The Psychology of it all, To Break or Not to Break, Daniel Dennett

Well you all know that I m double majoring in biology, and nursing and minoring in psychology. I just moved back to the city to earn more money for nursing school while continuing my education at a com. college (Their dirt cheap). This topic hit me hard while I was at my college in a little town in Texas in the Bible belt. The school is a nice state run one, and doesn't teach ID, but when your there a lot of the kids are from small bible belt towns and are more or less smarter versions (much smarter) than Dad1.
I personally have never really believed any theistic system and was never made to believe by my parents. But my friends there where deep deep believers and seeing there culture they are surrounded by it. Their whole lives have been dominated by church this ideology is deeply imbeded in them.

Well when I entered my first biology class the complexity of things made all of them happy as it looked like nothing short of the divine could have made all this happen. Then enter Genetics about two weeks in some of the chicks in nursing actually dropped out. Curious I asked them why, and they said they really couldn't study it anymore it was to anxiety provoking. One chick after class went to the instructor with her eyes welled up one day, same thing happened in micro-biology i didn't know whether to laugh or stare at the situation crossed eyed with my mouth dropped open.

I really didn't believe my eyes, these people were so incredibly naive that when they really learn that science knows more than they thought it did, they couldn't handle it b/c of its implication. You also must remember These bible belt baptists take everything in the bible very literally there whole ideology falls like a house made of cards when one thing is removed it all falls apart.

I began to wonder and Daniel Dennett talks about the same thing in his book, and i think nietzsche talks about this, would someone like to live life without music, no, to these people religion is their life's music. I don't care about ppl who get on these forums i'll tell them like it is, but when it comes to people in those situation how would you all handle it. Break the spell, or Don't Break the Spell?

Tough call. I'm a Texan - 5th generation. Lived in Cowtown my entire life. It is deeply embedded in the culture. (I honestly think it's become worse in the last 20 years or so.)

I suspect that many of your friends were either home schooled or went to "private" (i.e. - religious) schools. It's probably best to give them a sympathetic ear and help ease them through the culture shock.

I feel your pain

Texas Tech University
Lubbock, Texas

I honestly was theistic when I started going to school here. I almost became a catholic priest. These bible belt fanatics really allow you to grasp how far some people are willing to go with their faith. This...coupled with a lot of study....finally allowed me to ditch theism.

side story:
I once was talking to a baptist arguing evolution and Sola Scriptura....just for fun.
Somehow we got on the topic of physics.
I mentioned that time slows down as you approach the speed of light. Very simple stuff.
He WOULD NOT believe me. It didnt make sense to him...and once again was proof of how silly scientists can be.
I tried explaining the paradox...I tried showing him examples of this knowledge being used for practical applications. He just would not believe it....because it didnt "Seem" right.

They have a very simplistic way of looking at the world. Its almost beautiful.
If it "makes sense" then it is true....if it doesnt "make sense" then it is false.
They have a DEEP belief in the bible, so anything from the bible "makes sense".
Anything that challenges the bible doesnt "make sense".

No test, proof, explanation, etc will suffice. If their "common sense" initially rejects the idea....then it will never get into their mind.

Science is still in a state of flux with new understanding coming all the time. Which means that what is know today is not the final reality but a fuzzy rendition. Even the fundamentals of matter and the universe are the subject of debate with many competing theories among scientist. So, if one doesn't chose wisely, they may be chosing a science alternative that is fantasy reality. I personnally don't see much difference between beleiving in bad science and a naive choice, in principle. In practical reality, bad science looks more righteous, because it uses logic, math and machines.

This sort of reminds me of a Monty Python skit. A person was in the hospitial and found hi-tech comfort, with the machine that goes "bing". The machine had some fancy lights and didn't really do anything else, but it looked hi tech. That hi tech look gave the man hope in quality of the treatment. Both religion and science have their machines that go bing, and that is good enough for most.

This post has been edited by MDT on Jan 24 2007, 12:24 AM

These sort of people are typical of dad1. He knows nothing about science other than that it is wrong.

Several centuries ago, Islam was one of the most advanced civilisations in the world with medicine, architecture, astronomy, banking, etc. Then the imams and such became worried because people started seeing contradictions between "science" and Islam. So they banned all knowledge and made people just study the quran. That is how several centuries later they ended up as generally a race of illiterate nomads.

The Dominionists (Dubya's fanatical mates) want the same thing for America.

gmilam,
I used to live in Fort Worth a number of years ago when I was working for a certain aerospace industry sub. I really enjoyed living there, as it had a grown-up small town feel with lots to offer on the arts/ cultural /food scene. So enjoy what you have.

SIP,
I think MDT has a good point, our best knowledge is still so limited that what we "know" today may be seen from a different perspective later on as we learn more about it. Sometimes our observations are based on assumptions which may or may not be completely correct, so leave room for iterations. The longer I have been around, the more I realize there is so much more that I do not know, so it can be good to keep learning with an open-minded perspective.

Its unfortunate that some people you come across may prefer to bury their heads in the sand instead of using their talents, but before we gloat, we are all quite capable of doing the same thing. So its probably a good idea to be nice to those small town simpletons when you come across them. My brother was one of those small town bible believers who was biology student many years ago, but be was different than most. He was a much better student than myself and was accepted to medical school after 3 years of college and received top honors all the way from high school through his post-doctorate work. He is the finest surgeon that I know and still a believer to this day, not the kind that would whack you over the head with a verse as if that would do anyone any good at all, but the kind who genuinely cares for his patients, nurses, and anyones else he is around. I still look up to him and think he would be my top pick if I ever needed to go under the knife.

I guess where I am going with this, some of these simple folks may make good friends if you let them be, or they may take great care of you someday as none of us will be young and healthy forever. And its ok if you chide them a little, we all could probably be challenged a little bit in what we believe because we don't always have it together or know as much as we think we do.
Best wishes on your studies, I hope you enjoy it.