So, I went out last night. Invited to 3 different things, I chose a physics party and then drinks with a couple of friends of mine and some of their friends, finance types. We all got on well, they seemed like decent guys, dealt with me teasing them well, so was alright.
There was a crystal lady. Or a lady who used mystic crystals as a conversation point. I can deal with this entirely vacuous bullshit, but not if someone starts pulling out "evidence" - she was saying things like "I'm from MIT" and "I used MIT science". Firstly, nullius in verba, bitch. And it's "the scientific method", preceeds MIT by a few hundred years. Enlightenment values, use the brain you were born with. I lasted about 20 seconds before I had a go at the person who had started this and retreated. I had no way of redeeming the situation - I couldn't lie and pretend like she wasn't bullshitting, and I couldn't criticise and rip her to shreds because I was new to the group. I suppose I should have deflected, which is what I would have done had my friend, who is more confrontational than I am, not started demanding empirical evidence.
The problem with using language like that with people who don't understand what empirical evidence is is that they'll start giving you something else. The questions to ask are things like "how often are you wrong?", "can you see auras through obstacles?", "With what success rate?" If, on the other hand, they start giving cargo-cult science, then I'm past what I know how to politely deal with. It's like going up to a Christian and saying "I'm believe in Jesus, he wasn't God though. He was gay and he slept with Mary Magdalen and had a whole bunch of kids, escaped from the cross and lived the rest of his live in a cave as a cult leader". People genuinely believe things like that, but how on earth do you deal?
Although I do need to figure it out, invariably I'm going to come across situations like this and I need to be able to do them. The nice thing about most religious people, mainstream at least, is they know that people will often view their faith as kooky and for the sake of social lubricant don't bring it up. And that is the kind of religious faith that is fine.
Although I do need to figure it out, invariably I'm going to come across situations like this and I need to be able to do them. The nice thing about most religious people, mainstream at least, is they know that people will often view their faith as kooky and for the sake of social lubricant don't bring it up. And that is the kind of religious faith that is fine.
So today's job - figure out ways that might work to defuse situations like the above. I sometimes wish I was one of those people who had these sorts of social skills automatically. I suspect though, that doesn't often happen. Hard earned is usually the way.
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