For my birthday, I was lucky enough to be given a couple of Exclusive Books gift vouchers. It's awesome, because if you look at my Kalahari.net wishlist, there's a list of books in there as long as my arm.
Of course a bunch of them are books about Star Trek, but most of them aren't. They're the works by people who have inspired and guided me on my path in crossing over from a faith-based to a reality-based world view: people like Phil Plait, James Randi, Carl Sagan, Scott Adams and Michael Shermer.
I'm forever coming across references to those books in my online travels, so intrigued am I that I would very much like to buy and read them.
So, with gift vouchers clutched in my grubby little fists, I trekked off to my local branch at Sandton City. This particular one is one of their flagship branches… it’s big. Like, a lot big.
I spent about an hour in the store before I was able to find just one of the many books I was looking for: The Science of Good and Evil – Michael Shermer. And it wasn’t where you would expect to find it either. I would look for something like that in a section marked “Science”, “Psychology” or even “Philosophy”. But that’s not where I found it. I found it under “Esoteric”. Esoteric? On the same bloody shelf as the lunatic ravings of Zecharia Sitchin!
It was no surprise to me that it was there. This shop has a “Science” section made up of three racks. About half of it is actually about science… and even then, only indirectly. That half consists mostly of biographies of people like Darwin and Einstein… clearly not interesting enough to fit into the “Biography” section.
The other half is decidedly not science. It’s all kinds of crap disguised to look like science… nonsense about alien abductions, intelligent design and all manner of woo-woo rubbish masquerading as “Quantum Mechanics”.
The “Esoteric” section consists of nine racks. NINE! I know the woo-woo fringe are prolific writers, but so are scientists and sceptics! If I was looking for a book by crackpots like David Icke, Sylvia Browne or Neal Donald Walsh, I would’ve been in book heaven. But because I happen to prefer a perspective grounded in reality, I have very little to choose from.
I can’t really blame Exclusive Books. They’re a retailer – they make their money by selling people what they want. It’s not their fault if they can’t sell “Flim Flam!” or “Bad Astronomy” to a public who chooses to believe in the mystical powers of John Edward or that there really is a human face on Mars.
The most common of all follies is to believe passionately in the palpably not true. It is the chief occupation of mankind. --H. L. Mencken
It is at times like that when I am reminded of just how true that is. Standing in that store, looking at the carnage of reason before me, I felt so sad, and so very, very alone.
Know how you feel... We all suffer from this injustice from time to time. Thank GOD for the web!
ReplyDeleteIndeed, the web is an invaluable resource, but it still makes me so sad.
ReplyDeletePerhaps the reason for that is that during my transition from true-believer to sceptic all the literature I was surrounding myself with led me to the false conclusion that I was leaving an ignorant or deluded minority and joining an enlightened majority.
While I still think I got the adjectives right, I got the nouns backwards: I was leaving an ignorant or deluded majority and joining an enlightened minority.
No matter what your belief system or worldview is, there will always be more people out there that disagree with you than those who agree. It seems that this is particularly true of sceptics.
Of the people I know: friends, family, colleagues, I can count the number of sceptics on one hand. The vast majority engage in beliefs and practices that I used to subscribe to, but have come to realise are silly.
As a believer, I became accustomed to having my beliefs constantly affirmed by the people around me. People I trusted and looked up to. There was always someone to turn to with questions of faith and doctrine.
Now, as a sceptic, I no longer have that luxury. The only expert I have to rely on is myself. For that reason I have spent a hell of a lot of time on the web reading and researching a vast array of subjects that I never thought I’d be interested in… and some I’m still not interested in. All because I needed information and facts to use to justify and defend my point of view to people who come to this blog in an attempt to assail my opinions.
While I welcome scrutiny and criticism, as they help me to refine, reinforce or sometimes completely abandon my opinions, I grow weary of constantly being on the defensive.
It used to be a lot easier when I believed. I went with the flow, and it was rather pleasant. My awakening has been a difficult one. Until recently my passage along this road has been fuelled by the fire of novelty and incredulity and anger at having been lied to for so long by so many. However lately there have been times when I’ve been forced to wonder if there is any sense in sticking to this path… or if it would be preferable to return to the embrace of ignorance.
But I’ve taken the red pill. There’s no going back up the rabbit-hole. I’m going to have to get used to the idea that for the rest of my life, I’m going to have to put up with being surrounded by people who will forever be adhering to their beliefs, no matter how silly or how illogical.
Even though I can see the reasons for their beliefs (cognitive dissonance, pareidolia, confirmation bias and the ideomotor effect), the way Neo saw the Matrix code around him, there is nothing I can say or do to change their minds. They’re still hard-wired to “the system”, and I won’t be able to “free” anyone who doesn’t want to be freed.
To extend an already clichéd metaphor even further: I will have to get used to the fact that some of those still plugged in will, from time to time, become Agents. I’ll be tempted to fight them, but there will be no point in doing so. Even if I were to defeat one, they would simply come back stronger, better and more deluded than before.
So do I fight or do I run?
I recall a quote, although I don’t recall who it was who said it: “For every thousand hacking at the leaves of evil, there is one striking at the root.” I’d love to be that One, if I only knew how.