Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by Nursie 3572 days ago
The other thing that strikes me as a conundrum here is that, if one is aware of deliberately choosing unreality over reality, are you really choosing unreality?

I.E. how is it possible to choose fiction as fact in the knowledge it is fiction?

I don't really understand the mindset...
1 comments
coldtea 3572 days ago
>I.E. how is it possible to choose fiction as fact in the knowledge it is fiction?

That's just the moment of choice though. Given enough conditioning and getting used to it yourself, it can become as convincing (to your own self) as any reality.

Besides, don't people chose convenient truths over reality all the time, creationists or not?

Even the belief in science, which usually is a belief in fiction (an ideal of how it should be conducted) as opposed to how it's practiced and what interests and motivations are in play (from corporate tampering to "I'll review this peer reviewed paper favourably, because that guy is a friend of a friend, or they might help with my grants, etc." -- which can even function at a subconscious level, e.g. instinctively being more positively predisposed to papers by people you know or can help your career).

link
Nursie 3572 days ago
But you would still know that you had a moment of choosing unreality.

Don't people choose convenient fictions? Not people worth knowing, IMHO, no. People that choose inquiry over ignorance are the ones thay actually make stridea out of the darkness and got us where we are today.

"Belief" in science is the wrong way to think about it. Understanding that the scientific method has flaws but is still far superior as a tool to discover what is, rather than proclaim it without evidence or shy away into comforting fictions, seems the best way to approach knowledge.

link
coldtea 3572 days ago
>Don't people choose convenient fictions? Not people worth knowing, IMHO, no.

That's a convenient fiction to believe, but I haven't found it to be true in anybody.

link
Nursie 3572 days ago
That would be an opinion of mine, not a belief, that people worth knowing try not to hold on to fictions.

Whether they end up doing so is less important, they choose not to whenever the choice is apparent.

link
coldtea 3572 days ago
Not so sure about those "people worth knowing".

I've known wonderful artists and creative persons who absolutely could not give a flying duck for the "reality".

Was the person here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0319061/ worth knowing?

link
Nursie 3572 days ago
A fun story, but not making pretensions to objective reality, which creationism certainly does.
link