Quote:
Originally Posted by LadyShea
Intelligent people are really no less likely to believe stupid things, I have found. I know geniuses who believe in all manner of kooky shit.
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Exactly so. There is no necessary correlation between intelligence and the rationality of one's beliefs. If one holds a belief for emotional rather than rational reasons, it's hardly likely you can reason him or her out of that belief.
More to the point, "intelligent" does not necessarily mean "willing or able to examine the reasons for or the rationality of deeply-held beliefs".
For example, it has been repeatedly shown that by an overwhelming margin, the most important determinant of one's religious beliefs is how you were raised. Someone raised in a Catholic family and a Catholic nation is hardly likely to grow up to be a Buddhist, for instance. Most people believe what they were taught as children by their parents and other trusted authority figures, and do so more or less without question. Few people, even as adults, have the willingness (or perhaps even the capacity) to seriously question the "fundamental values" with which they were inculcated as children.
As such, if one were relentlessly taught from infancy that "Jews" are somehow "inferior", for example, it's unlikely that you'd question that basic principle as an adult -- even if you're quite intelligent.
At least an intelligent person has the
potential to question the rationality of his/her beliefs, though that doesn't mean he or she will actually do so.
That was one of the reasons why I could never understand the appeal of
Forrest Gump. Gump was a "good person" for one reason only -- because he lacked the intellectual capacity to ever question whether or not what his mother taught him was right. Fortunately, she indoctrinated him with good values. But she could just as easily have turned him into a monster -- and he'd never have questioned that what she taught him was "right."
Cheers,
Michael