Applying our critical thinking skills comes into play when there is controversy, as it should.

There are however plenty of people who believe that aliens run the world, that we have energy auras, that the horoscopes tell the truth, that the 9/11 bombings were a plot by the CIA, etc. They would do better to go along with expert opinion on all those points, and far more we could all name.

An accurate estimation of our abilities and skills in different areas is a fine thing. Most people at least KNOW they don't know enough to evaluate the theory of relativity.

Freethinking is so written into the curriculum that we are taught to admire Galileo

True, but what should be added was that Galileo was a highly trained scientist. One key point from "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions" is that the revolutionaries have always mastered the old paradigm before they discover the new.

and the Founding Fathers for their dissent from popular views.

That's quite a different case. It's to some extent winners being the ones who write history. I was intrigued by the analysis that the colonists were demanding rights that Englishmen on the home island lacked. There was a lot of getting lucky and effectively grabbing what they could because they could. But it's true that we were lucky that some insightful, upstanding men were around in the colonies at that time. It's worked out well for us.

Hundreds of other movements and conspiracies have failed. The example of the founding fathers can also be inspiration for lots of deluded people to push crackpot schemes.

replacing logic with respect and popularity will lead astray as often as it leads towards issues of value.

Bayesian analysis would suggest this is not true. Respect and popularity are worth more than reasoning on most issues, most of the time. But yes, it will lead us astray sometimes, that is true.

And we understand that the person who asks us to abandon critical standards and scientific methods in order to appeal to respect and popularity never has our best interests at heart.

I'd never ask anyone to abandon critical thinking if they can use it well and with humility. The problem is whether the person has an accurate appraisal of their critical thinking skills. But a reasonable retort to the 10th crazy idea someone comes up with might be that no one else believes it -- since telling them they lack critical thinking skills could be taken as just your opinion versus theirs.

A test for adults in the specific area of critical thinking skills would be a great idea. It would never get off the ground in today's world, but it would be wonderful. People could weight opinions based on the source's critical thinking score.

When all the experts are admitting a missing mechanism and either hoping to find it or have given up the search for lack of evidence, then presuming its existence without proof is absurd.


This makes me smile, but I'll leave it for another day. Adult-child sex is a hard topic, but comparatively easy compared to "analysis of ills of the world".


And, of course, we must leave it to others to fight against the Satanic Panic type myths you would exploit.

Values also come into play. Urging caution, innocence until guilt is proven, etc., are things we all could have said. But the primary responsibility for sorting out the Satanic Abuse panic was with scientists, lawyers, judges, and investigative journalists.

For our allies there is a large body of literature, and there is science and logic. For yours there are pitchforks and torches, and the wisdom of the angry mob.

Yeah, right, cue the polemics. My ideas have no connection to angry mobs.