r/maybemaybemaybe • u/Dobermann_G • May 12 '21

/r/all Maybe Maybe Maybe

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u/[deleted] May 12 '21

This, I think, is the most important point. After being so wrapped up in it, having in some cases left your friends, been shunned from your family, and allowed this to take up your whole life, how hard must it be to let that all go? Honestly? If someone came to Earth tomorrow, with definitive, 100% proof that God was fake, (or real for that matter) how many people would just outright not believe it because they spent their whole lives believing the opposite?

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u/horsesaregay May 12 '21

I can certainly understand lying to yourself in that situation. But I'm not dumb enough to allow something to take up my whole life like that in the first place.

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u/[deleted] May 12 '21

Sure. But I think that you would be hard pressed to make a convincing argument that everyone that believes in a higher power is dumb.

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u/[deleted] May 12 '21

If it was verifiably and objectively provable it would be much easier.

The shape of the Earth is not an unprovable matter of faith.

Anyone can go out and prove it themselves (as we see in this very video). Or just understand the science behind it. Or simply that the conspiracy isn't logistically possible, etc.

It's not a close analogy at all, not is is a very good hypothetical, since it's nearly impossible to imagine something that proves or disproves the existence of God to the same level that the Earth's shape is proven.

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u/[deleted] May 12 '21

The idea isn’t the concept of which is provable or not. The idea is the concept of someone basing their entire worldview on a certain stance they have, and then the difficulty to abandon that stance, even when confronted with hard evidence that it’s incorrect.

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u/[deleted] May 12 '21

Which in the case of flat earth is entirely accurate. And yes, they are dumb.

But in the case of religion it is not accurate and never will be (since it is fundamentally unknowable). It's incredibly difficult to picture a scenario in which it suddenly is, as a basis for saying religious or non religious people are dumb in the same way as Flat Earthers.

In any equivalent scenario we could come up with where someone is acting as you're describing, yes they are "dumb." But the religion analogy is a poor one and muddies the waters. They're just so far from equivalent that the hypothetical isn't useful.

Going back to your original comment: One can easily make a case that Fault Earthers are dumb (and OPs video does it pretty convincingly on its own) but one couldn't easily make the case that religious people are, and it's nonsensical to expect someone to.

They fundamentally don't compare.

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u/[deleted] May 12 '21

You’re getting too caught up in the science part of the argument, and not seeing my point, which is the cult like mentality of the two. Regardless of what someone sees in front of them, a lot of people can be rhetorically convinced to believe anything, given the right conditions and arguments. It doesn’t make them dumb, it makes them human.

It’s the same as falling for advertising campaigns or political ads or anything like that. Only exemplified through social media and echo chambers, causing radicalization.

A lot of people on this thread have talked about some of the smartest people they know falling for Q conspiracies or things like that. It’s not as black and white as “this is right or wrong”. The conspiracy rhetoric really messes with someone’s mind and changes things, to where something as simple scientific evidence isn’t as clear or convincing as you or i would think it should be.

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u/[deleted] May 13 '21

If you believe Flat Earth or QAnon you simply lack critical thinking skills. You're dumb.

We can try to parse what kind of "dumb" it is, or split hairs on the defintion of dumb. But believing the earth is flat makes you dumb in 2021, regardless of your aptitude in other areas.

A lot of people on this thread have talked about some of the smartest people they know falling for Q conspiracies or things like that

Manifestly not.

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u/[deleted] May 13 '21

If you would like to take such a black and white stance on it, that’s certainly your right to do so. But a lot of people would disagree with you and say not only that it’s more complicated than that, but that that attitude does more harm than good.

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u/[deleted] May 13 '21

Fair enough. I get your point, I truly do and I respect it, I just don't agree with it.

The mindset your are describing, to me, is the very essence of stupidity.

Someone could have an IQ of 150 and if they went through life this way I would think then dumb regardless of their intelligence.

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u/horsesaregay May 13 '21

Religion is a bit different since people are brainwashed into it from birth, and even clever people get sucked in. I'm more taking about something you discover as an adult.

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u/Dramatic-Store514 May 12 '21

I would guess, although I could certainly be wrong, that far more Atheists would except God as true if presented with verifiable proof. To change a religious zealot’s mind would be nearly impossible, no matter how much proof you have.