Critical Thinking Blog #4

In the last Jacoby readings we were presented with, she writes about junk thought and how it effects anti-rationalism. Jacoby suggests that junk science is presented to the public as facts, smothered in scientific language, but rooted in opinion opposing real science. Many junk sciences include the supposed differences in male/female brains, the made up "post-abortion" syndrome and the power of prayer. One of the biggest things that upsets me is that heavily religious people swear by the power of prayer and consider it to me the all-power cure for anything. Anyone of my friends who decided to become religious study the bible like a textbook, take it everywhere, highlight phrases, and sit and preach. What they also all have in common is a serious lack of motivation to do anything else. They dropped out of school, don't really have a decent job, and just live in a bubble. They claim that God will show them the way and until then they feel like they do not need to do any work at making their lives better. They feel that if they pray, they are good people and things will just work out. It's amazing to me how easily people can be brainwashed by this form of junk thought. Jacoby mentions a study in the reading where extensive research was done on cardiac patients and monks and nuns praying for them. Millions of dollars were spent and the patients made no progress. They answered after the study saying that more research is to be done, that God always answers prayers and that sometimes the answer is no. What a load of crap. People see that research doesn't add up to the thesis and they still bank on prayer saving them. I don't think people are aware that the mind is very powerful and that prayer and religion just gives people something to lean on. Prayer and religion just gives people an excuse to never take irresponsibility for their own actions. My point isn't to bash religion, my point is to iterate how powerful junk thought is. People will believe what feels good to them. Jacoby's take home message is that anti-rationalism is playing a huge role on us stupid Americans. Through junk thought, pseudoscience, and unrealistic claims, people are mislead to believing all kinds of useless information. In more ways than not, we are creating our own ignorance.

Pre-Reading Blog #4

I am really excited that we can basically write about anything in these next two blogs. I saw the titles for Jacobys next two chapters and they deal with "junk thought" and "the culture of distraction". I have no much to say on these topics, I'm never even sure where to begin. In the past three years my mother has gone off the deep end with all this magical thinking crap. So is so into in that she won't go to sleep so she can research more crap on the internet or read this bogus books. It's driving my nuts. She goes on vacations and brings home all these rocks claiming they hold they magically healing powers, she has made little candle shines in her bathroom, and is on this juice kick claiming that this crap can cure aids. I follow in my father's footsteps and come from a very logical, rational standpoint. It boggles my mind that my mother is so swept into this crap. The way my mother praises all of this crap is like a religion, her behavior is parallel to a jesus freak, no offense to anyone religious. I can't wrap my head around how someone can believe holding a damn rock can bring you power and strength, it's just pure bullshit. Watching my mother engulf herself into this craze really makes me understand how power persuasion really is. Teachers, doctors, whomever can say anything and if someone says the right things that you want to hear, you will believe them. My mother would be a great example for Jacoby's book. Jacoby just rips apart anything and everyone that gets caught up in the lines of crap people feed one another. And talk about distractions, my mother will stay home from work so she can do things like meditate all day. I understand that all this spiritual stuff is supposed to give people hope but, I am pretty sure it's not out there to feed off of like a drug. If I have learned anything from Jacoby this semester, it is to never let anyone bullshit you. Pardon the French, but whatever. People must be really desperate to dedicate all of their time and energy to something so intangable. I have learned to never take things for face value. Sure, I am probably become more of a pessimist, but I have grown to be even more of a realist. I don't believe in anything, probably do not trust anything and anyone either, but with so much bs floating around who would? As humans, we are gifted with large cerebrums. We are able to have and utilize, which many fail to, our intelligence. By believing everything that is out there, it just gives people even more reason to spit out more junk for people to eat up. I, for one, will not let this happen to me. You know I've had issues, just like everyone. At a time in my life, I went to AA and NA meeting to stop doing drugs. The central concern was to give up all control and to believe in a higher power. Okay, no sorry, not for me. You know what got to me stop doing drugs, I sat and thought about how it was affecting me and the people around me. I decided to grow up and get my life together and haven't touched them ever since. All of these people who go to these meetings or go to church expect someone or something to deal with their problems. Religion and other spititual practices just give people another excuse to run away from thier problems. America is set up to blame all of thier issues on someone else. People are not taught to face and deal with reality, we just have a plethora of excape mechanisims. Until society refroms and forces people to deal with thier own problems, we will always have pseudosciences, cult religions, and self help books that claim you can talk to ghosts. I'll be damned if I ever let myself become a victim of codependency. I was born to eat, survive and reproduce and those are my main concerns.