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Ah, Conservapedia. Here is their page which "disproves" the theory of relativity, which starts off by conflating the theory of relativity with moral relativism.

Ah, Conservapedia. Here is their page which "disproves" the theory of relativity, which starts off by conflating the theory of relativity with moral relativism. https://www.conservapedia.com/Counterexamples_to_Relativity https://www.conservapedia.com/Counterexamples_to_Relativity In addition to ignoring all the experiments which confirm relativistic predictions, there cite various open issues (eg, no general solution to the equations) as if that is disproof, and they also cite the bible in a few places.

prox 4y ago
So conservapedia is wishful thinking and plugging your ears to anything one doesn’t like? Why do people do this to themselves?
- airstrike 4y ago
  > In the field of psychology, cognitive dissonance is the perception of contradictory information. Relevant items of information include a person's actions, feelings, ideas, beliefs, values, and things in the environment. Cognitive dissonance is typically experienced as psychological stress when persons participate in an action that goes against one or more of those things.[1] According to this theory, when two actions or ideas are not psychologically consistent with each other, people do all in their power to change them until they become consistent.[1][2] The discomfort is triggered by the person's belief clashing with new information perceived, wherein the individual tries to find a way to resolve the contradiction to reduce their discomfort.[1][2][3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_dissonance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_dissonance
- Loughla 4y ago
  Self-soothing. It feels good. The world is confusing and difficult, so holding on to what is familiar, comfortable, and feels good is nice to do for your brain. It's massively common, but I would argue that almost everyone who does it denies that's what they're doing. To them, they're just using the best sources they can find. It's sad, and I'm sure it's a problem.
  - prox 4y ago
    I have always been able to detach emotions from reasoning, but observing I notice not everyone has that skill. And maybe like you said, the ability to see that it is happening.
mountainriver 4y ago
Oh wow, didn’t know this was a thing. Reminds me of growing up in Christian school where they gave us all these crazy reasons why evolution was impossible and the world was 6000 years old
- tasty_freeze 4y ago
  Yup, they have you covered there too: https://www.conservapedia.com/Counterexamples_to_Evolution https://www.conservapedia.com/Counterexamples_to_Evolution It is full of "checkmate" logic like this: "Limestone and fossils exist at the highest peaks of altitude." The implication being that the earth has been inundated for long periods of time to a depth of many thousands of meters of water. What geology really says is that those limestone fossils were formed near sea level and subsequent uplift is why those fossils of sea life ended up at the tops of mountains. But because one of the presuppositions of conservapedia is a young earth, that explanation isn't accepted.
  - mountainriver 4y ago
    ah yes I am well versed in this argument :)

prox 4y ago

So conservapedia is wishful thinking and plugging your ears to anything one doesn’t like? Why do people do this to themselves?

airstrike 4y ago
> In the field of psychology, cognitive dissonance is the perception of contradictory information. Relevant items of information include a person's actions, feelings, ideas, beliefs, values, and things in the environment. Cognitive dissonance is typically experienced as psychological stress when persons participate in an action that goes against one or more of those things.[1] According to this theory, when two actions or ideas are not psychologically consistent with each other, people do all in their power to change them until they become consistent.[1][2] The discomfort is triggered by the person's belief clashing with new information perceived, wherein the individual tries to find a way to resolve the contradiction to reduce their discomfort.[1][2][3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_dissonance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_dissonance
Loughla 4y ago
Self-soothing. It feels good. The world is confusing and difficult, so holding on to what is familiar, comfortable, and feels good is nice to do for your brain. It's massively common, but I would argue that almost everyone who does it denies that's what they're doing. To them, they're just using the best sources they can find. It's sad, and I'm sure it's a problem.
- prox 4y ago
  I have always been able to detach emotions from reasoning, but observing I notice not everyone has that skill. And maybe like you said, the ability to see that it is happening.

mountainriver 4y ago

Oh wow, didn’t know this was a thing. Reminds me of growing up in Christian school where they gave us all these crazy reasons why evolution was impossible and the world was 6000 years old

tasty_freeze 4y ago
Yup, they have you covered there too: https://www.conservapedia.com/Counterexamples_to_Evolution https://www.conservapedia.com/Counterexamples_to_Evolution It is full of "checkmate" logic like this: "Limestone and fossils exist at the highest peaks of altitude." The implication being that the earth has been inundated for long periods of time to a depth of many thousands of meters of water. What geology really says is that those limestone fossils were formed near sea level and subsequent uplift is why those fossils of sea life ended up at the tops of mountains. But because one of the presuppositions of conservapedia is a young earth, that explanation isn't accepted.
- mountainriver 4y ago
  ah yes I am well versed in this argument :)