Caramel Baloney

Re: science, fantasy, and cognitive bias

i-am-the-lighthouse:

caramelbaloney:

littlelightx:

vintagehomo:

atheist camp

I think I’m the only one who finds this depressing. ‘A £10 prize for the child who can disprove the existence of the mythical unicorn’? But… but… I mean, personally I believe childhood should be a time of innocence and enthusiasm. The fact that the innocence and enthusiasm has to end at a certain more ‘worldly’ age just shows what an awful world we live in, but I digress. Kids should play act and make up fairytales rather than competing over money to see who can think most like a ‘rational’ adult. And the ‘imagine there’s no heaven…and no religion too’ chant just seems like a way of injecting beliefs straight into children’s brains, just like religious camps. Kids should imagine and dream and believe, and childhood seems like the only time in life where those beliefs are enjoyed for themselves rather than pompously being forced on other people. ‘Sceptical thinking’ is the scourge of the earth. Adults think sceptically when they say ‘yeah, I know poverty and environmental destruction is bad but we can’t really change it and anyway X Factor is on g2g!!’

So yeah, clever guy, Richard Dawkins. Watch out to see if this doesn’t become just as indoctrinating as the christian camps. I hate arrogant humanity.

This is almost as bad as that awful, awful, fucking I-want-to-go-die-in-a-ditch-please-just-kill-me-right-now-no-really-you-think-I’m-joking ITV Junior Apprentice, with sixteen year olds eagerly learning how best to screw everyone else over and get as much for themselves as possible.

Unicorns and fairytales are fed to kids just as condos and cubicles are fed to adults. How many parents dream of a carefree existence and push their own nostalgic childhoods on their kids? How many parents will teach their kids to believe in Santa Clause, for example? Conform to whatever standards we judge “good girls and boys” by, and you too can partake in wasteful consumerism! None of this reflects freedom of thought, which the atheist camp is probably meant to inspire. The monetary reward seems like a misstep, though the camp likely doesn’t intend to force evolution upon anyone. The purpose is to present and discuss the evidence for evolution to encourage critical thinking (which is so, so lacking). Many adults dismiss the evidence without examination, and kids grow up sharing those biases. Instead, campers can evaluate each piece of evidence to determine whether they accept it, and they can develop their own questions and hypotheses regarding the remaining gaps in evolutionary theory. Kids should be taught to question their realities, for example, what Santa and Disney teach us. Only then can their minds truly run free, and science is a perfect field for imaginative thinkers. Exploring the complexity of life in the context of evolutionary theory opens up so many more interesting questions. Who else could therapeutically clone human organs from stem cells?

Source: youthismorning