#belief — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #belief, aggregated by home.social.
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When Britain Loved Being Fooled.
There is something wonderfully human about a good hoax.
Not fraud, exactly – fraud wants your money. Forgery wants you to believe that something newly made is old, valuable, or authentic. A practical joke wants a laugh, preferably at somebody else’s expense.
A hoax wants something slightly different.
It wants you to believe. For just long enough.
It is a woman who claims to have given birth to rabbits. A mysterious foreign princess who appears from nowhere speaking a language nobody recognises. A newly discovered document written by one of the greatest names in English literature. Or an advertisement promising that, on a particular evening at a particular theatre, a man will climb into an ordinary wine bottle.
All you really need is somebody prepared to tell the story.
And somebody prepared to believe it.
Britain has always been rather good at providing both.
The word hoax itself seems to have appeared in English towards the end of the eighteenth century and is probably related to hocus or hocus-pocus – the language of the conjuror, the juggler and the trickster. But before hoax became fashionable, there was another splendid word for much the same thing:humbug
recorded in the middle of the eighteenth century for a trick, deception or imposition.
The words may have changed, but the practice certainly wasn’t new. People have always lied to one another. What makes a hoax interesting is not necessarily the lie. It is what happens next.
Because the best hoaxes rarely succeed simply because the person behind them is an exceptionally talented liar. They succeed because the lie arrives at exactly the right moment, in exactly the right form, and tells its audience something they are already prepared – perhaps even desperate – to believe.
That is where things become interesting.
We sometimes look back at historical hoaxes with a certain amount of smugness.
How could anyone possibly have believed that?
It is an easy question to ask when you already know the answer. Strip away that hindsight and things become considerably less comfortable.
Imagine being presented with an object apparently dug from the earth, accompanied by a convincing story about exactly where it was found. You know that similar objects exist. You know that important discoveries are being made. Perhaps another respected expert has already expressed an interest in it.
Would you dismiss it immediately? Or would you look a little closer?
In Victorian London, two Thames mudlarks called William Smith and Charles Eaton – better known as Billy and Charley – discovered that there was considerably more money to be made manufacturing history than digging it out of the mud.
Beginning in 1857, the pair produced supposedly medieval objects in hand-cut moulds: medallions, badges, figures and other curiosities decorated with strange images and wonderfully garbled inscriptions. They then sold them as antiquities recovered during excavations at Shadwell.
There were clues. Quite a lot of clues, actually. Some objects carried dates written in Arabic numerals despite supposedly belonging to the eleventh century. The inscriptions were nonsense. The designs were peculiar. Yet the objects found buyers.
When archaeologist Henry Cuming publicly denounced them as forgeries in 1858, the resulting controversy even ended up in court. Remarkably, respected antiquary Charles Roach Smith remained convinced that the objects were genuine. Part of his reasoning was effectively that no forger would produce anything so ridiculous.
Unfortunately, Billy and Charley would. Eventually some of their moulds were obtained and displayed at the Society of Antiquaries. The game was up – although the pair continued producing their creations for years afterwards. They made several thousand objects in total.
Today, examples are held by the British Museum. I love that they are exhibited there… as fakes… A worthless fake made to imitate a valuable antiquity survives long enough to become a valuable historical object in its own right.
But Billy and Charley understood something important. People don’t simply believe objects. They believe stories. Give an object a convincing provenance and it changes. A battered piece of metal becomes something recovered from an archaeological excavation. A scrap of handwriting becomes a lost manuscript. A photograph becomes evidence. An ordinary woman in unusual clothes becomes a princess. Sometimes the desire to believe becomes powerful enough to overcome evidence sitting directly in front of us.
It happens to experts too. Especially to experts.
Expertise does not make someone immune to deception. Occasionally it can provide the very framework that makes the deception convincing. A successful forger learns what an expert expects to see and gives it to them.
Collectors can be particularly vulnerable because rarity creates competition. The British Museum notes that wealthy collectors and fierce competition for spectacular antiquities historically created precisely the sort of market in which fakes flourished. When spectacular genuine objects were unavailable, forgers copied them, invented them or even took genuine antiquities and “improved” them with modern additions.
