John Lisle

Oh, and we rationalize them away.

But the reason I raise this point is because

One of the integral parts to the progression of science, says Thomas Kuhn, is the fact that scientists are stubborn.

The fact that, contrary to popular belief, we typically think of scientists as people who are really open to changing their minds, they're confronted by evidence, and so, okay, they're willing to accept this evidence.

Thomas Kuhn says, if you actually look at the history of science closely, that does happen.

But what also happens, in a lot of instances, is scientists are stubborn, and they don't want to change their minds.

They're stuck on their paradigm, and so they rationalize away the anomalies.

So the same kind of rationalizing that you have within the seeker's cult about their belief system is very similar to the kind of rationalizing that scientists are doing when they refuse to throw out their paradigm because they've uncovered these anomalies.

But surely there's a way we can make those anomalies fit with our paradigm instead, and they don't.

So this isn't to say that scientists are members of a cult or anything like that.

In fact, there's...

There are good reasons to maybe elevate the predictions of scientists over those of these cult members because there are structures in place within the scientific community to prevent some of the more egregious biases that they have.

However, really what I consider Kuhn as, it's a commentary on human psychology.

Kuhn basically figured out cognitive dissonance before Leon Festinger, you know, but Kuhn didn't have that terminology.

Festinger is describing cognitive dissonance as these cult members.

Kuhn is describing it in scientists.

He just doesn't have that terminology, but that's just what it is.

And Kuhn says that's why science progresses.

It's necessary for those people to ignore that evidence because it enables them to keep uncovering more anomalies that eventually leads to the revolution.

So it's like it's an ironic thing that our ability to rationalize is what allows us to progress in the future.