Por que devemos discutir idéias absurdas ?
From Michael Shermer´s Why People Believe Weird Things:
"(...) This is a question of strategy. Do you ignore what you know to be a false claim and hope it goes away, or do you stand it up and refute it for all to see ? I believe that once a claim is in the public consciousness (...), it should be properly analyzed.
From a broader perspective there are, I believe, reasonable arguments for why we should not cover up, hide, supress, or worst of all, use the State to squelch someone else..s belief system, no matter how wacky, unfounded, or venomous it may seem. Why ?
♦ They might be completely right, and we would have just squashed the truth.
♦ They might be partially right, and we do not want to miss a part of the truth.
♦ They might be completely wrong, but by examining their wrong claims, we will discover and confirm the truth; we will also discover how thinking can go wrong, and thus improve our thinking skills.
♦ In science, it is not possible to know the absolute truth about anything, so we must always be on alert for where we have gone wrong and where others have gone right.
♦ Being tolerant when you are in the majority means you have a greater chance of being tolerated when you are in the minority."
Mas, é claro, essa é uma opinião de uma pessoa que ganha a vida com livros, palestras e este tipo de discussão. Não a de cientistas que ganham a vida fazendo ciência e de repente são colocados em pé de igualdade com imbecis e charlatões.