My professor tonight revealed that he is a Reiki master.

[ChadwickHenryWard]

He identified himself as a proud skeptic, and noted that he doesn't know for shit how that stuff works, but he believes it does. He's quite a brilliant man, and loves science hardcore. He knows plenty about the placebo effect, he even uses it to correct people's pitch in the studio. But he believes palpable nonsense. My other professor's husband is a homeopathic practitioner. This shit is just everywhere.

I was in a Facebook argument yesterday about why reincarnation is impossible, and they totally ignored me. They kept on talking about it like I wasn't even there. How is possible for so many people to believe in something that's so clearly wrong? (Additionally, I learned that in an argument, you can never criticize someone's ideas, you can only criticize them as people. This one guy's argument against the only other skeptic broke down like this: "I totally respect your views, if their right for you. But you're wrong because you're a fucking CUNT.")

[TZ]

1. I work in a scientific environment

And I have people who believe in Reiki, homopathic medicine, Ghosts, Fundie Religion etc...Rationality isn't naturally a part of many people's views, I'm afraid.

[trotsky]

2. The ability of the human mind to compartmentalize is truly astonishing.

And none of us are immune. I catch myself engaging in ridiculous non-rational thought often. When I was a kid, my favorite cat died on the 17th day of some month. I decided then and there that 17 was my unlucky number, and that the 17th of any month was going to be a bad luck day. To this day I constantly catch myself avoiding the number 17.

Clearly there is some really important evolutionary survival advantage to being able to do this. Sensing patterns, even ones that aren't there, is our specialty.