Wednesday, March 04, 2009

 

Ignorexia Verbosa


Ed Brayton invites us to steal that phrase for the condition afflicting Rush Limbaugh and, I would add, Michael Egnor, among all too many others.

Who am I to ignore Ed?

This is my blanket acknowledgment of the true author of the phrase: a commenter at Ed's blog, Dispatches From the Culture Wars, going by the nym "grasshopper."

Speaking of people with ignorexia verbosa, Anika Smith is over at the Seattle Ministry of Misinformation actually calling this "a strong dose of clear thinking":

What if you were lied to all your life that a square was a circle? Oh yes, you were told, it's natural to have contrary thoughts, but you must not be deceived by appearances; those things that look like squares are not. They are merely apparent squares. And in reality, you are politely informed, they not only are circles, they must be, because an all encompassing Theory of Circumfusion requires them to be, and you must believe the Theory of Circumfusion. And what if you did? Despite all that was in you; despite what you instinctively and empirically knew, what if you believed? What if?
There is apparently much more of this lame attempt to elevate so-called "common sense," over science by arguing that the "appearance of design" in living things (which in many, if not most cases is poor design at best) trumps the massive amount of evidence for evolution. If accepted, such a standard would pretty much relegate all of modern science to the dustbin. After all, there is an "appearance of solidity" to our bodies, the Earth and everything we see about us. But if we know anything at all about matter, we know it is made up of atoms and we know atoms are mostly unoccupied space, even if we haven't actually seen the empty places. As J.B.S. Haldane supposedly said: "The Universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose." Dismissing science out of personal incredulity is hardly "clear thinking."

But what more could someone suffering this condition want but a return to the "science" of Bronze Age shepherds?

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P.S. If you want to see a much funnier parody, check out this site for the "Akron Fossil and Real Science Center" in connection with the place I mentioned recently. It takes the attitude of the IDeologists to its logical conclusion.
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Comments:
The Bonze Age was dominated by Japanese Buddhists, wasn't it?
 
Ack!

Okay, I've fixed the mispeelling.

As for the Bronze Age it was the Chinese who dominated.
 
Common sense.

Pick one or the other.
 
What if you were lied to all your life that animals seen in the clouds weren't really animals? Oh yes, you were told, it's natural to have contrary thoughts, but you must not be deceived by appearances; those fluffy things that look like ponies are not. They are merely apparent ponies. And in reality, you are politely informed, they not only are not real ponies, they must not be, because an all encompassing Theory of Terrestrial Equines requires them to not to be, and you must believe the Theory of Terrestrial Equines. And what if you did? Despite all that was in you; despite what you instinctively and empirically knew, what if you believed? What if?

Let's all go ride the fluffy ponies together.
 
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