CBS poll on superstition

[Interbane]

TH: "What is so frustrating to me is that a large area of human experience is dismissed as "superstition" and the science of it neglected -- unconscious conditioning, James-Lange theory of emotions (reduce in modern psychology to a quibble), and ideomotor effect."


I catch the drift, but I think something's missing. It's not that a large area of human experience is dismissed, but rather the explanation of that experience, thus the dismissal of the experience is valid by association.

That aside, I wonder if by dismissing a superstitious explanation or belief as such, an antagonist doesn't sometimes replace rather than dismiss. Replace with a scientific explanation that is, rather than neglecting the science. Sometimes, perhaps.

My aunt was with my mother one year picking me up from the airport and commented on the book I was reading about string theory. She was all excited and said she know all about it. What she was referring to was energy healing rather than quantum physics. Since then I've always regarded her as somewhat of a loony. I dismissed her explanation, but always kept an open mind about whether or not such energy healing techniques worked, although for reasons other than what she thought.

[Thomas Hood]

. . .I catch the drift, but I think something's missing. It's not that a large area of human experience is dismissed, but rather the explanation of that experience, thus the dismissal of the experience is valid by association.

. . . Since then I've always regarded her as somewhat of a loony.

Interbane, if you ignore what your aunt says and focus on what she does, you might think better of her. Her interest in occult energy healing is probably a vehicle for her self-esteem, expression of care and concern for others, social involvement, and so on. That is, there is a moral dimension to what she is doing, as trying as you may sometimes find her talk, which dimension I think you ought not dismiss as 'loony'.

A personal example: A few months ago I had an encounter with a local administrator, who told me that she had torn the meniscus in her knee. I anticipated that she would have knee surgery and felt strongly that she should not, and did what I could to dissuade her from having surgery, although at the moment I could not say why. A few weeks later my sister, who had been with me at the time, told me that the woman had died suddenly. "A blood clot from knee surgery?" I ask, and my sister told me that's what they thought it was.

Now note, I had been acting on intuition, a non-rational belief. In afterthought I can identify some of the specific signs that led me to the belief, basically signs of low vitality, but at the moment I could not and my belief was dismissed.

Tom

[Interbane]

TH: "Now note, I had been acting on intuition, a non-rational belief. In afterthought I can identify some of the specific signs that led me to the belief, basically signs of low vitality, but at the moment I could not and my belief was dismissed."

This is a very good example and makes me happy. Woe the people who think they are palm readers after such a happening.

TH: "Interbane, if you ignore what your aunt says and focus on what she does, you might think better of her."

She's a very nice woman and I think highly of her, but she's also a loony. /shrug

[MaryLupin]

Here are a couple of links that are worth looking at with respect to Europe vs America and belief.

http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/arch ... ort_en.pdf

http://www.harrisinteractive.com/harris ... sp?PID=982

Here's a wider ranging Gallup poll on US values...http://www.pollingreport.com/values.htm

Here's one you can do...http://3sc.environics.net/surveys/3sc/main/3sc.asp

[IraMency]

I blame this all on the Ghost Whisperer frenzy.