The Nature Of Man (Human Evaluation)~ The UT Instinct ~Appexdix 3: The Red Marble Scenario
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Introduction
Start It just occurred to me today (17th November 2006) that there is a much simpler scenario to explain the blind stubborn attitude which most people have, and dearly hold, as regards their beliefs - not just religious beliefs, but also the belief that humans are rational etc.
The Red Marble Scenario The child is unquestionably certain that all the marbles in the bin are red. There is no evidence that all the marbles are red and yet that is what the child stubbornly believes. I, being a philosopher and seeker of truth cannot automatically believe that all the marbles are red - they could be but the chances are slim. To blindly presume that all the marbles are red would be irrational. I decide to check some of the marbles and see if they are red or not. I put my hand in to the hole in the lid and take out a marble. The first marble is red. The child is delighted - to the child it proves that all the marbles are red. To the child that single red marble is taken as FULL proof that ALL the marbles are red. So I take out a 2nd marble. The marble is blue! I point out to the child that the marble I took out is not red but is blue. The truth about ALL the marbles being red is demonstrated to be incorrect. End of story? . . . Yes? No! No! No! No! . . . . . . did I say No! The child then says - ok this marble, the ONE marble which I happened to take out of the bin, is blue but all the other marbles in the bin are red! I haven't put any doubt in the mind of the child. So I put my hand into the bin and take out another marble - it is Yellow! What does the child say then? Does the child begin to question the previous certainty? - No! The child still believes that All the other marbles in the bin are red! It so happens that the next marble I take out IS red and the child then sees this as vindicating its belief that the rest of the marbles are red. And so on it goes. Every marble which is not red is seen as a single incident totally separate from all the other non-red marbles, and yet it will see the few times when the marble happens to be red as being a collective indication of the validity of its belief that all the marbles are red.
Reality Truly, this is HOW humans think. They want to believe that humans are rational. So if I take an example and demonstrate that in that example humans were behaving irrationally they will just say that in that particular case they may have been acting irrationally but that overall humans are rational. The fact is that they do NOT want to know that their previously held beliefs may not be correct. The fact is that there are many out in 'human land' who will never be able to accept simple truth even if I gave one million examples, or one hundred million, or even one hundred million billion examples. I hope there are a few of you out there who aren't afraid of truth. To you I say hello! and welcome. Hopefully you will find this site very interesting.
Updated : 3rd October 2009
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