Being an atheist absolutely does not rule out being gullible & easily misled. This is shown by the number of atheists who take on irrational & unevidenced beliefs on the far-left, far-right, spiritual, postmodern, pseudoscientific & Jungian-archetype-mixed-with-bible-stories. https://twitter.com/scarce_sense/status/985448699084992518 …
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I talked about this at the Post-Truth Initiative at the University of Sydney. Society is a mess of conflicting narratives that people find meaningful - religious and secular, ideological, political, spiritual, whatever. It makes us feel good to inscribe ourselves into a narrative
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Whether it's 'Make America Great Again' or Social Justice narratives, Islamic narratives about a Caliphate or Christian redemption ones, nationalism, Marxism etc. We make metanarratives to provide meaning, purpose and morality but its essential to step outside them & face facts.
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How do we quantify the patterns in stories? I guess I ascribe to different types of truths. I can't explain how these narratives fit my experience as a clinician and how my young disabled clients are able to get them instantly in a way "facts" are unable to reach them.
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I've just had a thread about that. Evo psych is good here. We did not evolve to seek truth. We evolved to seek comfort, common understandings, tell stories. It's how we understand the world by default. Society functions better when we try to overcome it in seeking truth.
End of conversation
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If a narrative has an effect, then it has evidence. But I think we are off the rails on a semantic argument, where everyone is close in meaning but using different definitions
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There's evidence of an effect. eg, if a narrative of a caliphate causes people to blow themselves and many others up, there is evidence they have done this. It's not evidence of the truth of the truth claim which made them do it.
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It is not semantic to separate emotional, psychological and behavioural effects of a narrative from the factual truth or falsity of the claims within it. That is essential.
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I don't follow. In what way do stories make claims?
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??? Consider the bible. Consider news stories. Consider propaganda stories and inspirational narratives. If they make us feel good or seem to have a profound meaning but are not established to be true factual accounts, we must say this.
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What would you say to what I have seen? That if people follow behaviors seen in hero myths, there is a positive correlation with wellbeing. What do we call these observations, it seems the word truth applies but in a different way then in speaking to facts.
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You can say that people can experience positive benefits from following narratives which are not true. If evidenced, it is true that this happens. The narrative remains untrue. Perhaps someone is inspired by the bravery and honest of Harry Potter?
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Joe Rogan gave a good example. Believing that porcupines can throw their spines could prevent people from getting close to porcupines and reduce risk of accidentally touching it and injuring self. There is a benefit to believing that. It doesn't become true.
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