Gibberish

It’s genuinely sad and harmful for humanity that intellectual and philosophical nonsense is considered seriously, and not just abstractly. Historically and currently, strong thinkers are often depraved and destructive. They frequently spout obvious irrationality which then gets taken seriously and is considered as possibly true. As Cicero noted two thousand years ago: "There is nothing so absurd but some philosopher has said it."

So many important and powerful intellectuals and philosophers say that the universe doesn’t exist or its nature is unknowable. They say that "god" does exist and his nature is knowable. They say mankind can’t soundly and surely refute Zeno’s paradoxes, Plato’s forms, Berkeley’s godly vision, or Kant’s things-in-themselves. They say Einstein’s relativity, Heisenberg’s uncertainty, and Gödel’s incompleteness prove that reason and science are limited and flawed. They’re weak and invalid tools of knowledge.

Many intellectuals say that particles which are quantumly entangled can transfer information faster than light, and that Schrodinger’s cat is simultaneously alive and dead. They say that there are many proofs that god exists and that the universe is intelligently designed, while there are many proofs that free will doesn’t exist and that the universe is completely deterministic.

Some of this vacuity and fatuity is worth thinking about to a certain extent. Reflecting on these issues theoretically, and rationally contemplating them in the abstract, may well be worth while. It might repay your dutiful and unpleasant effort by expanding your mind or deepening your understanding on issues of complexity, trickery, subtlety, and nuance. Studying such issues may be helpful and enlightening challenges to work with – even if all the claims are false, or misleading, or don’t go anywhere, or lead you badly astray.

But it’s not right for smart or good people to publicly argue that these nonsensical, irrational claims are somehow true or valid. As a human being it isn’t right to embrace or teach that which is intellectually, morally, or spiritually bankrupt.

This destroys reason and science. It devastates intellectualism and philosophy. It badly damages the search for truth and goodness.

When you put this rubbish and gibberish into the individual’s head – to confuse, confound, warp, and cripple him – you cause him to suffer badly. You poison his mind, break his heart, and blacken his soul.

Society suffers and declines too. The more truly and deeply people believe this nonsense and irrationality, the more the individual and all of mankind are made mentally incompetent and nonfunctional. Cultural wealth, social cooperation, and individual happiness die.