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Originally Posted by pacificwhim  I suspect many prominent, well-educated skeptics are also major hypocrites. They have seen the data and in their private thoughts, know that it is valid. But they have built careers, reputations and livelihoods around denial, scorn and debunking and they don't dare let those lives go. So they're stuck denying what they know in their secret minds to be valid. Maybe that's why so many pseudoskeptics are so angry. |
I think anger is a big give-away, and you can see it with certain skeptics here. They are reduced to coarse language and pointless assertions that certain people don't know what they are talking about. They would obviously love to be able to point out serious flaws in the various experiments, and if they could, all their anger would disappear. Maybe these individuals have not made careers out of it, but they have perhaps invested a lot of mental capital in their positions, and to see the evidence from countless experiments weighing against their beliefs must be infuriating! I suppose it is a bit like putting money on a favourite horse, only to see it slip relentlessly back in the race.
There is no question that people do get attached to scientific ideas. I remember as a kid feeling quite put out when I read that the gas laws were inexact, and realising that even their replacements were probably not exact either! I am sure there must have been many that were appalled by the idea that Newtonian gravity was in need of replacement.
David