Even things that are untrue may provide information about the mental experiences of the person who believes them.
Religion and mysticism are far too common to simply dismiss as nonsense; it behooves those of us who reject them fundamentally to understand better their hold on the minds of others.
I agree with you, but we still can’t go posting every bit of falsehood or New Age flimflam on Less Wrong just because there’s probably something interesting behind it. A general article on the mental phenomena that underlie astrology would be interesting, but an astrologer’s article on what it means for the moon to be in Aquarius, presented without comment, would not be.
Ok, I had to actually go read (well, skim) that abortion of a site before I realised why you seemed to suddenly turn into a troll ;)
But I have to say—your sentence makes too much sense to really reflect that site. For one thing—your sentence isn’t in newspaper-headline grammar. All cube truth denied!
My eyes! my EYES! oh, why, oh why did I click on that link!
(I am now laughing. It is a tortured, whimpering sort of laughter. )
edit2: “4-day...cube”. that, alone, should have thrown a compiler error, and I should have recognized that as quite sufficient evidence for the stupidity of the contents…
As an upside, I might be able to grok Nabokov for the next two weeks. best case scenario: the effect wears off the moment my nabokov paper is turned in.
Even things that are untrue may provide information about the mental experiences of the person who believes them.
Religion and mysticism are far too common to simply dismiss as nonsense; it behooves those of us who reject them fundamentally to understand better their hold on the minds of others.
I agree with you, but we still can’t go posting every bit of falsehood or New Age flimflam on Less Wrong just because there’s probably something interesting behind it. A general article on the mental phenomena that underlie astrology would be interesting, but an astrologer’s article on what it means for the moon to be in Aquarius, presented without comment, would not be.
I don’t think that dismissing them as nonsense, and seeking to better understand their hold, are mutually exclusive. We should do both.
Nonsense is not the same thing as falsehoods.
For comparison, I am happy to dismiss as true nonsense, and give no further consideration to, the significance of nature’s 4-day simultaneous harmonic time cube.
You are stupid and evil, have been scammed by criminal educators you one-ist anti-intelligent fool.
Ok, I had to actually go read (well, skim) that abortion of a site before I realised why you seemed to suddenly turn into a troll ;)
But I have to say—your sentence makes too much sense to really reflect that site. For one thing—your sentence isn’t in newspaper-headline grammar. All cube truth denied!
Although I must say I’ve personally adopted the phrase “educated evil and stupid” as it applies so well to so many people.
My eyes! my EYES! oh, why, oh why did I click on that link!
(I am now laughing. It is a tortured, whimpering sort of laughter. )
edit2: “4-day...cube”. that, alone, should have thrown a compiler error, and I should have recognized that as quite sufficient evidence for the stupidity of the contents… As an upside, I might be able to grok Nabokov for the next two weeks. best case scenario: the effect wears off the moment my nabokov paper is turned in.