December 11, 2008

Children Will be Children...

"Although small children have taboos against stepping on ants because such actions are said to bring on rain, there has never seemed to be a taboo against pulling off the legs or wings of flies. Most children eventually outgrow this behavior. Those who do not either come to a bad end or become biologists"
To Know a Fly, Vincent Dethier, 1962, p. 2


In their early years children are knowledge junkies, questioning everything in their view, though exhibiting little skepticism. Most never learn to distinguish between inquisitiveness and credulity. Those who do either come to a bad end or become professional skeptics
Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time, Michael Shermer, 1997, W. H. Freeman.
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1 Comments:

Rogue Medic said...

If more people were to become skeptics, professional or otherwise, fewer might come to bad ends.