Thank God for the Scientists Who Have Come to Save Us From Ourselves
I recently came across an article on Medium from a few months ago by Christine Stevens. It was entitled ‘Scientists Have Discovered a Fundamental Flaw in the Human Race’, which is that “human beings think they are right even when they are wrong — and nothing will ever change their minds”. “Our brain is actually a device for making us believe we are right. If you want to fix that, you would have to take out that device and replace it with something else”. The suggested replacement is a quantum computer. Since this seems like an unlikely option for most people, “we just have to live with our fatal flaw”.
This remarkable discovery, which had apparently never occurred to anyone before, was made by scientists at the Scripps Institute. In modern society we are encouraged to look up to scientists as superior beings, capable of discovering the truth, while we ordinary mortals wallow in our errors and illusions. But wait a minute. Aren’t scientists also human beings? Do they not have brains made of exactly the same material as the rest of us? In which case they are presumably equally susceptible to this fundamental flaw themselves. Far from being immune from it, they are sometimes actually the worst culprits.
As far as I could tell from the article, the research mentioned seemed to focus on behaviour rather than opinions and beliefs, but the idea seems equally applicable to them as well. Here are a few things that various scientists are convinced they are right about, when in fact they are wrong, in my humble opinion, (please note my attempt to rid myself of this fundamental flaw):
1. that consciousness is an epiphenomenon of the brain.
2. that the self does not exist.
3. that Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection is a complete explanation for life on Earth.
4. that there is no life after death.
5. that ESP is impossible because it would break the laws of physics.
6. that there is no such thing as the paranormal.
7. that science has demonstrated the non-existence of God.
These scientists are completely stubborn and obstinate, totally convinced that they are right. They are so sure that I don’t think that even replacing their brains with quantum computers would change their minds.
