The Epistemology and Cognitive Evolution of Creationism

[beautifulduckweed]

Once again, Pharyngula provides some fascinating linkage, this time to a series of articles by John Wilkins about why creationists are, well, creationist. I haven't read through all the different bits yet, so this entry is as much a reminder for me to do so as it is a way to share my "HOLY CRAP, AWESOME!" reaction when I read the first part of the series.

The pertinent links to "Why Are Creationists Creationist?":

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

Comments

[freyis.livejournal.com]

That's an amazing article. It took me a bit of rereading to grasp what he's talking about, because I think he overuses epistemic a bit much in there, but the conclusion made a lot of sense. It started to become more clear around part 3 where there's that chart showing how once you hit a certain amount of cognitave dissonance you are kind of forced to eliminate one of the two concepts so that you can make sense out of everything. I like the summary in one of the comments of Part 4, which is:

"Creationism is hard to remove from a person: It wasn't reasoned in, so it can't be reasoned out."

[misshepeshu.livejournal.com]

Between wacky projects needing my attention popping up left and right and not getting home until past 10 p.m. last night, I haven't had enough time to read all the articles yet--partway through Part 2 right now. Once I am, I hope to discuss this more intelligently with you and anyone else who's read this, woo!

[freyis.livejournal.com]

It was an interesting thing to read while waking up after I collapsed for all eternity yesterday :)