Revisions to Why are people inclined to praise or fear the unknown?

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edit approved Aug 26, 2019 at 3:44

sondra.kinsey

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edit approved Mar 28, 2019 at 21:53

daaawx

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Human beings are inclined to "praise" the unknown, and are often afraid of the unknown. This inclination has led to the creation of mythology and many gods. To this date we are still carrying this habit on our daily lives.

"Oh, look at these crop circles crop circles, aliens must have created them!"
"Oh, he can bend the spoon! He must have psychic power psychic power!"
"Nah, earth must be standing over the oxen horns, otherwise it would fall down!"
"It makes sense! You adjust your balance with the wrist band exerting bioenergy! Here I come!"
"I can gain 6 pack with this Nano-Ultra-Mega-AB-Shaper.Nano-Ultra-Mega-AB-Shaper. It has "nano", so it must be working, no?"
"Since we are surrounded by energy, some chosen ones might bend it right? We call it reiki!"
"Since you have a BS degree. You must be a heck of a genius! Now can you please answer this question of geography/history/so on?" (I usually encounter such questions from ignorant people. They regard me as Mr. Know it all, as they don't know what university infact is.)
and most striking example of all is God of the Gaps.

To further exemplify my claim, Wikipedia quotes God of the Gaps as a variant of argument from ignorance.

The term God-of-the-gaps argument can refer to a position that assumes an act of God as the explanation for an unknown phenomenon, which is a variant of an argument from ignorance.^[9][10] Such an argument is sometimes reduced to the following form:

There is a gap in understanding of some aspect of the natural world.

Therefore the cause must be supernatural.

One example of such an argument, which uses God as an explanation of one of the current gaps in biological science, is as follows: "Because current science can't figure out exactly how life started, it must be God who caused life to start."

But this answer is rather specific and not satisfying for me. I think there lies a cognitive bias that drives human beings to prefer to praise/fear the unknown over showing reasoning and critical thinking when we are faced to the unknown.

Update: This scene from The Gods Must Be Crazy is spot on! Don't miss it :)

Questions

Does scientific research support the claims made above about the importance of this tendency to praise or fear the unknown?
Is there an exact term for this tendency? Is Occam's Razor the right term for this?
What does scientific research tell us about why humans have this tendency?

Human beings are inclined to "praise" the unknown, and are often afraid of the unknown. This inclination has led to the creation of mythology and many gods. To this date we are still carrying this habit on our daily lives.

"Oh, look at these crop circles, aliens must have created them!"
"Oh, he can bend the spoon! He must have psychic power!"
"Nah, earth must be standing over the oxen horns, otherwise it would fall down!"
"It makes sense! You adjust your balance with the wrist band exerting bioenergy! Here I come!"
"I can gain 6 pack with this Nano-Ultra-Mega-AB-Shaper. It has "nano", so it must be working, no?"
"Since we are surrounded by energy, some chosen ones might bend it right? We call it reiki!"
"Since you have a BS degree. You must be a heck of a genius! Now can you please answer this question of geography/history/so on?" (I usually encounter such questions from ignorant people. They regard me as Mr. Know it all, as they don't know what university infact is.)
and most striking example of all is God of the Gaps.

To further exemplify my claim, Wikipedia quotes God of the Gaps as a variant of argument from ignorance.

The term God-of-the-gaps argument can refer to a position that assumes an act of God as the explanation for an unknown phenomenon, which is a variant of an argument from ignorance.^[9][10] Such an argument is sometimes reduced to the following form:

There is a gap in understanding of some aspect of the natural world.

Therefore the cause must be supernatural.

One example of such an argument, which uses God as an explanation of one of the current gaps in biological science, is as follows: "Because current science can't figure out exactly how life started, it must be God who caused life to start."

But this answer is rather specific and not satisfying for me. I think there lies a cognitive bias that drives human beings to prefer to praise/fear the unknown over showing reasoning and critical thinking when we are faced to the unknown.

Update: This scene from The Gods Must Be Crazy is spot on! Don't miss it :)

Questions

Does scientific research support the claims made above about the importance of this tendency to praise or fear the unknown?
Is there an exact term for this tendency? Is Occam's Razor the right term for this?
What does scientific research tell us about why humans have this tendency?

Human beings are inclined to "praise" the unknown, and are often afraid of the unknown. This inclination has led to the creation of mythology and many gods. To this date we are still carrying this habit on our daily lives.

"Oh, look at these crop circles, aliens must have created them!"
"Oh, he can bend the spoon! He must have psychic power!"
"Nah, earth must be standing over the oxen horns, otherwise it would fall down!"
"It makes sense! You adjust your balance with the wrist band exerting bioenergy! Here I come!"
"I can gain 6 pack with this Nano-Ultra-Mega-AB-Shaper. It has "nano", so it must be working, no?"
"Since we are surrounded by energy, some chosen ones might bend it right? We call it reiki!"
"Since you have a BS degree. You must be a heck of a genius! Now can you please answer this question of geography/history/so on?" (I usually encounter such questions from ignorant people. They regard me as Mr. Know it all, as they don't know what university infact is.)
and most striking example of all is God of the Gaps.

To further exemplify my claim, Wikipedia quotes God of the Gaps as a variant of argument from ignorance.

The term God-of-the-gaps argument can refer to a position that assumes an act of God as the explanation for an unknown phenomenon, which is a variant of an argument from ignorance.^[9][10] Such an argument is sometimes reduced to the following form:

There is a gap in understanding of some aspect of the natural world.

Therefore the cause must be supernatural.

One example of such an argument, which uses God as an explanation of one of the current gaps in biological science, is as follows: "Because current science can't figure out exactly how life started, it must be God who caused life to start."

But this answer is rather specific and not satisfying for me. I think there lies a cognitive bias that drives human beings to prefer to praise/fear the unknown over showing reasoning and critical thinking when we are faced to the unknown.

Update: This scene from The Gods Must Be Crazy is spot on! Don't miss it :)

Questions

Does scientific research support the claims made above about the importance of this tendency to praise or fear the unknown?
Is there an exact term for this tendency? Is Occam's Razor the right term for this?
What does scientific research tell us about why humans have this tendency?