From: Olga Bourlin (fauxever@sprynet.com)
Date: Sat May 31 2003 - 20:20:03 MDT
From: "Eliezer S. Yudkowsky" <sentience@pobox.com>
> Olga Bourlin wrote:
> >
> > If the comment, "I believe I was given a special gift from God" is *not*
> > arrogant, then what is? This kind of reminds me when a plane crashes
where
> > (i.e.) 199 people die and one person survives, the survivor usually
says,
> > "It's a miracle! God saved *me!*" God always get the credit (one
> > survivor), but never the blame (199 deaths). Each one of us (although
> > irreplaceable and exceedingly precious to ourselves and to those who
love
> > us) is one little monkey in 6,000,000,000+ (and counting). To believe
any
> > one of us is any more "special" to some supernatural unseen unknowable
> > nonexistent nonbeing-with-a-mean-streak is at the very least little
goofy,
> > and indubitably arrogant. In short, the unfortunate (but right on)
phrase
> > "get over yourself" comes to mind ...
>
> Er... leaving aside the question of why someone else's attitude should
> even anger you in the first place: any person not already a signed and
> sealed rationalist, who walks out the sole survivor of a train crash that
> killed 199 other people, can be forgiven for wondering whether something
> strange is going on.
People are entitled to their attitudes - and I'm not angry at their
attitudes as long as those attitudes don't hurt anyone. (But when zombie
god warriors fly planes into skyscrapers; when a mother in Texas stones 2
out of three of her sons to death on God's orders; when stem cell research -
and other kinds of scientific research - is held back so as not to offend
the sacred You-Know-Who ... well, all right, I can get a tad bent - but sad,
mostly).
If you are a naive statistician, it requires no
> great bias toward self-importance - it is only natural - to look at the
> smoking wreckage and say to yourself: "What the heck?" I see no reason
> why the same train of thought should not honestly occur to a 13-year-old
> who finds himself graduating college.
Certainly, I can understand why a 13-year-old would think that (most
teenagers are prone to narcissism, anyway - it's probably even an important
developmental step). I was just saying that that's an arrogant statement
(and I still think it is, even though understandable as in the case of Greg
Smith). Years ago Carl Sagan wrote an article (it's reprinted in one of his
books, I don't remember which one offhand) for Parade Magazine with the
title: "We Are Nothing Special." He got it right.
Olga
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