Related.
That is a wonderful, informative article. Also, I've experienced basically every word of it. When I was growing up, Evangelical as a term separate from the movement itself was used to very simply describe someone who wanted to actively spread Christianity. Now it means white people who vote republican and pray to ancient televangelists.
Yeah, sorry, I spoilered that because I know people have to be getting sick of me making remarks like that and dragging this back in a religious direction, but the point I was trying to make is that a disastrously large portion of this country is willing to believe anything if it makes them feel right or safe. The anti intellectualism in this country is unbelievable to the point that people say things like that and make me wonder if everyone had a stroke and didn't realize it.
But no, it's just because people are terrible and I'm losing my ability to deal with it.
I agree. It is unfortunate that people willingly believe false things because it makes them feel better. There are some people who will ask me why we need to know how chemical bonds work, or why we need to know what atoms are made of.
Now, to be fair, I forgot basically all of the specific mechanics of that after high school. Conversely, a basic understanding of those principles is how one avoids, say, being told that heating your olive oil in a pan literally makes it rotten and you need to buy 18$ bottles of organic super oil or die from cooking your food.
I have a family member that believes this.