Superstitious Pigeons

Can a pigeon be superstitious? Well it seems possible. Yesterday Honest Omar gave Kadizzle a reading assignment. Omar and Kadizzle have always wondered how people come to believe absurdities.  In his book Michael Shermer gives the answer a good shot. The Believing Brain tries to explain how people don't have much trouble connecting things that are not connected. Isn't that what religion is all about. God made it rain, god caused the hurricane, and god helped my team win the supper bowl

A pitcher in a baseball game wins on the day he does not shave, so he concludes not shaving and winning are related. The mind wants a quick simple answer, so does the pigeon. The pigeon spins around in its cage and food appears. The pigeon concludes there is a connection.  There is not. The food just randomly appears, but the pigeon is fooled.  All of this perfectly explains Trump voters.  They connect dots that are not connected.  Obama was born in Kenya. 

How does the brain work? How do we make decisions?  People rarely sit back and ponder exactly how they arrive at a conclusion. One would want to think about how we think, but one rarely does. The brain is pretty easy to trick.  Magicians, Republicans, and con artist make a living tricking the simple minded. 

The author explains how he was unborn again.  At one point the author was a bible thumper going door to door selling Jesus.  The author ultimately had science run into religion. Science made the dots connect with data and logic.  In the end the logical mind had to go with science. 

One question the author addressed was is religion harmful.  Yes, the author gave an example of a little girl killed as part of a religious cleansing. This was minor compared to all the hate and wars that have been brought on by the curse of religion.  Remember religion endorsed slavery.  In conclusion people will always go for the discount thinking of religion, Republicanism, and trickle down economics.  Real thinking takes a little effort. You have to question things, you have to look things up, you have to do research.  It is far easier just to join the make America great club.  It is so simple just to believe a bunch of lies from preachers and Trumpsters.  Why not take the easy route?