And that brings us to one of the most important ingredients in any successful hoax.
Want. Someone has to want the thing to be true.
The collector wants the extraordinary artefact. The scholar wants the discovery. The newspaper wants the sensational story. The audience wants to see the impossible performance. The believer wants the photograph to show something extraordinary. And sometimes the person being fooled has invested so much – money, reputation, pride or simple emotional attachment – that admitting the truth becomes harder than continuing to believe the lie.
That is why the revelation of a hoax is often almost as fascinating as the hoax itself.
Some victims laugh or become furious. Some quietly disappear while others double down spectacularly. And occasionally the hoax escapes from its creator altogether.
A joke repeated often enough becomes a story. The story is copied into books. Those books become sources for later books. Details change. Names appear. Locations shift. Someone adds something they heard from their grandmother. Eventually the person who started the whole thing could stand up and announce that they invented it and somebody, somewhere, would probably accuse them of participating in the cover-up.
At that point the hoax has become folklore. That is why old hoaxes remain so fascinating.
They aren’t really stories about stupid people being fooled by clever people.
They’re stories about trust. About authority. About reputation. About fashion. About the things a society considers possible at a particular moment in history. And, most of all, about belief.
Over the coming week, Mysterious Times will be looking at some extraordinary examples.
There will be rabbits.
There will be Shakespeare.
There will be a mysterious princess.
There will be an allegedly impossible theatrical performance.
And before we’re finished, one unfortunate London address is going to have a very, very bad day.
Some of the people we meet will be fraudsters. Some will be practical jokers. Some will begin with a relatively small deception and discover, rather too late, that it has grown completely beyond their control.
And plenty of intelligent, educated and perfectly sensible people will fall for them.Welcome to Fakes, Frauds and Fabulous Hoaxes.
#Belief #BillyAndCharley #BritishHistory #CuriousBritain #FakesAndFrauds #Folklore #Forgery #HistoricalHoaxes #Hoaxes #MysteriousTimes #strangeHistory #VictorianBritain
And remember – before we laugh too loudly at our ancestors, perhaps we should ask ourselves one question.
If we’d been there…
would we? -
A quotation from Abraham Fortas
Any departure from absolute regimentation may cause trouble. Any variation from the majority’s opinion may inspire fear. Any word spoken, in class, in the lunchroom, or on the campus, that deviates from the view of another person may start an argument or cause a disturbance. But our Constitution says we must take this risk, and our history says that it is this sort of hazardous freedom — this kind of openness — that is the basis of our national strength and of the independence and vigor of Americans who grow up and live in this relatively permissive, often disputatious, society.
Abraham Fortas (1910–1982) American academic, jurist, lawyer; US Supreme Court Justice (1965–69)
Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, 393 U.S. 503, 508 (1969) [majority opinion]More about this quote: wist.info/fortas-abe/13226/
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #abefortas #America #argument #belief #Constitution #control #debate #disagreement #dissent #disturbance #firstamendment #freespeech #freedom #freedomofexpression #freedomofspeech #heterodoxy #majority #openness #opinion #popularopinion #SCOTUS #troublemaking #protest
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A quotation from Abraham Fortas
Any departure from absolute regimentation may cause trouble. Any variation from the majority’s opinion may inspire fear. Any word spoken, in class, in the lunchroom, or on the campus, that deviates from the view of another person may start an argument or cause a disturbance. But our Constitution says we must take this risk, and our history says that it is this sort of hazardous freedom — this kind of openness — that is the basis of our national strength and of the independence and vigor of Americans who grow up and live in this relatively permissive, often disputatious, society.
