delusions of people who do have such power and authority? They are the ones presently in charge of steering the ship, after all, and it’s not like there aren’t any icebergs around.
Of course, if you believe that the official institutions that produce academic consensus and respectable mainstream public opinion are generally OK and not causing any ongoing (or potential future) disasters, clearly these concerns are baseless. But are you really so sure that this optimism is based on a realistic appraisal of the situation?
As someone who is both into the skeptics movement and the atheist movement i’m not sure what skeptics “wouldn’t dare mutter” about.
(...)
Also, i must be ignorant about all these other horrible delusions you are talking about.
As I mentioned elsewhere in this thread, I recommend this post by Quirinus_Quirrell. The list there is by no means comprehensive, but it should give you an idea of what people are talking about.
Edit: Two more good articles to read are this one by Paul Graham, and this post by Vladimir_M.
As someone who is both into the skeptics movement and the atheist movement i’m not sure what skeptics “wouldn’t dare mutter” about. It seems to me that skeptics and atheists just have and interest in those things and want to stop the harm caused by them.
Also, i must be ignorant about all these other horrible delusions you are talking about.
Further you must be talking about instrumental rationality because i’m not sure how this is evidence against epistemic rationality.
I may have been too harsh on the skeptics, some of whom occasionally do attack nonsense in a way that riles up not just crackpots, but also some highly respectable and even academically accredited ideologues and charlatans. However, the problem I see is the main thrust of the movement, which assumes that dangerous nonsense that should be attacked and debunked is practically always purveyed and followed by people outside the official, respectable, accredited mainstream, with the implicit assumption that the latter is maybe imperfect, but still without any deep and horrendous flaws, and in matters where it produces strong consensus, we have nothing much to worry about.
This is where my Titanic analogy comes in. When I read about skeptics debunking people like, say, Uri Geller or Erich von Daeniken, clearly I have no objection to the substance of their work—on the contrary. However, if such people are left unchecked, it’s not like they will tomorrow be awarded high places in the government and the academia, and be given the power to propagandize their views with high official authority, both in classrooms and in mass media that would cite them as authorities, to write laws and regulations based on their delusions, to promote (and aggressively impose) their views through international institutions and foreign policy, etc., etc., with all the disastrous consequences that may follow from that. Therefore, shouldn’t a rational person be more concerned with the possible delusions of people who do have such power and authority? They are the ones presently in charge of steering the ship, after all, and it’s not like there aren’t any icebergs around.
Of course, if you believe that the official institutions that produce academic consensus and respectable mainstream public opinion are generally OK and not causing any ongoing (or potential future) disasters, clearly these concerns are baseless. But are you really so sure that this optimism is based on a realistic appraisal of the situation?
As I mentioned elsewhere in this thread, I recommend this post by Quirinus_Quirrell. The list there is by no means comprehensive, but it should give you an idea of what people are talking about.
Edit: Two more good articles to read are this one by Paul Graham, and this post by Vladimir_M.