We all know of people, or know them personally, who are obviously very intelligent (they would ace an IQ test, say) and who nonetheless hold irrational beliefs. I don’t think anyone, however smart, is immune to this, but it’s still puzzling. I list some examples below. I’ve listed them in rough order of plausibility (starting with the least plausible ones), according to how I think members of this forum might rank them. No doubt many of you will think that my inclusion of some items shows my own irrationality.
1. Creationism/invisible man in the sky
2. Reincarnation
3. Life after death/immortal souls
4. Paranormal stuff
5. Everything happens for a reason
6. Absurd conspiracy theories (Jews run the world, 9/11 was an inside job, the moon landing never happened, Bill Gates wants to depopulate the planet, etc.)
7. There are no innate psychological/behavioral sex differences. It’s all a social construct
8. The world has never been in worse shape
9. An emotion of wonder and awe if we touched, say, the piano where Beethoven composed his sonatas, as if somehow we could thereby sense the magical sparkle of Beethoven’s energy (OK, not a belief per se. More like an intuitive emotion, but still, not very rational… At any rate, I wouldn’t be totally immune to this one myself)
10. Free will (I’d personally put this one at the top)
11. “We have the power to defy the selfish genes of our birth and, if necessary, the selfish memes of our indoctrination. . . . We, alone on earth, can rebel against the tyranny of the selfish replicators.” (Dawkins)
12. The fact that we choose to use birth control shows that we can defy the imperatives of our genes (Dawkins/Pinker)
13. Rejecting free will would make us all apathetic. Our moral/justice system would collapse
What items would you add? Which ones would you remove?
And how would you explain the fact that intelligence, as typically understood, doesn’t necessarily correspond to rationality?