Thread 18084528

The people of the past has believed in all sort of things we today consider non-existing.
Gnomes, elves, local spirity, even deities.

As far as I could researched, every culture and every age knows their invisible co-habits.

Why do we believe that we are so crucial different?

>>18084528 (OP)
I recently read this blog and I must admitt, it has something deeply concerning:
>https://gwern.net/narrowing-circle

>>18084528 (OP)
They had invisible co-habits because they didn't have science. They used mythology to explain the weather, sickness, and why the crops failed.

We have the scientific method. We can prove what's real. The burden of proof is on you to show a shrinking violet or a gnome, and you can't.

>>18084540
Yet, our modern scientific method cannot explain a lot. It critically relies on the concept of randomness. For example, if I ask myself why, at this specific time, a leaf falls from one of my plants, I would have no explanation.
The men in the old days would just assume some invisible spirit that makes themselve aware by it. Maybe, they would feel that his has a deeper meaning, even if they are currently unable to discouver this meaning.

Are we actually so much more rational than, e.g. the old Greeks or Chinese?

>>18084528 (OP)
science took most of the wonder out of the world

>>18084613
Could we bring back?

>>18084540
Science also gives us plenty of invisible cohabitants: billions of bacteria and dust mites :^)

>>18084549
>Are we actually so much more rational than, e.g. the old Greeks or Chinese?
Yes.

>>18084549
with how many unironically still believe in Abrahamism, no.

>>18084549
>Are we actually so much more rational than, e.g. the old Greeks or Chinese?
We aren't but we rationalize. In our culture you can't just say something happens because of magic, you have to embed it in some logical framework to sell it. That's the big break between our scientistic culture and the pre-scientific ones

>>18084528 (OP)
People in the past had beliefs we now find absurd because they had no way to properly explain these things.

Imagine being an illiterate farmer in rural Mesopotamia in 2000 BC, how would you explain why the sun moves across the sky? You couldn’t because they didn’t have the tools or methods of explaining and had to resort to their imagination. “The sun moves across the sky because the god Shamash pulls it with a flying chariot” was just as good of an explanation as any.

>science says like 70% of the universe is made of invisible dark matter
is it then really a stretch to say there could be creatures made of it living among us? maybe these creatures are the fairies that they talked about

>>18084613
>o my heckin science!111!!1!1
Get real, listen to yourself. Most moronic post on the board.
You should really delete your post out of embarrassment.

>>18085300
How the fuck do you make "creatures" out of a single kind of particle that only interacts gravitationally?

>>18084844
What are you implying? Germs aren't real?

>>18084528 (OP)
We still believe in them, though
Except now, we know exactly what they are - demons in disguise

Because they were afraid and the world was scary. Why do you think it was common for people long time ago to bury their dead with their belongings? Because if someone died from an infectious disease and you touched their utensils you might die too. Abos of Western Australia believed that people die because they are killed by an evil witch or a wizard. They simply couldn’t fathom that someone can die naturally or due to a disease not caused by an animal bite or something conspicuous enough.

>>18085349
Demons are not real, take your meds

>>18085313
I mean he is right. It's like when you were a kid everything is magical and then you learn how it works and it becomes mundane.

>>18084528 (OP)
Jews are basically like evil spirits for antisemites.
Conversely, there's those who see Hitler like the devil.

>>18086319
The CIA is another one.
For a more mundane example, there's also "the algorithm".

>>18084851
How did you get this confident?
>>18084875
>>18084872
Yes, this is one part. The God of the Abrahamic religious tradition is as invisible as the gods of other traditions. I would say that this tradition is by no means more or less justified than any other form of belief.
However, I want to add that even atheists are full of magical thinking and seem to believe in invisible, supernatural entities. They call these "moral properties", "rights", and "laws". You cannot see these entities, you cannot experience them, and it does not matter—our culture relies on them.
Even randomness, as it cannot be explained further, can be seen as a part of this...
>>18085143
I do not want to imply the people in the past has been stupid or something like that. When we trust the explaination of antrophologists, the time of human history is simply not enough for a meaningful change in traits like intelligence. Thus, the old Chinese or Romans or whatever must be seen as just as intelligent as a person who lives today.

The problem is that, from the viewpoint of a average educated person from 2425, we may appears just as the rural Mesopotamian farmer. Or at least, I hope that the trek of discovering new truths are not yet exhausted...

>>18085300
Hardly. Dark matter or whatever would not explain the various properties and abilites fairies etc. should have, according to our oral tradition.
>>18085363
>Abos of Western Australia believed that people die because they are killed by an evil witch or a wizard.
>They simply couldn’t fathom that someone can die naturally or due to a disease not caused by an animal bite or something conspicuous enough.
First of all, if you take a unbiased view, you will note that people today believes as much in conspiricy thinkin that this "abos". They may not believe that e.g. cancer is caused by evil spirits or mal-doing entities, not anymore at least, but they believe for example that 09/11 was an inside job. It seems to be a function of the human mind to search for a cause, a responsible force.
Second: Isn't our modern concept of randomness, of chance, much smiliar to this abos than we like?
We replace the superstition in magical beings and exchange them with random chances. Yet, given the case we ask what randomness actually is, our reason stops in wonder. Not unlike St. Augustin who once asks himselfe what time is.