UPDATE: 37 % of Americans are Idiots
WARNING: elitist mocking of other people’s worldview’s to follow.
According to this FoxNews poll, almost two fifths of Americans are tragically stupid. Granted, the 2004 election showed that slightly below half of Americans aren’t particularly bright, but one could blame that on misguided enthusiasm. This poll asked Americans whether they believe in: God (91%), heaven (87%), hell (74%), etc. While I do believe in the those three, I would say “no” to such things as ghosts (34%) and reincarnation (27%). I can’t really mock those who disagree with me on those points because such questions aren’t really provable one way or the other.
I do take issue, however, with the whopping 47% who believe in astrology. Unlike the existence of the devil (67%) or miracles (84%), astrology is falsifiable. Moving beyond this, astrology seeks to make predictions of future events; unlike a metaphysical topic like angels (79%), one can observe whether astrology is accurate. On a general level, it seems rather absurd that, of 6 billion people, there are only 12 ways a person’s week can turn out. More specifically, I doubt that anyone (by anyone, I mean both people who read this blog) can honestly claim that their astrological predictions work so much as a third of time.
What is truly frightening is that I doubt there is much overlap between the 37% who believe in astrologists and the 23% who think God sent Katrina to punish New Orleans. Assuming at least 10% overlap (sadly, I know quite a few who would say ‘yes’ to both), a good half of Americans aren’t particularly bright.
posted by Sam @ 12:07 AM
6 comments
6 Comments:
While I agree with you (the majority of Americans aren't that bright), I fail to see what the difference is between believing in heaven/hell and astrology. I mean, I get the difference between belief in heaven/hell and belief in astrology, but isn't it all just blind faith in a bunch of b.s.? Keep in mind that I've been an athiest since age 12 (it just made the most sense to me) and the whole heaven/hell thing strikes me as mind control. I respect your Catholicism, but religion...eh, it's all just creationist mythicism and moral teachings for the masses. Not so much for me.
My point is falsifiability. One can’t definitively prove whether there is or isn’t heaven ; it is, as you said, a matter of blind faith. Astrology, on the other hand, can be readily proven (or disproven) via observation; since it is observable, it is not a matter of blind, but a potentially informed decision. While you can call a person’s belief in God (or Allah, Lord Vishnu or even Odin and Prince Xenu) b.s., you can’t actually prove the person wrong. For that matter, there isn’t much I can do to factually prove you wrong about atheism. I could try burning you at the stake until you finally gave in and admitted I’m right, but those killjoys in the Vatican won’t let us do that now.
An astrologist, on the other hand, can be presented with actual evidence (from observation and the scientific method) that they are full of crap. If that doesn’t work, you can always play keep-away with their little hippy-crystal.
But how is astrology really falsifiable? Isn't it also blind faith that when Mercury is in retrograde you'll fight with your significant other? Or that if you were born between Dec 1 and 22, you'll have certain characteristics? That's not really proveable one way or the other. Sure, there are instances where those things don't happen, so I guess you could say that's disproving it. But how is that different from me saying that I have flashbacks to a past life, therefore I know there's no heaven or hell? (I don't, by the way, but what if)
Of course, we all know it's true about Xenu putting the alien souls in the volcanos. It has to be. Tom Cruise says so. Hey, talk about someone we should think about burning at the stake...
And yeah, I'm not even quite sure what my point really is or why I'm even arguing this with you. Chalk it up to too much wine last night.
The difference is that astrology conveys predictions that are objectively observable. It isn't blind faith if you can later see if the predictions were correct and presumably decide whether to continue your faith in astrology. If there is a predication that X will happen while Mercury is in retrograde, one can clearly demonstrate whether the prediction was true or false. Using various statistical techniques, you can see if the prediction is correct by comparing the ordinary occurrence of X with the Mercury-induced instances of X.
Having visions of a past life, however, is not objectively verifiable. For one thing, an objective observer can't tell if you really had the vision of another life or if you're making it up. Furthermore, even you can't be certain that it was a super-natural vision and not just a really strange dream.
If I were to ramble on about my religious experience, you could easily chalk it up me either lying or simply having mistaken perceptions of my thoughts. If, on the other hand, I say that on December 24 the Pope will come to Iraq, crush the insurgency, buy everyone ice cream and convert them all to Catholicism, you can tell whether or not that is true.
Obligatory grammar comment: "worldviews" does not have an apostrophe. Sorry, couldn't help myself!
Also, it occurred to me that the title of this post is actually rather optimistic. I would think the percentage would in actuality be much higher than 37%, though I understand you're just basing this on the percent that believes in astrology.
Why is it that people choose to believe in heaven but not in hell?
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