Abraham Fortas (1910–1982) American academic, jurist, lawyer; US Supreme Court Justice (1965–69)
Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, 393 U.S. 503, 508 (1969) [majority opinion]More about this quote: wist.info/fortas-abe/13226/
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #abefortas #America #argument #belief #Constitution #control #debate #disagreement #dissent #disturbance #firstamendment #freespeech #freedom #freedomofexpression #freedomofspeech #heterodoxy #majority #openness #opinion #popularopinion #SCOTUS #troublemaking #protest
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A quotation from Abraham Fortas
Any departure from absolute regimentation may cause trouble. Any variation from the majority’s opinion may inspire fear. Any word spoken, in class, in the lunchroom, or on the campus, that deviates from the view of another person may start an argument or cause a disturbance. But our Constitution says we must take this risk, and our history says that it is this sort of hazardous freedom — this kind of openness — that is the basis of our national strength and of the independence and vigor of Americans who grow up and live in this relatively permissive, often disputatious, society.
Abraham Fortas (1910–1982) American academic, jurist, lawyer; US Supreme Court Justice (1965–69)
Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, 393 U.S. 503, 508 (1969) [majority opinion]More about this quote: wist.info/fortas-abe/13226/
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #abefortas #America #argument #belief #Constitution #control #debate #disagreement #dissent #disturbance #firstamendment #freespeech #freedom #freedomofexpression #freedomofspeech #heterodoxy #majority #openness #opinion #popularopinion #SCOTUS #troublemaking #protest
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A quotation from Abraham Fortas
Any departure from absolute regimentation may cause trouble. Any variation from the majority’s opinion may inspire fear. Any word spoken, in class, in the lunchroom, or on the campus, that deviates from the view of another person may start an argument or cause a disturbance. But our Constitution says we must take this risk, and our history says that it is this sort of hazardous freedom — this kind of openness — that is the basis of our national strength and of the independence and vigor of Americans who grow up and live in this relatively permissive, often disputatious, society.
Abraham Fortas (1910–1982) American academic, jurist, lawyer; US Supreme Court Justice (1965–69)
Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, 393 U.S. 503, 508 (1969) [majority opinion]More about this quote: wist.info/fortas-abe/13226/
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #abefortas #America #argument #belief #Constitution #control #debate #disagreement #dissent #disturbance #firstamendment #freespeech #freedom #freedomofexpression #freedomofspeech #heterodoxy #majority #openness #opinion #popularopinion #SCOTUS #troublemaking #protest
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A quotation from Bill Watterson
CALVIN: Do you believe in the Devil? You know, a supreme evil being dedicated to the temptation, corruption, and destruction of Man?
HOBBES: I’m not sure Man needs the help.Bill Watterson (b. 1958) American cartoonist
Calvin and Hobbes (1992-04-06)More about this quote: wist.info/watterson-bill/85386…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #billwatterson #calvinandhobbes #adversary #belief #corruption #devil #humancondition #humannature #humanity #lucifer #Satan #selfdestructiveness #temptation
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The absence of details (eg, skin blemishes, readable fine-print text, etc) in most dreams means you're looking at an idealised image of what the brain expects or wants to see, without it being checked against sensory input.
#sleep #dreams #psychology #neuroscience #idealism #fantasy #solipsism #brain #sensation #hallucination #emotion #salience #belief
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It is easy in the world to live after the world’s opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who, in the midst of the crowd, keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
Essay (1841), “Self-Reliance,” Essays: First Series, No. 2More about this quote: wist.info/emerson-ralph-waldo/…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #emerson #ralphwaldoemerson #selfreliance #belief #conformity #custom #greatness #independence #integrity #nonconformity #opinion #popularopinion #publicopinion #society #solitude #tradition #unswaying
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It is always easier to believe than to deny. Our minds are naturally affirmative.
-- John Burroughs⬆ #Wisdom #Quotes #JohnBurroughs #Belief
⬇ #Photography #Panorama #Guangxi #China #LiRiver #LiJiang #TowerKarst #Geology
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I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason and intellect has intended us to forgo their use.
-- Galileo Galilei⬆ #Wisdom #Quotes #GalileoGalilei #Belief #God
⬇ #Photography #Panorama #Sunrise #SacandagaLake #Adirondacks #NewYork
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The point is that we are all capable of believing things which we know to be untrue, and then, when we are finally proved wrong, impudently twisting the facts so as to show that we were right. Intellectually, it is possible to carry on this process for an indefinite time; the only check on it is that sooner or later a false belief bumps up against a solid reality, usually on a battlefield.
