Hacker News Reader

Comment by Knufen | Hacker News Reader

So deniers of evolution will finally stop?

No, there are still plenty of people who sincerely believe in a flat Earth, that vaccines are a conspiracy, and that homeopathic "treatments" make them better. Best to move on and not worry about people who chose not to have evidence-based beliefs.

The problem is when they start voting based on those beliefs and help elect representatives who then attempt to make policy for all of us based on those beliefs.

Don't worry, if their beliefs are truly wrong, concrete consequences will start happening and people will see the error of their ways. For example if enough people stop vaccinating their children, common ilnesses will start spreading again and people will clamor for a fix.

I'm unwilling to be unworried by preventably sick kids who will carry the remnants of a serious illness for the rest of their lives. The consequences can be avoided if we act and talk now.

My sense of the available evidence of the behavior of social groups with blatantly mistaken beliefs is that many don't 'see the error of their ways.'

When you apply this statement to other subjects (eg religion in government) it is rather depressingly incorrect.

Well theocratic governments used to be the norm in Western society. Then people realized that things like kings "ordained by God" and other such nonsense wasn't actually good for then. This might have to happen on a multi-generational level, but regardless people eventually realize what's good for them.

Lastly when you realize not to worry about people with illogical beliefs, and instead focus on educating those who are either open to information, or already support your beliefs you'll focus your energy on the things that you can actually change. Yelling, worrying or typing "you're wrong" to dogmatic religious adherents, homeopathic healers or conspiracy theorists is not going to change their mind.

Do you think they shouldn't force their policy into you, but you can force yours into them? Why is your belief that you are right more entitled to use of force than theirs?

Policy based on science trumps bronze age mythology, so "it depends".

It is not obvious why.

To some. Yet it's still true. Go figure. If you honestly think about your bronze age superstitions enough you will eventually figure out why they can't possibly be true, and aren't even remotely ethical. Many other people, even children, have found the path out of that trap, and you can too, so don't give up hope. It will become obvious eventually.

Homeopathic treatments help lots of people. The trick would be to demonstrate that they help people more than a placebo.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Placebo#How_the_Placebo_effect...

The placebo effect is to a large extent due to regression to the mean, i.e. a statistical glitch that has nothing to do with health outcomes.

[1]http://www.dcscience.net/2015/12/11/placebo-effects-are-weak...

[2]https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6369471

<spock>Tricorder readings report fascinating regressions.</spock>

"Statistical regression to the mean predicts that patients selected for abnormalcy will, on the average, tend to improve. We argue that most improvements attributed to the placebo effect are actually instances of statistical regression."

<bones>I'm a doctor, not a faith healer!</bones>

"Thus, we urge caution in interpreting patient improvements as causal effects of our actions and should avoid the conceit of assuming that our personal presence has strong healing powers."

<kirk>You're a healer, there's a patient. That's an order.</kirk>

<scott>Now, you're an engineer!</scott>

If you don't think patient perception has anything to do with patient wellness then honestly I just hope you're not in medicine.

Some people believe in interspecies evolution, but not between different species.

Correct, "of the same kind". The birds didn't become another species say "bird -> bat".

If all I had was a cell slurry I'd hardly be able to tell the difference. Where does one kind end and the other begin? Maybe the kind of earth is DNA-based with left-chiral protiens and right-chiral metabolism.

there was a time when birds and bats were hard to distinguish in the sense that both their ancestors were first one, then very closely related, and now very distinct and separate. And it's hard to tell where to draw the line in this process of separation.

Wouldn't this just add fuel to the young-Earth idea? If evolution can happen so fast, those billions of years might not be so billion after all...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com