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The new study from the University of Fribourg, published in Current Biology, provides evidence that links teleological thinking, conspiracy theories and the rejection of scientific facts about evolution. Perhaps more than any other well-established scientific finding, evolution has been in constant combat with misperceptions arising from teleological thinking.
In fact, teleological reasoning is so pervasive that there is much evidence that it impairs people’s ability to learn the concept of natural selection in the first place.
It is tempting to think that giraffes needed long necks to reach leaves at the top of the trees, and so evolution provided them with those long necks. This teleological notion is in conflict with the fact that natural selection had no such goal in mind.
There was natural variation in the population and those animals with longer necks had greater reproductive success in an environment with tall trees. So the giraffe evolved and longer necks became standard.
The Fribourg researchers conducted three studies with more than 2,000 participants overall. Echoing previous studies, the findings showed that teleological thinking was associated with the rejection of evolution and the acceptance of its pseudo-scientific alternative, creationism.
But the researchers also showed a strong association between creationism and conspiracism.
People who believed in creationism also tended to believe in conspiracy theories, regardless of their religious or political beliefs. Conspiracism was also associated with teleological thinking.
This confirms that seeking purpose in random events, such as the death of Princess Diana in a drink-driving accident, or natural phenomena such as rain clouds or the necks of giraffes, reflects a common underlying way of thinking.
Why we deny science
These new results mesh well with other research that has linked conspiracism to science denial across so many domains. Conventionally, the use of conspiracy theories to reject scientific accounts has been explained as a way to avoid accepting an inconvenient truth.
A chain smoker who is confronted with frightening information about his habit might find it easier to accuse the medical establishment of being an oligopolistic cartel than to quit smoking.
Likewise, people who feel threatened by climate mitigation, for example because it might raise the cost of petrol, may be more willing to think that Al Gore created a hoax than to accept 150 years of research into basic physics.
The new study takes the role of conspiratorial thought in creationism a step further. It suggests that creationism itself could be seen as a belief system involving the ultimate conspiracy theory: the purposeful creation of all things.
What it boils down to, in layman's terms, is that some people are stupid. And some people are poorly educated. And some people are both.
And a lot of those people fill pews on Sundays in fundamentalist churches.
I know a very intelligent person, with a university degree, who rejects hard science. He rejects plate tectonics because he can't see how the earth's crust could move. Then again he is an indoctrinated creationist and plate tectonics clashes with his 6000 year old created earth. I should ask what he thinks of the lunar landings - he might be a conspiracist too.
Does it not say somewhere "There none so blind as those who will not see" ?
I know a very intelligent person, with a university degree, who rejects hard science. He rejects plate tectonics because he can't see how the earth's crust could move. Then again he is an indoctrinated creationist and plate tectonics clashes with his 6000 year old created earth. I should ask what he thinks of the lunar landings - he might be a conspiracist too.
Does it not say somewhere "There none so blind as those who will not see" ?
Given he didn't go to school to become a Geologist he probably wouldn't know anything about plate tectonics. Him claiming he knows about plate tectonics is nothing more than pure ignorance.
i think its more of brain parts disconnected or underdeveloped.
I talked to one guy and he said "That means I would be wrong my whole life." I was like "yeah, I am wrong everyday of my life, how cool is that."
thats a fundamentally, no pun intended, different outlook on life I think.
That makes sense.
You are right though, it is hard to accept having been wrong all your life (or even for a short time), specially when the idea one thought was true is appealing to us.
You are right though, it is hard to accept having been wrong all your life (or even for a short time), specially when the idea one thought was true is appealing to us.
Nope. You need to read up on "justifier mind". The very moment, one finds out, that any one of his beliefs was wrong, justifier mind immediately develops very well structured justification to how exactly it was not one's fault, transfers liability onto someone else, and re formats one's mind into the new "truth" belief.
Give it between few days to few weeks - done. Like a new person. Drumming on his chest - I have ALWAYS been this way!
Thanks for posting that. I didn't know what Teleology was but I now remember being taught to do that. "Wasn't it loving of God to make food for us that we would enjoy?"
Evolution should be based on the fact that God is the missing link , as atheistic science evolutionism is paganism which is rail roaded down society and people are condemn in not believing their art only ....
Evolution should be based on the fact that God is the missing link , as atheistic science evolutionism is paganism which is rail roaded down society and people are condemn in not believing their art only ....
You mean the atheistic science evolutionism that is accepted by religious people as well?
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