George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Essay (1946-03-22), “In Front of Your Nose,” “As I Please” column, Tribune NewspaperMore about this quote: wist.info/orwell-george/29647/
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #orwell #georgeorwell #belief #cognitivedissonance #confirmationbias #facefacts #facereality #facingfacts #honesty #intellectualhonesty #realitycheck #selectivememory #selfdeceit #selfdelusion #truth #unreliablenarrator
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From a scientific perspective, probably the main problem with religious people is they usually take their traditions at face value. They rarely know the identities, social contexts, or motives of scriptures' authors, or the historical layers of texts presented as unified texts or collections.
#science #religion #tradition #author #authorship #attribution #identity #context #socialcontext #motive #scripture #history #text #collection #canon #deception #falsehood #faith #blindfaith #belief
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A quotation from Hannah Arendt
A mixture of gullibility and cynicism had been an outstanding characteristic of mob mentality before it became an everyday phenomenon of masses. In an ever-changing, incomprehensible, world the masses had reached the point where they would, at the same time, believe everything and nothing, think that everything is possible and that nothing was true. The mixture in itself was remarkable enough, because it spelled the end of the illusion that gullibility was a weakness of unsuspecting primitive souls and cynicism the vice of superior and refined minds.
Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) German-American philosopher, political theorist
The Origins of Totalitarianism, Part 3, ch. 11 “The Totalitarian Movement,” sec. 2 (1951)More about this quote: wist.info/arendt-hannah/41872/
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #hannaharendt #arendt #belief #cynicism #elitism #gullibility #mob #totalitarianism #truth
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A quotation from Hannah Arendt
Mass propaganda discovered that its audience was ready at all times to believe the worst, no matter how absurd, and did not particularly object to being deceived because it held every statement to be a lie anyhow. The totalitarian mass leaders based their propaganda on the correct psychological assumption that, under such conditions, one could make people believe the most fantastic statements one day, and trust if the next day they were given irrefutable proof of their falsehood, they would take refuge in cynicism; instead of deserting the leaders who had lied to them, they would protest that they had known all along the statement was a lie and would admire the leaders for their superior tactical cleverness.
Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) German-American philosopher, political theorist
Origins of Totalitarianism, Part 3, ch. 11 “The Totalitarian Movement,” sec. 2 (1951)More about this quote: wist.info/arendt-hannah/41783/
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #hannaharendt #arendt #absurdity #belief #cognitivedissonance #cynicism #deceit #deception #lying #mistrust #propaganda #totalitarianism
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The truth seems to be that propaganda on its own cannot force its way into unwilling minds; neither can it inculcate something wholly new; nor can it keep people persuaded once they have ceased to believe. It penetrates only into minds already open, and rather than instill opinion it articulates and justifies opinions already present in the minds of its recipients. The gifted propagandist brings to a boil ideas and passions already simmering in the minds of his hearers. he echoes their innermost feelings. Where opinion is not coerced, people can be made to believe only in what they already “know.”
Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements, Part 3, ch. 14, § 83 (3.14.83) (1951)More about this quote: wist.info/hoffer-eric/11263/
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #erichoffer #agitprop #belief #confirmation #confirmationbias #conviction #disinformation #fear #ideas #justification #opinion #passion #predisposition #prejudice #propaganda #reinforcement #truebeliever
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Propaganda does not deceive people; it merely helps them to deceive themselves.
Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
Passionate State of Mind, Aphorism 260 (1955)More about this quote: wist.info/hoffer-eric/19134/
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #erichoffer #agitprop #belief #bias #confirmationbias #disinformation #prejudice #propaganda #selfdeception #selfjustification
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A quotation from Claude Bernard
Men who have excessive faith in their theories or ideas are not only ill prepared for making discoveries; they also make very poor observations. Of necessity, they observe with a preconceived idea, and when they devise an experiment, they can see, in its results, only a confirmation of their theory. In this way they distort observation and often neglect very important facts because they do not further their aim.
