Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #thedemonhauntedworld, aggregated by home.social.
One book that was instrumental on my journey through critical thinking was The Demon-Haunted World by Carl Sagan. In it he also expresses passionately his love for books. I'm proud to say that I share this passion with him.
#tabularasa #blog #blogger #books #thedemonhauntedworld #carlsagan
Man did not create all gods as equals.
Some are worse than others.
Some brains are haunted by endearing imps while others by genocidal eldritch abominations.
Here is a fun little conversation between Douglas Murray and Sam Harris about the abominable latter - the genocidal Jihadi cult of Hamas:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoRY-o2sRdA&t=2503s
#antisemitism #antitheism #atheism #deathcult #eldritchgods #genocide #hamas #humanshields #islam #sanctityoflife #thedemonhauntedworld #unrwa
Starting my next book, and I’m a little embarrassed to admit that I have never read this before: I really do not understand how I have allowed this state of affairs to happen #Goodreads #ReadingChallenge #CurrentlyReading #Bibliophile #Bookworm #CarlSagan #TheDemonHauntedWorld #ScienceAsaCandleInTheDark #BookLovers
The Demon-Haunted World” by Carl Sagan, the “Dragon in My Garage” allegory illustrates the importance of skepticism and empirical evidence. Sagan presents a scenario where someone claims to have a dragon in their garage but provides excuses to avoid any examination. This story emphasizes the necessity of critical thinking, the burden of proof, and the dangers of accepting claims without evidence.
#Atheism #atheist #CarlSagan #CriticalThinking #EmpiricalEvidence #Epistemology #Philosophy #science #ScientificMethod #Skepticism #TheDemonHauntedWorld #YouTube
@ai6yr 3/3
"Science arouses a soaring sense of wonder. But so does pseudoscience.
A kind of Gresham's Law prevails in popular culture by which bad science drives out good.
Whose interest does .this. ignorance serve?
The standards of argument, what passes for evidence, are much more relaxed with pseudoscience. In part for these same reasons, it is much easier to present pseudoscience to the general public than science."
@ai6yr 2/3
"Maybe Mr."Buckley" should know to be more skeptical about what's dished out to him by popular culture. But apart from that, it's hard to see how it's his fault. He simply accepted what the most widely available and accessible sources of information claimed was true.
For his naivete, he was systematically misled and bamboozled."
读完了#TheDemonHauntedWorld，很喜欢！:star_solid::star_solid::star_solid::star_solid::star_half:
最开始几章觉得有点无聊，讲的都是些麦田怪圈、UFO 这样比较过时的东西，不过主旨在于“一代人有一代人的迷信”，如果不能给公民良好的科学教育，那总会有新的愚昧产物蹦出来，辟谣是无止境的。现代人的迷信应该是磁场和量子力学吧？
后面就比较有意思了，讲了一些科学方法和态度，和生活联系比较紧。有一章专门是讲 sceptical thinking 的一系列工具（Baloney detection kit），非常实用。
这本书最后谈到了不少政治，作者认为科学方法是可以指导政治的。这让我想到中国喜欢讲绝对正确、不容动摇、坚定不移的态度、路线和政策，这是不靠谱的。人就是会犯错的，掌权者更不例外。更重要的是是否有纠错机制，比如政策的调整和掌权者的更替。只有当我们获得了良好的公民教育和科学教育，拥有可以形成自己观点的一套工具之后，掌权者才能为我们所用。
我觉得我从这本书里学到的最重要的一个知识就是“科学是不怕犯错的”。Peer review 以及后人对前人著作的引用和批评都是科学的纠错机制。这直接让我在上一篇提交的论文里指出大佬的错误的时候大胆了很多；而且最近提交的两篇论文也都附上了代码：以前我就很怕代码里有什么错，现在认识到不公布的话错误永远也不会被发现。
另外比较触动我的是作者一开始就说了这本书是他对科学的表白。所以整本书非常有感染力，让我觉得我能做科研非常地幸运。
#读书
#TheDemonHauntedWorld 看到现在都在讲破除迷信，总感觉书里的例子本身有些过时，比如 UFO 和麦田怪圈之类的…现在的人真的还信这种东西吗？现在都是电磁场和量子力学啦。也许中学的我看更合适，恍惚记得中学课本有讲麦田怪圈。中学的时候我还在接受果壳的科学启蒙，感觉现在接触到的很多科学方法（比如 false positive）都是那个时候学的…
不过这本书里讲到的概念今天依旧适用，比如迷信之所以是迷信是因为证据不足，而不是现象本身不引起科学家的兴趣，作者也很希望找到外星人。以及如果把所有不明白的现象都称为 Demon 的话，那整个世界都要 demon haunted 了。以及一种迷信倒下了，另一种又会崛起：
So urgent on the vulgar is the necessity of believing, that the fall of any system of mythology will most probably be succeeded by the introduction of some other mode of superstition...
不过也讲到了中世纪的猎巫，我稍微感兴趣一点。说当时教皇的训谕指出 both sexes 跟魔鬼性交，然而最后被猎的都是女巫…
It’s why statistics uses standard error as a basic principle, building in an assumption that there will always be things that don’t accord with expectations and predictions. [...]
People, on the other hand, can be less sanguine when things don’t go according to plan. You won’t find many commuters cheerfully quoting standard error when their train gets delayed or cancelled.
这和我前两天读到的 #TheDemonHauntedWorld 是一样的思路呀！https://rhabarberbarbara.bar/@unagi/107544607279401820
但我认为没有人 cheerfully quoting standard error when their train gets delayed or cancelled 是因为 no one likes seeing their train gets delayed or cancelled, but I strongly suggest that 德铁在列车时刻表的晚点时间旁边加上置信区间 to get people mentally prepared, otherwise 我打算自己统计一下我上班途中的晚点规律。
Perhaps the sharpest distinction between science and pseudo-science is that science has a far keener appreciation of human imperfections and fallibility than does pseudoscience (or ‘inerrant’ revelation). If we resolutely refuse to acknowledge where we are liable to fall into error, then we can confidently expect that error - even serious error, profound mistakes - will be our companion forever.