Why it's so hard to convince a climate denier

[happyslug]

21. Accountants, lawyers and Doctors are TRAINED to be that way

In each of those professions, experience and what has worked in the past is more important then what is the latest greatest thing. All three professions will embrace new ideas, but only once they are proven, not just because it is a new way to think of a problem even if the new way explains the past better then what they had used in the past.

People of average or lower IQ tend to follow the advice of people they see as smarter then them, thus Lawyers, Accountants and Doctors have tremendous influence in society. They are the movers and shakers of society for that is who the lower IQ people look to for guidance.

Now, Priests (And most religious leaders) and Teachers tend to be more into new ideas and concepts. Scientists hate to admit it, but modern science came out of the theological fights of the Reformation. Both sides of that debate looked to nature to justify their side and opened up research in Science that later evolved from its religious roots (Charles Darwin was trained in theology and his job on the the trip to the Islands was chaplain, at the same time he said he was an atheist). I give the background of Darwin to show where Science came from and where it was in the days of Darwin.

Now, right wing theologian tend to be people with a very closed mind, unlike the main line Protestant and Catholic religious leaders, who tend to be more open minded. The later tend to view the bible as one source of Theology, not the only source for to restrict God to just one book is to restrict God. The right wingers what the bible to be the end all and be all of their theology thus they want the Bible to be their only book and will not listen to other sources of information. I bring this up for there is clearly a difference between Main line Protestants and Catholic Religious leaders and Right wing fundamentalists. It is a difference you see in the two groups, thus the Pope is willing to discuss Climate Change, but Right wingers say it is wrong to do so.

The same with teachers, teachers tend to be more Intuition, they want to try things that work. Now some teachers are Sensing types, they rely on things that work, but many are also intuition, they will look into new things. Thus you see a division, just like in religious leaders, but it is not as clear, but it exists.

Just a comment that this difference is NOT one of intelligence, but background and training. Certain professions need very intelligence people who are at the same time are people who do what had worked in the past and once you enter that profession you either embrace those concepts or you leave the profession.

To a good degree people need to do BOTH, they need to do what has worked in the past and at the same time look at things and see that something new is needed. I remember the story of about successful farmers. The more old sayings a farmer new, the more successful he was. It did not matter if the sayings were accurate or not, but the more he knew, the better farmer he was. The best explanation for that was the smarter farmers learned all of the old sayings and relied on them, unless they did not work then they abandoned them and tried something new. Notice the successful farmer ended up being BOTH sensory, in that the went by the old sayings, and intuitive when it was clear something new was needed.

Thus we need BOTH and any society has a need for BOTH types of people. That 70% are sensory may be good, for such people will do what has worked in the past and that is more often then not the best way to do things. On the other hand the 30% can show the 70% when change is needed and once it is clear that change is needed most of the 70% will do the switch. A good example of this was the New Deal. If you would have asked Americans in the mid 1920s about what was to become the New Deal, the majority of Americans would have rejected it as unneeded. A sizable part of the population had been proposing what would become the New Deal since 1894 (and the Presidential election of 1896) but could not convince the Majority of Americans it was needed till the Great Depression made it clear what had worked in the past will NOT work in the future and thus the New Deal was adopted. The same thing with Climate change, things will have to get bad before people will accept what has worked in the past will not work in the future. Not so bad that people are dying, but bad enough that people see something has to be done. That was the situation in 1932-1934 and I suspect a quick change over if the climate gets to bad (My money on the West Antarctic Ice sheet Collapsing, causing world wide flooding and the end of most trade for a couple of years, as the ports adjust to the increase in sea level, that will force people to accept the fact climate change is bad and must be addressed).