If the placebo effect is real then why don’t we believe in spirituality and esoteric things in order to make people and life better?
H
Posted Dec 13, 2019, 1:49 PM UTC
124
Some people do, and it works. Unfortunately I can't make myself believe in something, or I would.
2
Maybe you just haven’t tryed hard enough
0
That would be even more intellectually dishonest :)
1
Maybe you’re thinking of it wrong, maybe it’s not being intellectual it’s being arrogant to something that opposes your world view
1
In the off-chance that you're not trolling, no. Intellectual honesty has nothing to do with "being an intellectual." It is a method of problem solving that seeks an honest an unbiased attitude. It is the attitude on which the scientific method builds itself. Being intellectually honest means that one strives to not allow personal bias and belief to interfere with truth seeking. It means to acknowledge facts as facts, even when they go against personal belief. It means refraining from distorting evidence even when it goes against personal belief or preference.
Arrogance would be to claim that I know something, when I don't. Or to believe something, just because that's convenient and comforting. I humbly accept that I don't know, and I am open to facts and evidence that will show me I was wrong. My intellectual honesty demands that I accept facts and logic when they oppose my worldview, and adapt my world view accordingly. It also prevents me from believing something just because I want to.
In my worldview, which has been created by being intellectually honest to the best of my ability, "supernatural" is just a name we give to things we don't understand.
I know that the amount of things we do not understand is many times larger than those that we do understand. We are supremely ignorant, but we do understand a few things.
History has always shown, that every time we learn something, the supernatural recedes a little bit into the realm of the unknown. Having learned about electricity, we no longer believe that lightning is the weapon of Zeus. Having learned about orbital mechanics, we no longer believe that we need to make a human sacrifice so that the gods will make winter end. As Neil deGrasse Tyso said it, "God is an ever receding pocket of scientific ignorance that gets smaller and smaller as time goes on."
To sum up a reply that is a lot longer than I intended already, the only intellectually honest position that I can see is one that reserves judgment until all the facts are in. That is why I can't just decide to believe something.
2
That exactly why religion and spirituality are so popular. They make you feel better about the inevitable.
2
Last time we tried to believe in a spiritual being too much we went on how many crusades?
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Maybe it’s for another, comon guys lets go take the holy land
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Because those things have zero to do with each other. You may as well ask "If grass is green, why are Pizza Rolls so delicious?!"
1
How do you not see the connection? If believing in healing crystals and stuff works on a placebo level then why dosent everyone in order to help people?
0
Because people think not believing in anything makes them cool, when really they're just boring
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You seriously think the reason people aren’t spiritual is because they think it makes them cool?
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Have you met an internet athiest?
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I’m an atheist because I actually care about whether my beliefs are true, not because I think it makes me cool...
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But if it works then it is true to an extent or true in that it makes you feel better
1
my point, proven.
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At the end of the day people still need to get off their ass and go to work and have hardships and struggles to build and refined their character. Your just not human if you have no strifes in life.
But also there's chemicals in the brain like cortisol and serotonin. They stimulate and determine how you feel and process even if you can lie to yourself that a placebo will save you.
0
I don’t understand how this relates to the idea that believing in a healing crystals makes it work there for you should
1
Some people do believe in things and seem to be pretty chuffed about.
The system works.