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From: mrh@cybvax0.UUCP (Mike Huybensz)
Newsgroups: net.origins
Subject: Re: belief systems
Message-ID: <546@cybvax0.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 24-May-85 14:23:58 EDT
Article-I.D.: cybvax0.546
Posted: Fri May 24 14:23:58 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 26-May-85 00:53:43 EDT
References: <1128@uwmacc.UUCP>
Reply-To: mrh@cybvax0.UUCP (Mike Huybensz)
Distribution: net
Organization: Cybermation, Inc., Cambridge, MA
Lines: 67
Summary: 

In article <1128@uwmacc.UUCP> dubois@uwmacc.UUCP (A Ray Miller) writes:
> 
> /* Written 10:23 pm  May 19, 1985 by miller@uiucdcsb.Uiuc.ARPA in uiucdcsb:net.origins */
> /* ---------- "belief systems" ---------- */
> Mike Ward wrote:
> > Can it be possible?  Do creationists believe what they do just
> > because it's easier to understand?
> 
> To which Mike Huybensz responded:
> > Of course it's possible.  But there are other explanations also.
> > For example, I might explain some cases as a simple cost/benefit
> > rationale.  Someone who has invested alot of capital (emotional or
> > other) in belief that includes creationism has very little to
> > gain by rejecting creationism for evolution (unless he/she/it is
> > a scientist) but will lose consistency of doctrines or agreement
> > with other believers (which can cost much anguish and even money.)
>
>      Furthermore, making the switch to creationism can cost a great deal.
> Professors have been fired, research funding has been cut, papers have been
> rejected without even being read, and students have been expelled.
> Unless you are willing to consider nonmaterialistic things in the
> cost/benefit test, it is clearly better to not rock the boat and remain
> an evolutionist.

Poo.  Only if you are one of the few people who are likely to be in the
situations you describe.  Not everybody is a creationist professor of
biology.  Few students let what they learn in class affect their lives.
An absurd percentage of Americans believes in astrology, yet how many
let that affect their spouting back astronomy in school?  The fact is,
there are very few people to whom evolution has any value (any more than
geocentrism, for example), so it costs little or nothing for the average
creationist to reject evolution.  Walk into a creationist congregation,
and ask them who among them would benefit materially if they changed their
belief to evolution.  I say very few would.

>      Finally, does Mike really have such a high opinion of himself that he
> thinks his capacity for understanding exceeds that of creationists?  Besides
> the great creationists of the past, who founded most branches of the sciences
> (some of whom have been listed in previous postings), and besides the 1000's
> of creation scientists today who hold Ph.D.s, what would Mike do with a man
> like Dr. A. E. Wilder-Smith?  He has earned not one, not two, but three
> doctoral degrees in the sciences.  Can Mike make such a claim?  Is his ego
> really that inflated?  I trust he simply did not state his question clearly;
> he now has an opportunity to correct that misunderstanding.

Does Ray really have such a high opinion of himself that he thinks his
capacity for understanding exceeds that of evolutionary biologists?

Would Ray dare oppose the opinion of Nobel prize winner Shockly that Blacks
are inferior?

Would Ray rate all those people above Jesus because Jesus didn't even have
a high school diploma?

The fact is that Ray is appealing to invalid authority in several ways.
First, a Ph.D. is not a guarantee of infallibility.  Nor is a lack of any
specific degree a guarantee of inferiority.  And finally, even experts in
their own fields frequently have wild opinions about some aspect of their
own field, that most other experts disagree with.

The best recourse for individuals is to evaluate the arguments and the
evidence.  I've spent alot of effort doing so.  If you don't like my
conclusions, Ray, you're welcome to argue against them.  But you might
want to desist from ad-hominem attacks like the one above.
-- 

Mike Huybensz		...decvax!genrad!mit-eddie!cybvax0!mrh