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Comment by 01100011 | Hacker News Reader

It's easy to dismiss cults until you realize how easily an intelligent person can fall under their spell. Many cults have very logical belief systems predicated on a few twisted axioms. If you convince an intelligent, rational person that those axioms are true, you have them. Often the smartest folks are drawn in because they are used to having beliefs and convictions far outside the mainstream which are rooted in reason(general relativity, for example).

I grew up atheist, but ended up spending about 6 years in a cult-like, nameless, christian denomination. It wasn't until the results of their belief system became absurd that I started to question the entire system.

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Intelligence comes with its own particular blindspots. A person convinced of own intelligence is likely to follow a novel approach that is logical even if it goes against "widely established practices". I think we can easily name examples from our own industries; both positive and negative.

This is a double-edged sword in that it can both cut through the cruft of outdated ideas & bad practices, as well as cut off valuable experience gathered through generations.

Moreover a person with intelligence and deep experience in a particular subject runs increased risk of over-estimating own abilities in other, unrelated fields.

> If you convince an intelligent, rational person that those axioms are true,

If you convince them that those axioms are true, than they are not intelligent nor rational.

No, this kind of reductive thinking doesn’t hold. Ever heard of that alchemist quack who also did some math on the side? Newton, his name was.

Newton lived in the 17th century.

From Wikipedia:

Alchemy (from Arabic: al-kīmiyā) was an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition practiced throughout Europe, Africa, and Asia, originating in Greco-Roman Egypt in the first few centuries AD. It aims to purify, mature, and perfect certain objects. Common aims were chrysopoeia, the transmutation of "base metals" (e.g., lead) into "noble metals" (particularly gold); the creation of an elixir of immortality; the creation of panaceas able to cure any disease; and the development of an alkahest, a universal solvent.

So, what was irrational with alchemy at the times Newton lived?

By the way, please do not confuse true with believable: astrology is not true and not believable; cold fusion is not true but believable.

Do we have proof of the intelligence of said victims ?

I know an example. The Aum Shinrikyo, which is known as one of the most violent cults in Japanese history, had many elites from top universities including doctors, lawyers, graduate students and so on.

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