But the fact is that many of the claims made about things behind this veil have empirically observable consequences and that makes them scientifically testable. Then they insist that there are special people who can see – if only dimly – through this veil. Behind the veil they will put angels, aliens, psychic powers, God, ghosts and so on. But what some people do to protect their beliefs is to draw a veil across reality and say, “you scientists can go up to the veil and apply your empirical methods this far, but no further”. There probably are questions that science cannot answer. When you hear that, alarm bells should go off.īut even scientists admit that they can’t explain everything. You, Mr Clever Dick Scientist, are guilty of scientism, of assuming science can answer every question.” This is often followed by that quote from Shakespeare’s Hamlet: “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy”. They might say something like: “Ah, but this is beyond the ability of science and reason to decide. This involves appealing to mystery to get out of intellectual hot water when someone is, say, propounding paranormal beliefs. Tell me about one of them – “playing the mystery card”? You identify some strategies people use to defend black hole beliefs. They merely appear so to those trapped inside. Beliefs at the core of intellectual black holes, however, aren’t reasonable. That’s because these beliefs are genuinely reasonable. We are powerfully wedded to this but that doesn’t make it an intellectual black hole. There’s a belief system about water to which we all sign up: it freezes at 0 ☌ and boils at 100 ☌. As you approach them, you need to be on your guard because if you get sucked in, it can be extremely difficult to think your way clear again.īut isn’t one person’s claptrap another’s truth? Belief in homeopathy, psychic powers, alien abductions – these are examples of intellectual black holes. Intellectual black holes are belief systems that draw people in and hold them captive so they become willing slaves of claptrap. You describe your new book, Believing Bullshit, as a guide to avoid getting sucked into “intellectual black holes”. In reality, the gravitational pull of a black hole is the same of that for a regular star-just a lot stronger.How do people defend their beliefs in bizarre conspiracy theories or the power of crystals? Philosopher Stephen Law has tips for spotting their strategies Black holes get a bad reputation for sucking in their surroundings, like some sort of cosmic vacuum cleaner. So, if we can’t agree, what do we think happens to you? Black holes don’t suckįirst, let’s clear up a common misconception. You, as the faller, would experience a reality very different from what I, as an observer from the outside, would see. The answer is surprising because you get a different one depending on whom you ask. But what would happen to you if you were to find yourself falling into a black hole? Thanks to Einstein’s theory of general relativity, a framework that helps us understand how space and time behave in the presence of strong gravity, we can predict the specifics of what would happen to us without having to go through it ourselves. If massless photons cannot escape the clutches of a black hole, then certainly neither could we. The stellar core can then implode in the production of a supernova or, as is the case for more massive stars, collapse to then form a black hole. Once a star runs out of fuel to burn, and thus can no longer support itself via radiation pressure, the layers of metals fused up to that point will all come crashing down towards the center. As we discussed in a previous episode, black holes can form as a result of stellar death. Black holes are regions of space where the gravity is so thick that not even light can force its way out.
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