[Les hommes qui ont une foi excessive dans leurs théories ou dans leurs idées sont non-seulement mal disposés pour faire des découvertes, mais ils font aussi de très-mauvaises observations. Ils observent nécessairement avec une idée préconçue, et quand ils ont institué une expérience, ils ne veulent voir dans ses résultats qu’une confirmation de leur théorie. Ils défigurent ainsi l’observation et négligent souvent des faits très-importants, parce qu’ils ne concourent pas à leur but.]Claude Bernard (1813-1878) French physiologist, scientist
An Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine [Introduction à l’Étude de la Médecine Expérimentale] (1865) [tr. Greene (1957)]More about this quote: wist.info/bernard-claude/81094…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #claudebernard #belief #bias #confirmationbias #experiment #observation #preconceivednotion #preconception #science #theory
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A quotation from Eleanor Roosevelt
In political life I have never felt that anything really mattered but the satisfaction of knowing that you stood for the things in which you believed, and had done the very best you could.
Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962) First Lady of the US (1933-45), politician, diplomat, activist
Column (1944-11-08), “My Day”More about this quote: wist.info/roosevelt-eleanor/61…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #eleanorroosevelt #belief #effort #government #integrity #meaning #politics #satisfaction #standforth #standup #whatmatters
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A quotation from Robert Ingersoll
The instant we admit that a book is too sacred to be doubted, or even reasoned about, we are mental serfs. It is infinitely absurd to suppose that a god would address a communication to intelligent beings, and yet make it a crime, to be punished in eternal flames, for them to use their intelligence for the purpose of understanding his communication. If we have the right to use our reason, we certainly have the right to act in accordance with it, and no god can have the right to punish us for such action.
Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, agnostic, orator
Lecture (1872-01-29), “The Gods,” Fairbury Hall, Fairbury, IllinoisMore info about this quote: wist.info/ingersoll-robert-gre…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #robertingersoll #robertgreeningersoll #belief #Bible #damnation #divinegift #divineplan #doubt #God #gods #holiness #intelligence #questioning #reason #sacredness #scripture #understanding
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A quotation from David Eddings
A man my age is willing to accept almost anything. After the initial shock of astonishment that comes each morning when I wake up and discover that I’m still alive, I can face the day with an open mind.
David Eddings (1931-2009) American writer
The Shining Ones, Part 1, ch. 7 [Fontan] (1993)More info about this quote: wist.info/eddings-david/80270/
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #davideddings #acceptance #age #belief #credulity #growingold #oldage #openmind
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This Verse Secretly Undermines All of #Christianity
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTnQydJ4O4k
It's no secret that there are many versions and #denominations of Christianity, but there's one #belief that they all have in common. And this verse completely destroys that shared belief.
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A doctrine insulates the devout not only against the realities around them but also against their own selves. The fanatical believer is not conscious of his envy, malice, pettiness and dishonesty. There is a wall of words between his consciousness and his real self.
Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
Passionate State of Mind, Aphorism 68 (1955)Sourcing, notes: wist.info/hoffer-eric/16513/
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #erichoffer #delusion #belief #conscience #devotion #doctrine #dogma #fanatic #selfawareness #selfdeception #shame #zealot
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#ACGrayling - Diverse #Arguments for #God?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKBp-IkuFyY
#Philosophy #PhilosophyOfReligion #Theology #Theism #Worship #LifeAfterDeath #Belief #Faith #Logic #OntologicalArgument #ArgumentFromDesign #Design #Teleology #Anselm #Bible #CosmologicalArgument #Cosmology #FallacyOfComposition #Causality #Contingency #Science #Apologetics #Morality #ArgumentFromEvil #CloserToTruth #RobertKuhn
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#NathanLents - #Philosophy of #Evolution and #Religion
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_SpIbCdbkI
#PhilosophyOfEvolution #PhilosophyOfReligion #Creation #Creationism #Belief #Design #Teleology #IntelligentDesign #IrreducibleComplexity #Theism #TheisticEvolution #Deism #DeisticEvolution #Truth #TruthClaim #TruthClaims #CloserToTruth #RobertKuhn
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@toreigninhell
#Legislating might be after all a matter of principle and #belief; in the #aiart debate there will be #liberals and #conservatives. I am trying to find out where I am at in that spectrum.
