Anecdotally, this seems right to me; anytime I use the fireplace, I wake up with a cough the next morning.
The framing device of belief systems is interesting. My reaction was to immediately accept his statements as highly probable, but also accept that for now, I'll keep using the fireplace anyway, although maybe less often. But I've no doubt that many self-proclaimed rationalists would jump backflips to maintain what they want to be true.
The more I observe human behavior, the more it seems that religious belief is the norm, not the exception. Believers and non-believers alike cement ideas in their head which are indifferent to reality and hard to dislodge. Sometimes this is due to social bonds, or low-level emotional associations, or a support structure for identity/ego; often, it's just plain habit. Nobody likes to feel the rug pulled out from under them. (Okay: I like it just a little.)
> Believers and non-believers alike cement ideas in their head which are indifferent to reality and hard to dislodge.
When such ideas acquire a (more or less) self-consistent philosophical theory to back them up, and social institutions to promote them, that's what most people call religion. Sometimes we also call them ideologies or traditions. Some have supernatural elements and some don't, but their cognitive and social functions seem to be mostly the same.
I am one of those few people who enjoy having my beliefs being disproven - and I guess there are plenty of us here on HN. Most likely people with this predisposition are drawn to science; after all, refuting hypotheses is what science is all about.
> Nobody likes to feel the rug pulled out from under them. (Okay: I like it just a little.)
Me too. Although I find it dependent on what rug I'm standing on. I have a feeling it depends on how core that belief is to how I base my personality and life decisions. In short, it probably breaks down to the amount of time I have invested into it. (If I've recently adopted some belief, I imagine it's easier to accept change or even invalidation than if I spent 20 years with it).
The framing device of belief systems is interesting. My reaction was to immediately accept his statements as highly probable, but also accept that for now, I'll keep using the fireplace anyway, although maybe less often. But I've no doubt that many self-proclaimed rationalists would jump backflips to maintain what they want to be true.
The more I observe human behavior, the more it seems that religious belief is the norm, not the exception. Believers and non-believers alike cement ideas in their head which are indifferent to reality and hard to dislodge. Sometimes this is due to social bonds, or low-level emotional associations, or a support structure for identity/ego; often, it's just plain habit. Nobody likes to feel the rug pulled out from under them. (Okay: I like it just a little.)