Claims About Reality
Recently, someone made a comment about the book, “The Secret” on my friend’s facebook page. The claim was that “The Secret” really works, and that everyone should try it. When people make claims about reality, they really need to be able to back up those claims with some sort of evidence. As a point of fact, there is no evidence supporting the claim that “The Secret” works except for Oprah’s word. For the record, Oprah also claims that vaccines cause autism despite study after study disproving that myth.
Of course when I posted a comment stating that “The Secret” as a point of fact does not work, I got criticized for “putting down” other people’s religious beliefs. I’m sorry that people believe in things which have no basis in reality and even contradict reality. I am also sorry that these people consider it some sort of personal attack when someone of reason points that out how ridiculous those beliefs are.
I will admit that I was a little more satirical in my comment than perhaps I should have been. I think I talked about my prayers to milk jugs and how they are always answered either with a yes, no, or wait answer. I hate to be the one who always says this, but yes there is a reality out there and we can’t just claim to know what it is without any evidence to support those claims. Most religions claim to have “The Truth” without feeling the need justify that “Truth” with evidence.
The fact is that no one has the “all seeing eye” of Absolute Truth. We have the light of science to help us see in the dark of the unknown. What is in the dark we cannot know with certainty, but we can use the light of science and reason to give us a better idea. Over time, humanity has made brighter lights which have enabled us to see more of the world and to allow us to take some pretty well informed guesses on what we cannot see. Humans have observed certain things in the world which seem to always hold true to our knowledge and so we use that to help us understand the known and the unknown.
So while I cannot say with absolute certainty that “The Secret” is bullshit, I can say with reasonable certainty that “The Secret” is bullshit.
If someone were to make the claim that people can fly and then encouraged others to jump out a window and try it, I would call bullshit on that “deeply held” spiritual belief too.
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, prayer, Religion, The Secret
