Hi.

What do you guys care what other people believe?

I am asking this question in all seriousness. I am very interested in why people hold to certain beliefs and why people can become so motivated to convince others that their beliefs are wrong.

First of all, let me say that I fully understand why astronomers would want to correct other astronomers when they think they have made an incorrect claim. That's just good science. And furthermore I fully understand why you would want astronomy to be correctly taught in public schools and universities.

What I am asking is, why do you feel that you have a personal mission to explain to conspiracy theorists or so called alternative scientists why they are wrong. These people are generally not interested in convincing mainstream scientists that what they purport is true, nor are they attempting to convince the masses via public education that their alternative theory is correct (except in the case of "creation science" in certain parts of the US). Rather they appeal to a small minority of people who get a kick out of reading a good conspiracy story or like musing about ideas outside of the spectrum of established science. In otherwords, why do you care what a minority of people in the US and the world believe?

My guess is that either you do it as an excercise in scientific reasoning or that you just think debunking is fun. In that case, fine. I can understand that.

What I don't understand is the belief that there is something wrong with these people, that in a perfect world these kinds of beliefs wouldn't exist, or that the world would be a better place if everyone believed only that which your particular type of reasoning (scientific reasoning in this case) supports.

Now I do not want to argue about why scientific reasoning is the right type of reasoning, rather I want to understand why, in the spirit of science, you guys feel motivated to convince others that their beliefs are wrong.

If you feel that this subject is off topic and not within the scope of Bad Astronomy then my apologies. But let me suggest that if you really wish to be critical of bad reasoning on all levels you should be critical of why Bad Astronomy should exist in the first place. In the meantime you can just email me your responses, the machine name is hotmail.com and my username is wildgnu. I hope you guys are smart enough to figure out how to email me. :-)

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~SS